Genesis 34:28
אֶת־צֹאנָם וְאֶת־בְּקָרָם וְאֶת־חֲמֹרֵיהֶּם וְאֵת אֲשֶׁר־בָּעִיר וְאֶת־אֲשֶׁר בַּשָּׂדֶה לָקָֽחוּ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
אֶת־צֹאנָ֥ם וְאֶת־בְּקָרָ֖ם וְאֶת־חֲמֹרֵיהֶּ֑ם וְאֵ֧ת אֲשֶׁר־בָּעִ֛יר וְאֶת־אֲשֶׁ֥ר בַּשָּׂדֶ֖ה לָקָֽחוּ׃
καὶ τὰ πρόβατα αὐτῶν καὶ τοὺς βόας αὐτῶν καὶ τοὺς ὄνους αὐτῶν, ὅσα τε ἦν ἐν τῇ πόλει καὶ ὅσα ἦν ἐν τῷ πεδίῳ, ἔλαβον.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Oves eorum, et armenta, et asinos, cunctaque vastantes quæ in domibus et in agris erant,
Se apoderaron de sus rebaños, sus vacas y sus burros, y de todo lo que había tanto en la ciudad como en el campo.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Tomaron sus ovejas y vacas y sus asnos, y lo que había en la ciudad y en el campo,
They took their flocks and herds and donkeys, and everything else in the city or in the field.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse lists what was taken (by Jacob's sons, in the preceding narrative context of the sack of Shechem): flocks, herds, donkeys, and everything located both in the city and in the field. The sentence ends with a single verb governing all these objects.
Key words
- tzoNam ("their flock[s]", H6629G) — construct noun + 3rd person masculine plural suffix, "their," marking possession of the flock by the city's inhabitants.
- bekaRam ("their herd[s]", H1241) — construct noun with same possessive suffix, parallel structure to the previous word, joined by ve ("and", H9002).
- chamoReihem ("their donkeys", H2543) — masculine plural construct noun with possessive suffix, third item in the list of animals taken.
- 'asher ("that/which", H0834A) — relative particle used twice, introducing two locative clauses ("that which was in the city," "that which was in the field") that broaden the object list beyond animals.
- laKachu ("they took", H3947G) — Qal perfect verb, third person plural, placed at the very end of the sentence; it governs all the preceding direct objects marked by 'et (H0853).
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of direct objects, each introduced by the object marker 'et (H0853, untranslated) and joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002), with the finite verb laKachu ("they took", H3947G) held back until the very end of the verse. This produces a cumulative listing effect: tzoNam ("their flock[s]", H6629G), bekaRam ("their herd[s]", H1241), and chamoReihem ("their donkeys", H2543) form a triad of livestock, each marked with the third-person masculine plural suffix -hem ("their," H9028), indicating that these animals belonged to the men of the city referenced earlier in the narrative.
After the animals, the list shifts to two relative clauses introduced by 'asher ("that/which", H0834A): 'asher ba'Ir ("that which was in the city," using 'Ir, "city", H5892B) and 'asher basSadeh ("that which was in the field," using saDeh, "field", H7704G). These clauses do not name specific items but generalize to "whatever was" in each location, extending the scope of what was taken beyond livestock to unspecified property. The verb laKachu ("they took", H3947G), a Qal perfect, appears only once but retroactively governs every object in the chain — the animals and the two relative-clause phrases alike — a structure that Hebrew allows by delaying the verb to the end of a long object list.
Differences between versions
The Vulgate renders the final relative clauses with vastantes ("laying waste"), introducing a sense of destruction not present in the Hebrew laKachu ("they took", H3947G), which denotes simple taking/seizing without inherent connotation of devastation. The LXX's ἔλαβον ("they took") and the Hebrew verb align closely in meaning, both expressing straightforward acquisition rather than destruction.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.