Genesis 35:27
וַיָּבֹא יַעֲקֹב אֶל־יִצְחָק אָבִיו מַמְרֵא קִרְיַת הָֽאַרְבַּע הִוא חֶבְרוֹן אֲשֶׁר־גָּֽר־שָׁם אַבְרָהָם וְיִצְחָֽק׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיָּבֹ֤א יַעֲקֹב֙ אֶל־יִצְחָ֣ק אָבִ֔יו מַמְרֵ֖א קִרְיַ֣ת הָֽאַרְבַּ֑ע הִ֣וא חֶבְר֔וֹן אֲשֶׁר־גָּֽר־שָׁ֥ם אַבְרָהָ֖ם וְיִצְחָֽק׃
Ἦλθεν δὲ Ἰακὼβ πρὸς Ἰσαὰκ τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ εἰς ἡ, εἰς πόλιν τοῦ πεδίου· αὕτη ἐστὶν Χεβρὼν ἐν γῇ Χαναάαν, οὗ Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαάκ.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Venit etiam ad Isaac patrem suum in Mambre, civitatem Arbee, hæc est Hebron, in qua peregrinatus est Abraham et Isaac.
Jacob llegó a donde estaba su padre Isaac en Mamre, cerca de Quiriat Arba (es decir, Hebrón), donde Abraham e Isaac habían vivido como extranjeros.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y vino Jacob á Isaac su padre á Mamre, á la ciudad de Arba, que es Hebrón, donde habitaron Abraham é Isaac.
Jacob returned to his father Isaac at Mamre, near Kiriath-arba ( that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse narrates Jacob's arrival to his father Isaac at Mamre, identified as Kiriath-arba, also called Hebron. It closes with a note that this was the place where Abraham and Isaac had previously resided as sojourners.
Key words
- va-yyavo ("and he came", H0935G) — qal verb in narrative form (vav + prefix conjugation), marking the next event in the story sequence.
- avi ("father", H0001G) — masculine singular noun in construct state with the suffix -o ("his"), yielding "his father."
- hi' ("she/that", H1931) — personal pronoun used to introduce an identifying clause, here linking "Kiriath-arba" with "Hebron."
- gar ("he had sojourned", H1481A) — qal perfect verb, indicating a completed action prior to or background to the main narrative line.
- asher ("where/that", H0834A) — relative particle introducing the clause that specifies what happened at that location.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence opens with the narrative verb va-yyavo ("and he came", H0935G), which places this event in sequence with what precedes it in Genesis. The subject is Ya'aqov ("Jacob", H3290), and the destination is marked by the preposition 'el ("to", H0413) followed by Yitzchaq avi ("Isaac his father", H3327 + H0001G), the construct noun avi taking the pronominal suffix -o ("his").
The location is given in apposition: Mamre (H4471G), then Qiryat ha-Arba ("Kiriath-arba", H7153), and a third identification through the pronoun hi' ("she/that", H1931) connecting this place to Chevron ("Hebron", H2275A). This use of hi' functions as a copula-like identifier, common in Biblical Hebrew for glossing a place name with another name.
The final clause is introduced by the relative particle asher ("where", H0834A), followed by the qal perfect verb gar ("he had sojourned", H1481A) and the adverb sham ("there", H8033G). The perfect aspect of gar indicates a completed, prior state of residence — Abraham and Isaac's earlier sojourning at that location — rather than an action simultaneous with Jacob's arrival.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders the place description differently, reading "εἰς πόλιν τοῦ πεδίου" ("to the city of the plain") where the Hebrew has Qiryat ha-Arba ("Kiriath-arba", H7153); it also adds "ἐν γῇ Χαναάαν" ("in the land of Canaan"), a phrase not present in the Hebrew text given. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew more closely, preserving "Mambre" and "civitatem Arbee" as place names, matching Mamre (H4471G) and Qiryat ha-Arba (H7153) respectively.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.