Genesis 35:11

Summary

God speaks to Jacob, identifying himself as El Shaddai ("God Almighty", H0410G/H7706), and issues a command to be fruitful and multiply. The verse promises that a nation, a company of nations, and kings will descend from Jacob.

Key words

'El Shaddai ("God Almighty", H0410G + H7706) — the divine self-designation; 'el is in construct form ("God of..."), paired with the title shadday, forming a fixed name used elsewhere in Genesis for divine covenant-speech.

pereh ("be fruitful", H6509) — qal imperative, masculine singular, a direct command addressed to Jacob himself.

u-reveh ("and multiply", H7235A) — qal imperative joined by the conjunction va ("and", H9002) to the previous imperative, forming a paired command structure.

qehal goyim ("company of nations", H6951 + H1471A) — qehal is a construct-form noun meaning "assembly/company of," governing the plural goyim ("nations"); together the phrase describes a collective body composed of multiple nations.

yetze'u ("they will come out", H3318M) — qal imperfect, third person masculine plural, describing future/ongoing action of kings emerging "from your loins" (me-chalatzeycha, H2504 + H9021).

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative va ("and", H9001) attached to yo'mer ("he said", H0559), the standard qal narrative form that continues the story sequence. The subject 'Elohim ("God", H0430G) is grammatically plural in form (a common feature of this noun when referring to the deity) but functions as the singular subject of the verb. God's speech begins with the independent pronoun 'ani ("I", H0589) followed by the construct phrase 'El Shadday, creating an emphatic self-identification: "I, God of Shaddai."

The core of the divine speech is built on two paired qal imperatives, pereh ("be fruitful") and u-reveh ("and multiply"), both second-person masculine singular, addressing Jacob directly. This is followed by a series of noun phrases in construct chains: goy ("a nation", H1471A) standing alone, then qehal goyim ("company of nations") as a second, larger unit. Both are picked up by the singular qal imperfect verb yihyeh ("it will be", H1961), which grammatically agrees with the nearer subject (qehal goyim) though the sentence structure presents two distinct promised entities emerging "from you" (mimmecha, H4480A + H9031).

The final clause shifts to plural melachim ("kings", H4428G) as subject of the plural imperfect yetze'u ("they will come out", H3318M), with the source specified as me-chalatzeycha ("from your loins", H2504 construct + H9021), a dual-form noun for "loins" marking bodily origin.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the Hebrew construct pair goy ("a nation") and qehal goyim ("company of nations") as two plural nouns, ethnē ("nations") and synagōgai ethnōn ("assemblies of nations"), shifting the first term from singular to plural where the Hebrew goy (H1471A) is singular. The Vulgate similarly renders goy as the plural gentes ("nations") rather than a singular "nation," while qehal goyim becomes populi nationum ("peoples of nations"). The Hebrew text itself maintains a singular/plural contrast (goy vs. goyim) that the LXX and Vulgate render with plural forms in both positions.