Genesis 35:17

Summary

Genesis 35:17 describes the moment during Rachel's difficult labor when the midwife speaks to reassure her, announcing that the child she is delivering is a son. The verse is structured as a temporal clause followed by direct speech.

Key words

• y.hi ("it was", H1961) — qal narrative form opening the verse, the standard construction introducing a new narrative event ("and it happened").
• hak.sho.tah ("had difficulties", H7185) — hiphil infinitive with causative force, describing the hardship of labor; the feminine suffix -ah ("she") specifies Rachel as the subject experiencing the difficulty.
• m.ya.le.det ("midwife", H3205) — piel participle, feminine singular, functioning as a noun ("the one doing/assisting birth"); the participle form marks her as the one actively performing the act of delivery.
• tir.'i ("you be afraid", H3372) — qal jussive, second person feminine singular, negated by 'al ("may not", H408), forming the prohibition "do not fear."
• ben ("[is] a son", H1121) — noun, masculine singular, the final word of the verse stating the outcome of the birth.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula va-yehi ("and it was") followed by two paired infinitive constructions introduced by the preposition be ("when"): be-hakshotah ("when she had difficulties") and be-lidtah ("when she gave birth"). Both infinitives carry the third-person feminine singular suffix -ah ("her"), anchoring the difficulty and the birth to the same subject without naming her directly in this clause — the referent (Rachel) is established by the surrounding narrative context, not repeated by name here.

The midwife's speech is introduced by va-tomer ("and she said"), a qal narrative verb, followed by lah ("to her") marking the recipient of the speech. The core statement combines a negated jussive, 'al tir'i ("do not fear"), with a causal clause introduced by ki ("for/that", H3588) and the adverb gam ("also", H1571): ki-gam-zeh lakh ben — literally "for also this [one] is to you a son." The construction zeh...lakh...ben places the demonstrative "this" and the possessive "to you" around the predicate noun "son," a nominal sentence with no verb "to be" expressed, typical of Hebrew predication.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the midwife's exclamation as Θάρσει ("Take courage"), an imperative differing from the Hebrew jussive negation structure 'al tir'i ("do not fear"), though both convey reassurance. The Vulgate's habebis filium ("you will have a son") uses a future tense verb, whereas the Hebrew nominal clause zeh lakh ben states the fact without an explicit verb of "having" or futurity, presenting the birth as an accomplished present reality rather than a future event.