Genesis 36:24

Summary

The verse lists the sons of Zibeon — Aiah and Anah — and singles out Anah with a clarifying formula ("he is Anah") to specify which Anah is meant. It then adds a brief narrative note: this Anah found something called yemim in the wilderness while pasturing his father Zibeon's donkeys.

Key words

• 'Eleh ("these", H0428) — demonstrative particle opening the genealogical list, functioning as its grammatical subject.
• venei ("sons of", H1121A) — masculine plural noun in construct state, forming the chain "sons of Zibeon."
• hu ("he", H1931) — independent personal pronoun used for emphatic identification, resuming and specifying "Anah" just named.
• yemim ("hot springs", H3222) — masculine plural noun, the object found by Anah; this term appears only here in the Hebrew Bible.
• bir'oto (from ra'ah, H7462B) — qal infinitive construct with prefixed preposition bi ("when/in") and 3ms suffix -o ("his"), literally "in his pasturing," giving the temporal clause "while he was pasturing."

What the text says

The verse opens with the formula 'Eleh venei ("these are the sons of"), a standard genealogical construction using the construct chain venei-Tziv'on ("sons of Zibeon"). Two names follow, joined by the conjunction ve- ("and"): Aiyah and Anah. Immediately after, the text repeats "Anah" preceded by the independent pronoun hu ("he"), producing the resumptive construction "he, Anah" — a device used elsewhere in this chapter to distinguish between individuals sharing the same name, since another Anah appears earlier in Genesis 36.

The remainder of the verse is a relative clause introduced by 'asher ("who"), with matza ("he found", H4672) as a qal perfect verb marking a completed action. The object is marked by the untranslated direct-object particle 'et before ha-yemim ("the yemim"), located ba-midbar ("in the wilderness"). The circumstances are given by the infinitival clause bir'oto 'et-ha-chamorim ("while he was pasturing the donkeys"), with the donkeys belonging, via the construct le-Tziv'on 'aviv ("of Zibeon his father"), to Anah's father.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew yemim (H3222) is rendered differently across traditions. The Vulgate translates it as aquas calidas ("hot waters"), and the modern Spanish SBLIBRE and English BSB follow this sense ("hot springs" / "manantiales de aguas termales"). The Septuagint, however, transliterates it as a proper name, Ἰαμείν (Iamein), treating the word as untranslated rather than rendering a meaning. The older RV1909 diverges further, rendering it as "mulos" ("mules"), reflecting yet another interpretive tradition for this rare term.