Genesis 31:15

Summary

Rachel and Leah ask a rhetorical question expressing that their father Laban treats them as outsiders rather than daughters, because he sold them and has completely used up the money paid for them. The verse combines a passive statement of their status with two verbs describing Laban's financial dealings.

Key words

• nekhriyot ("foreigners", H5237) — feminine plural adjective describing how the sisters feel they are regarded, agreeing with the implied feminine subject "we" (Rachel and Leah).
• nechshavnu ("are we accounted", H2803H) — niphal perfect, 1st person plural. The niphal stem marks the passive: they are the ones being evaluated, not the ones evaluating.
• mekharanu ("he has sold us", H4376) — qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular with 1st plural suffix "us." The perfect aspect presents this as a completed, prior action forming the grounds (ki, "for") for their complaint.
• akhol ("to consume", H0398) — infinitive absolute of the same root as the finite verb yiokhal. Its function is to intensify the main verb, not to add a separate action.
• yiokhal ("he has consumed", H0398) — qal narrative form (vav-consecutive), 3rd masculine singular. Paired with the infinitive absolute akhol, it produces the emphatic sense "he has thoroughly consumed."

What the text says

The verse opens with the interrogative ha (H9008) attached to the negation lo (H3808), forming the standard Hebrew construction for a rhetorical question expecting a positive answer ("is it not the case that...?"). The predicate nekhriyot nechshavnu lo places the adjective nekhriyot ("foreigners") before the passive verb nechshavnu, so the sentence structure emphasizes the category ("as foreigners") before stating the passive verdict ("we are reckoned"). The niphal stem of chashav (H2803H) removes Laban as grammatical subject, focusing on the sisters' experienced status rather than naming him as the one who judges them, though the following clause makes his agency explicit.

The causal particle ki (H3588A) introduces the justification: mekharanu, "he has sold us," a simple qal perfect describing a completed transaction. The narrative continues with vayyokhal, connected by the vav-consecutive (H9001) typical of sequential storytelling, but here used within reported speech to link the sale to its aftermath. The addition of gam ("also," H1571) plus the infinitive absolute akhol before the finite verb creates a grammatical intensifier: repeating the root akhol/yiokhal underlines totality — the money was not merely spent but used up entirely. The direct object marker et (H0853) introduces kaspenu ("our money," H3701G with 1st plural suffix), a construct-based possessive form situating the money as belonging to the sisters, now depleted.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the intensifying infinitive absolute construction (gam akhol + yiokhal) with the phrase κατέφαγεν καταβρώσει ("he devoured with devouring"), a Greek construction that mirrors the Hebrew's doubling for emphasis. The Vulgate, by contrast, uses a single verb, comedit ("he ate"), without a parallel intensifying structure, so the emphatic repetition present in the Hebrew and reflected in the LXX is not reproduced. The Vulgate also omits any equivalent for gam ("also"), compressing the clause into a simpler sequence of actions (vendidit, comeditque, "he sold, and he ate") rather than marking the second action as an intensified extension of the first.