Genesis 35:4

Summary

The verse reports that the people accompanying Jacob handed over to him all the foreign cult objects and jewelry they possessed, and that Jacob buried these items under a specific oak tree located near Shechem.

Key words

• yitTenu ("they gave", H5414G) — qal wayyiqtol (narrative past) form, third person plural, opening the verse and continuing the story sequence from the preceding verses.
• elohei ("gods of", H0430J) — plural construct form of "god/gods," bound to the following noun to form the phrase "gods of foreignness."
• ha-nneKhar ("the foreignness", H5236) — singular noun with definite article, the second element of the construct chain, giving an abstract quality ("foreignness") rather than a plain adjective.
• yitMon ("he hid", H2934) — qal wayyiqtol, third person singular, marking the second main action of the verse (the burying).
• taChat ("under", H8478G) — construct noun functioning as a preposition, linking the burial act to its location "the oak."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of two wayyiqtol verbs — yitTenu ("they gave") and yitMon ("he hid") — each introduced by the narrative va ("and"), which is the standard way Biblical Hebrew strings together sequential events in a story. Between these two actions, the text lists what was handed over using the direct object marker 'et (H0853), first for "all the gods of foreignness" (kol elohei ha-nnekhar) that were "in their hand" (be-yadam), and then for "the rings" (ha-nnezaMim) that were "in their ears" (be-'ozneihem). Both items are further specified by relative clauses beginning with 'asher ("which"), each anchoring the object to a bodily location before the transfer.

The construct phrase elohei ha-nnekhar (literally "gods of foreignness") does not use a simple adjective for "foreign" but pairs the plural noun "gods" with the abstract noun "foreignness," a grammatical construction that emphasizes the category of the objects rather than describing them with a modifying adjective. In the final clause, Jacob is named as subject only after the verb and its object pronoun (yitMon 'oTam Ya'aqov, "he hid them, Jacob"), a common Hebrew narrative order where the subject can follow the verb-object sequence. The location is given through the construct taChat ha-'eLah ("under the oak") followed by a relative clause, 'asher 'im-sheKhem ("which [was] near Shechem"), using the preposition 'im ("with/near") rather than a term indicating direction like "behind."

Differences between versions

The LXX adds a clause not present in the Hebrew or the Vulgate: καὶ ἀπώλεσεν αὐτὰ ἕως τῆς σήμερον ἡμέρας ("and he destroyed them until this present day"), extending the notice beyond the Hebrew's simple statement of burial. The LXX also renders elohei ha-nnekhar with the adjectival phrase τοὺς θεοὺς τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους ("the foreign gods"), differing from the Hebrew's construct pairing with the abstract noun "foreignness." For the location, the Vulgate reads post urbem Sichem ("behind the city of Shechem"), introducing "city" (urbem) and the directional "post," where the Hebrew simply states 'im-Shekhem ("near Shechem") without naming a city or indicating direction.