Genesis 32:16

Summary

Jacob hands his herds to his servants, organizing them into separate droves, and instructs the servants to go ahead of him while maintaining a gap between each herd. The verse combines a narrative action (handing over) with direct speech (the command).

Key words

• yiTten ("he gave", H5414) — qal narrative verb; introduces the action with the vav-consecutive pattern typical of Hebrew storytelling ("and then he gave").
• 'eder 'eder ("herd, herd", H5739 repeated) — the doubling of the same singular noun functions distributively, expressing "herd by herd" or "each herd separately," without a distinct grammatical marker for distribution.
• levaddo ("to his aloneness", H0905) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, literally "to its aloneness/apartness," reinforcing that each herd was kept apart from the others.
• 'ivru ("pass over", H5674) — qal imperative, plural masculine, direct command to the servants: "you all, cross over / go ahead."
• revach ("a space", H7305) — singular noun designating physical distance, object of the verb that follows.
• tasimu ("you will put", H7760) — qal imperfect, plural masculine; here functions as a command tied to future/ongoing action ("you shall place/put").

What the text says

The verse divides into two parts joined by narrative vav-consecutive verbs (yiTten and yomer), a structure that chains sequential actions: first Jacob "gives" (yiTten) the herds into the hand (yad, H3027) of his servants, then he "says" (yomer) to them. The phrase 'eder 'eder levaddo stacks three elements: the noun 'eder is repeated to indicate distribution ("herd after herd"), followed by levaddo, a construct form with a possessive suffix meaning literally "to its separateness" — together conveying that each herd was kept as its own distinct unit under separate servants.

In the reported speech, the imperative 'ivru commands the servants to move ahead of Jacob (lefanai, "before me," H6440 with 1st person suffix), while the imperfect tasimu instructs them to maintain a revach ("space," H7305) between one herd and another. The construction bein 'eder u-vein 'eder ("between herd and between herd") uses the preposition bein (H0996) twice to frame the reciprocal spacing structure, a common Hebrew idiom for expressing alternation or separation between repeated items.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders yad ("hand," H3027) as cheiros but drops explicit mention of "servants" as recipients in the initial clause, saying only "he gave through his hand a flock, by itself," shifting emphasis from the servants' custody to the manner of transfer. The Vulgate expands 'eder 'eder into "singulos... greges" ("each flock separately"), making the distributive sense explicit through the adjective "singulos" rather than repetition. Modern translations like the BSB interpret levaddo not as "to its aloneness" but as "in separate herds," collapsing the construct-plus-suffix phrase into an adjectival description.