Genesis 35:26
וּבְנֵי זִלְפָּה שִׁפְחַת לֵאָה גָּד וְאָשֵׁר אֵלֶּה בְּנֵי יַעֲקֹב אֲשֶׁר יֻלַּד־לוֹ בְּפַדַּן אֲרָֽם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וּבְנֵ֥י זִלְפָּ֛ה שִׁפְחַ֥ת לֵאָ֖ה גָּ֣ד וְאָשֵׁ֑ר אֵ֚לֶּה בְּנֵ֣י יַעֲקֹ֔ב אֲשֶׁ֥ר יֻלַּד־ל֖וֹ בְּפַדַּ֥ן אֲרָֽם׃
υἱοὶ δὲ Ζέλφας παιδίσκης λείας Γὰδ καὶ Ἀσήρ· οὗτοι οἱ υἱοὶ Ἰακώβ, οἳ ἐγένοντο αὐτῷ ἐν Μεσοποταμίᾳ τῆς Συρίας.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Filii Zelphæ ancillæ Liæ: Gad et Aser: hi sunt filii Jacob, qui nati sunt ei in Mesopotamia Syriæ.
Los hijos de Zilpá, la sirvienta de Lea, fueron: Gad y Aser. Éstos fueron los hijos de Jacob que nacieron en Padán Aram.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y los hijos de Zilpa, sierva de Lea: Gad, y Aser. Estos fueron los hijos de Jacob, que le nacieron en Padan-aram.
And the sons of Leah’s maidservant Zilpah were Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram. The Death of Isaac
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse closes the list of Jacob's twelve sons by naming Gad and Asher as the sons of Zilpah, Leah's maidservant, and adds a summary statement that all these sons were born to Jacob in Paddan-Aram.
Key words
- ve.Nei ("[the] sons of", H1121A) — construct plural of "sons," linking Zilpah to her offspring; repeated later in the verse in the same construct form to introduce the summary clause about Jacob.
- shif.Chat ("[the] maidservant of", H8198) — feminine singular construct, identifying Zilpah's social status in relation to Leah, marking her as Leah's servant rather than an independent wife.
- 'E.leh ("these", H0428) — demonstrative particle that shifts the sentence from a simple genealogical listing to a concluding declarative statement ("these are...").
- yu.lad ("it was born", H3205) — pual (passive intensive) perfect, third person, indicating that the sons "were born" to Jacob, with the passive voice placing focus on the sons as the ones brought into being rather than on an agent.
- 'a.Sher (relative particle "who/that", H0834A) — introduces the subordinate clause specifying the circumstance (location) of the births, connecting "the sons of Jacob" to the statement about Paddan-Aram.
What the text says
The verse has two syntactic movements. The first part is a construct chain: ve.Nei zil.Pah shif.Chat le.'Ah — "the sons of Zilpah, maidservant of Leah" — followed by the names gad ("Gad", H1410G) and 'a.Sher ("Asher", H0836). This structure mirrors the pattern used for the other maternal groupings in the surrounding genealogy, where each mother's status (wife or maidservant, and whose maidservant) is specified through construct nouns before the sons' names are given.
The second part begins with the demonstrative 'E.leh ("these"), which functions to close the entire genealogical unit (covering all four mothers named earlier in the chapter) rather than referring only to Gad and Asher. The construct phrase be.Nei ya.'a.Ko ("sons of Jacob") reiterates the paternal line, and the relative clause introduced by 'a.Sher ("who") with the passive verb yu.lad ("it was born") states that these sons were born lo ("to him", via the suffix o on the preposition le) be.fa.Dan 'a.Ram ("in Paddan-Aram"). The passive verb form keeps the grammatical subject on the sons themselves, without naming a specific agent for the birth event within the clause.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders be.fa.Dan 'a.Ram ("in Paddan-Aram") as ἐν Μεσοποταμίᾳ τῆς Συρίας ("in Mesopotamia of Syria"), substituting a Greek geographical designation for the Hebrew place name. The Vulgate follows this same rendering with "in Mesopotamia Syriæ." The Spanish versions (RV1909, SBLIBRE) retain the Hebrew place name as "Padán-aram," matching the Hebrew text more closely than the LXX or Vulgate on this point.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.