Genesis 33:6

Summary

The verse narrates that the maidservants approached, together with their children, and bowed down. It is part of a scene in which different groups approach in sequence, each performing the same gesture of bowing.

Key words

• ti.Gash.na ("they approached", H5066G) — qal narrative verb, feminine plural, indicating that the subject performing the action is female.
• she.fa.Chot ("maidservants", H8198) — feminine plural noun with the definite article ha ("the", H9009), specifying a particular known group.
• He.nah ("they", H2007) — feminine plural personal pronoun, placed after the noun she.fa.Chot, reinforcing and specifying who "they" are.
• yal.dei ("children", H3206) — masculine plural noun in construct form, meaning "children of...", requiring a following element to complete the phrase.
• Tish.ta.cha.Vei.na ("they bowed down", H7812) — hishtaphel verb, feminine plural narrative form, denoting a bowing gesture.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence follows a narrative chain marked by the vav consecutive (va, H9001) at the beginning of both main verbs: ti.Gash.na ("they approached") and Tish.ta.cha.Vei.na ("they bowed down"). Both verbs carry a feminine plural form, agreeing with the subject she.fa.Chot ("the maidservants", H8198), the primary grammatical actor of the sentence.

The pronoun He.nah ("they", H2007) immediately follows ha.she.fa.Chot ("the maidservants") and functions as an appositional emphasis, restating and highlighting the subject before introducing the second party joined by ve ("and", H9002): yal.dei.Hen ("their children", H3206 + H9029). The construct form yal.dei ("children of...") is completed by the pronominal suffix Hen ("their", H9029), producing "children of them" i.e., "their children." This construct chain shows that the children are grammatically linked to the maidservants specifically, distinguishing this group from others in the wider narrative context.

The final verb, Tish.ta.cha.Vei.na ("they bowed down", H7812), is in the hishtaphel stem, a verbal form used specifically for the act of bowing, and it agrees again in feminine plural, referring back to the combined subject of "the maidservants" and "their children" as those performing the bowing motion.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate ("Et appropinquantes ancillæ et filii earum, incurvati sunt") uses masculine plural forms ("appropinquantes," "incurvati sunt") for the combined subject "ancillae et filii earum" ("maidservants and their sons"), reflecting Latin's grammatical rule that mixed-gender groups default to masculine agreement — unlike the Hebrew, which maintains feminine plural verb forms in both instances (ti.Gash.na, Tish.ta.cha.Vei.na), focusing verbal agreement on the primary subject "maidservants" (H8198), which is feminine.