Genesis 31:14

Summary

Rachel and Leah respond together to Jacob, asking rhetorically whether they still have any share or inheritance remaining in their father's household. The question implies a negative answer: they consider themselves to have no further claim on Laban's estate.

Key words

• Ta'an ("she answered", H6030B) — qal narrative verb, third-person singular feminine, though its subject is the compound "Rachel and Leah."
• Tomarnah ("they said", H0559) — qal narrative verb, third-person plural feminine, agreeing with the compound subject rather than the singular form used just before it.
• 'od ("still", H5750) — here marked with the interrogative particle ha- (H9008), producing "is there still...?"
• chelek ("a share", H2506A) — masculine singular noun, the first of two paired nouns in the question.
• nachalah ("an inheritance", H5159) — feminine singular noun, joined to chelek by the conjunction ve- ("and", H9002).

What the text says

The verse opens with two verbs of speech in sequence: Ta'an ("she answered") is grammatically singular, agreeing only with Rachel, the nearer or first-named subject, before Leah is added by the conjunction ve-. The following verb, Tomarnah ("they said"), shifts to plural to account for both women together. This alternation—singular verb, then compound subject, then plural verb—is a feature of the Hebrew that does not surface in translations, which render both verbs as plural or as a single reported statement.

The core question is built with the interrogative particle ha- prefixed to 'od ("still"), yielding "is there still...?" This introduces a rhetorical question expecting a negative answer. The object of the question is a pair of nouns, chelek ("a share") and nachalah ("an inheritance"), joined by ve- ("and"), both governed by the prepositional phrase be-veit avinu ("in the house of our father"), itself a construct chain: beit ("house of") followed by avi ("father"), the whole marked as belonging to "us" through the suffix -nu.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew joins chelek and nachalah with the conjunction ve- ("and"), presenting them as two linked terms. The LXX instead uses the disjunctive ἢ ("or"), rendering "μερὶς ἢ κληρονομία" ("portion or inheritance"), which separates the two nouns as alternatives rather than a paired expression. The Vulgate diverges further, introducing "residui quidquam in facultatibus et hæreditate" ("anything remaining in the goods and inheritance"), adding the term facultatibus ("goods/resources") not present as a distinct word in the Hebrew text.