Genesis 36:2

Summary

Genesis 36:2 lists Esau's wives taken from among the Canaanite peoples: Adah, identified as daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah, identified through a double genealogical link to Anah and Zibeon the Hivite. The verse functions as a genealogical notice establishing the foreign origin of Esau's wives.

Key words

• lakach ("he took", H3947G) — qal perfect, marking a completed action; establishes Esau as the subject who performs the taking of wives.
• nashav ("wives", H0802H) — feminine plural construct, "wives of him," linking directly to the following phrase about their origin.
• benot ("daughters of", H1323G) — feminine plural construct, opening the phrase that specifies the group (Canaan) from which the wives come.
• bat ("daughter of", H1323G) — feminine singular construct, repeated three times (lines 11, 18, 20) to build genealogical chains for each named woman.
• ha-Chivi ("the Hivite", H2340 with H9009) — gentilic noun with definite article, identifying Zibeon's ethnic group at the end of the verse.

What the text says

The sentence opens with 'Esav ("Esau") as subject, followed by the verb lakach ("he took") in the qal perfect, indicating a single completed act of taking multiple wives. The direct object nashav ("his wives") is marked by the untranslated object marker 'et, and the phrase mi-benot Kena'an ("from the daughters of Canaan") specifies their collective origin using the preposition mi ("from") plus the construct form benot.

The verse then itemizes two wives, each introduced by 'et and structured with construct chains using bat ("daughter of"). Adah's lineage uses one bat: she is "daughter of Elon the Hittite" (bat-'Eilon ha-Chiti). Oholibamah's lineage uses two consecutive bat constructions: bat-'Anah bat-Tziv'on ha-Chivi ("daughter of Anah, daughter of Zibeon the Hivite"). The stacking of two construct nouns creates a genealogical chain — Oholibamah is linked to Anah, who is in turn linked to Zibeon — though the Hebrew construct chain alone does not grammatically specify whether Anah is Zibeon's daughter or another type of relation; it only expresses succession through bat.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders 'Anah not as a feminine construct ("daughter of Anah") but with a masculine reference — Ἀνὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ Σεβεγὼν ("Anah the son of Zebegon") — where the Hebrew text uses bat ("daughter of") for Anah's own link to Zibeon. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew's feminine construction more closely: filiam Anae filiae Sebeon ("daughter of Anah, daughter of Zibeon"), preserving the double bat chain as two feminine relations rather than introducing a male "son" as the LXX does.