Genesis 35:25

Summary

This verse lists the sons of Bilhah, identified as the maidservant of Rachel, namely Dan and Naphtali. It forms part of the genealogical summary of Jacob's twelve sons grouped by mother.

Key words

• ve.Nei ("[the] sons of", H1121A) — masculine plural construct form, linking the following names to their mother; the construct state signals a possessive relationship ("sons of Bilhah").
• Vil.Hah ("Bilhah", H1090A) — proper noun identifying the mother of the two sons named at the end of the verse.
• shif.Chat ("[the] maidservant of", H8198) — feminine singular construct, placing Bilhah in a subordinate relational role to Rachel; the construct chain shifchat Rachel means "maidservant of Rachel."
• Ra.chel ("Rachel", H7354) — proper noun marking whose maidservant Bilhah is, establishing the genealogical link between Rachel and these sons through Bilhah rather than direct maternity.
• Dan (H1835H) and Naf.ta.Li (H5321G) — the two proper names in apposition to ve.Nei Vil.Hah, specifying which sons are meant.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of construct relationships: u-venei Vilhah shifchat Rachel — "and the sons of Bilhah, maidservant of Rachel." The construct noun venei ("sons of") governs Vilhah, and shifchat ("maidservant of") in turn governs Rachel, creating a double genitive structure that identifies Bilhah both as a mother and as subordinate to Rachel in status. The names Dan and Naftali, joined by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002), appear in apposition, specifying the referents of "the sons of Bilhah."

The syntax has no finite verb; the verse functions as a nominal list, continuing the pattern used elsewhere in this genealogical passage to enumerate Jacob's sons by mother. The construct chain shifchat Rachel preserves the social distinction between Bilhah's role as maidservant and Rachel as her mistress, a distinction maintained through the grammatical subordination rather than through any separate clause.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders shifchat ("maidservant of", H8198) as paidiskēs ("female slave/maidservant"), and the Vulgate uses ancillae ("maidservant"), both preserving the same subordinate relational sense as the Hebrew construct form. The Greek transliterates Naftali as Nephthaleim, while the Vulgate has Nephthali, minor phonetic variations rather than differences in meaning. The BSB restructures the Hebrew's construct-chain nominal sentence into a full English sentence with the verb "were," which the Hebrew, LXX, and Vulgate do not contain, all three retaining the list-like, verbless structure of the original.