Genesis 34:21

Summary

This verse records the speech of Hamor (and Shechem) to the men of the city, proposing that the family of Jacob be allowed to settle, trade, and intermarry with them. The statement opens with an assessment of peaceful intent, moves to permission for settlement and commerce, and closes with a proposal of reciprocal marriage.

Key words

• shelemim ("[are] at peace", H8003) — masculine plural adjective describing the men ('anashim, H0582) as a group; predicate of the nominal clause with hem ("they", H1992).
• yeshevu ("let them dwell", H3427) — qal imperfect with prefixed ve (H9002), third person masculine plural; the imperfect + vav here carries a jussive/purpose nuance ("let them settle"), not simple future narration.
• yischaru ("let them go about in", H5503) — qal imperfect with vav, parallel in form to yeshevu; denotes commercial movement through the land, governed by the same jussive force.
• rachavat ("[is] broad of", H7342) — feminine singular adjective in construct state with yadayim ("both hands/sides", H3027), an idiom describing spatial extent ("wide of hands" = spacious).
• nikkach ("we will take", H3947) and nitten ("we will give", H5414) — both qal imperfect, first person plural, forming a balanced pair: taking the daughters of the other group and giving one's own daughters, marked by the object particle 'et (H0853) before each noun phrase.

What the text says

The verse opens with a nominal (verbless) clause: ha'anashim ha'elleh shelemim hem 'itanu — literally "these men, at peace [are] they with us." The demonstrative 'elleh (H0428) and the personal pronoun hem (H1992) both reinforce the subject before the predicate adjective shelemim, a common Hebrew pattern for identification-plus-evaluation statements rather than a simple verb "to be."

The two following clauses, ve-yeshevu va'aretz and ve-yischaru 'otah, use the imperfect form with prefixed vav rather than a jussive particle, but the sense conveyed is permissive/purposive — "let them dwell... and let them trade in it." The direct object 'otah ("it", referring to ha'aretz, "the land," H0776) is attached via the suffixed object marker rather than a separate pronoun.

The description of the land uses the idiom rachavat-yadayim, construct of "broad" with "hands," a spatial metaphor for abundant room, followed by lifnei-hem ("before them," H6440 + suffix), indicating the land lies open in their view or presence.

The final two clauses are symmetrical: 'et-benotam nikkach-lanu le-nashim ("their daughters we will take for ourselves, for wives") and ve-'et-benoteinu nitten lahem ("and our daughters we will give to them"). Both use first-person plural imperfect verbs (nikkach, nitten) with the object marker 'et preceding each noun phrase, producing a chiastic balance between taking and giving.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate expands the first clause with et volunt habitare nobiscum ("and they wish to dwell with us"), an addition not present as a separate verb in the Hebrew, which instead links "peaceful" directly to the following jussive verbs yeshevu/yischaru. The Vulgate also renders rachavat-yadayim ("broad of hands") as spatiosa et lata cultoribus indiget ("spacious and wide, lacking cultivators"), introducing the notion of a need for workers not explicit in the Hebrew idiom or in the LXX's simpler platia ("wide", H7342 equivalent).