Genesis 31:17

Summary

Genesis 31:17 narrates two sequential actions of Jacob: he rose, and he lifted his children and wives onto camels. The verse marks the beginning of Jacob's departure from Laban's household, using two consecutive narrative verbs to describe the physical preparation for the journey.

Key words

• va-yaKom ("and he arose", H6965B) — qal narrative form; the vav-consecutive construction signals the first sequential action in the narrative chain ("and then he arose").
• va-yiSa' ("and he lifted up", H5375G) — qal narrative form of the same chain type; indicates the second action following directly from the first ("and then he lifted").
• baNav ("his sons/children", H1121A) — masculine plural noun in construct state with the pronominal suffix -o ("his"), naming the first group placed on the camels.
• nashav ("his wives", H0802H) — masculine-form plural noun (used for "women/wives") in construct with the same possessive suffix, naming the second group.
• ha-gemaLim ("the camels", H1581) — plural common noun with definite article, marking the animals as previously known/mentioned in the narrative context.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two verbs joined by the narrative vav (H9001), a structure that chains actions in sequence: va-yaKom ("and he arose") followed by va-yiSa' ("and he lifted up"). Both verbs share the same subject, Ya'aKov ("Jacob", H3290), stated only once after the first verb. The object of the second verb is marked twice by the untranslatable direct object marker 'et (H0853), once before baNav ("his children") and once before nashav ("his wives"), joined by the simple conjunction ve- ("and", H9002). Both nouns appear in construct form with the possessive suffix -o ("his", H9023), literally "sons-of-him" and "wives-of-him." The final phrase, 'al-ha-gemaLim ("on the camels"), uses the preposition 'al ("on", H5921A) with a definite plural noun, placing the family atop the animals mentioned earlier in the surrounding narrative (verse 34 refers to camels already present in the household).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew and Vulgate preserve the order "children... wives" (baNav before nashav), matching the sequence liberis ac conjugibus in the Vulgate. The LXX reverses this order, rendering τὰς γυναῖκας καὶ τὰ παιδία ("the wives and the children"), placing wives first. Additionally, the LXX renders the two Hebrew verbs (va-yaKom, "he arose"; va-yiSa', "he lifted up") with a participle plus single main verb, Ἀναστὰς... ἔλαβεν ("having risen... he took"), collapsing the two sequential Hebrew actions into one grammatical unit rather than the paratactic double-verb structure of the Hebrew.