Genesis 30:6

Summary

Rachel declares that Elohim ("God", H0430G) has vindicated her and heard her voice, and that he has given her a son. Because of this, she names the child Dan ("Dan", H1835H), a name built on the verb of judgment/vindication in the first clause.

Key words

• da.Na ("he has vindicated", H1777) — qal perfect, third person masculine, expressing a completed act; carries the pronominal suffix ni ("me", H9030) attached, giving "he has vindicated me."
• 'Elohim ("God", H0430G) — masculine plural noun functioning as the grammatical subject of da.Na, though referring to a single divine subject.
• sha.Ma' ("he has listened", H8085G) — qal perfect, paired with the preposition be ("to", H9003) plus ko.li ("my voice", H6963A + H9020), a construct form meaning "voice of me."
• i.yi.ten ("he has given", H5414G) — qal narrative form (vav-consecutive), continuing the sequence of completed actions attributed to the same subject.
• ka.re.'Ah ("she called", H7121H) — qal perfect, third person feminine, marking the naming act performed by Rachel herself, distinct from the preceding verbs whose subject is Elohim.

What the text says

The verse is built as a short first-person speech introduced by va.To.mer ("and she said", H0559), followed by three perfect-tense verbs — da.Na ("he has vindicated"), sha.Ma' ("he has listened"), and i.yi.ten ("he has given") — all sharing the same grammatical subject, Elohim. The perfect aspect in Hebrew narrative marks these as completed actions from Rachel's point of view at the moment of speech, even though the second and third are connected by the narrative vav va (H9001), which sequences events ("and then he listened... and then he gave"). The construct chain ko.li ("voice of me") shows the noun qol ("voice", H6963A) bound to the first-person suffix, a typical possessive construction in Biblical Hebrew where the base noun and suffix form one phonological and grammatical unit.

The final clause shifts subject: ka.re.'Ah ("she called") is feminine, referring back to Rachel, who performs the naming act using the causal connector 'al-ken ("therefore", H5921A + H3651C). The name Dan (H1835H) is phonetically and semantically linked to the verb da.Na ("he has vindicated/judged") at the start of her speech, so the child's name encapsulates the declared action of Elohim.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Elohim as ὁ θεός ("God"), matching the Hebrew's general sense, while the Vulgate renders it as Dominus ("the Lord"), a divergence in how the divine subject of da.Na is named. The Hebrew verb da.Na ("he has vindicated") is rendered in the LXX as ἔκρινέν ("he judged/decided") and in the Vulgate as judicavit ("he judged"), both emphasizing a judicial nuance rather than the vindication sense given in the BSB translation.