Genesis 35:8

Summary

Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, dies and is buried beneath an oak tree near Beth-el. The place-tree is subsequently given a name, Allon Bakhut ("Allon", H0439 + "Bakhut", H0439), meaning "oak of weeping."

Key words

• Ta.mot ("she died", H4191) — qal narrative verb form, marking the opening event of the sequence; the narrative vav attached to it signals a new step in the story.
• mei.Ne.ket ("suckling-nurse of", H3243I) — feminine singular construct noun, linking Deborah directly to Rebekah as the one who nursed her; the construct form requires a following name to complete its meaning.
• ti.ka.Ver ("she was buried", H6912) — niphal (passive) narrative verb; the passive voice means the text does not specify who buried her, only that the burial occurred.
• Ta.chat ("under", H8478G) — appears twice (items 9 and 13) as a masculine singular construct noun functioning prepositionally, first governing "Beth-el" and then "the oak."
• i.yik.Ra' ("someone called", H7121H) — qal narrative verb, third person; the Hebrew grammar note indicates "he" as subject, but the text does not name the subject explicitly in this clause.

What the text says

The verse is built as a chain of three narrative-vav clauses: Deborah dies, she is buried, and a name is given. Each verb (Ta.mot, ti.ka.Ver, i.yik.Ra') is prefixed with the narrative vav, producing the typical Hebrew storytelling rhythm of "and then... and then... and then."

The burial location is described with a double use of Ta.chat ("under," H8478G): first "from under to Beth-el" (mi-tachat le-Beit-El), then "under the oak" (tachat ha-allon). This layered construct phrasing situates the burial spot relative to two landmarks — the town of Beth-el and a specific oak tree — rather than giving a single simple locator.

The final clause, va-yikra shemo ("and he called its name," H7121H + H8034 + H9023), uses a third-person verb without an explicit subject stated in the word-by-word Hebrew data. The suffix -o ("his/its," H9023) attached to shem ("name," H8034) refers back to the oak (allon, H0437) mentioned in the prior clause, making the tree itself the antecedent of the naming, which is then rendered as Allon Bakhut ("Allon Bacuth" / "oak of weeping").

Differences between versions

The Hebrew leaves the subject of va-yikra ("he called") unspecified in the grammatical data given. The LXX makes this explicit, rendering the subject as Ἰακὼβ ("Jacob"), so the LXX states "Jacob called its name," where the Hebrew construction here simply has an unspecified "he." The Vulgate uses a passive construction, "vocatumque est nomen" ("and the name was called"), avoiding specifying an agent altogether, closer in effect to the niphal passive already used earlier in the verse for the burial (ti.ka.Ver). The modern translations (BSB, SBLIBRE) follow the LXX's explicit naming of Jacob as the one who names the place, while RV1909 stays closer to an impersonal construction ("llamóse").