Genesis 36:26

Summary

The verse lists the descendants of Dishan, one of the sons of Seir the Horite: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Keran. It follows the standard genealogical formula introducing a father's name followed by his sons.

Key words

• 'Elleh ("these", H0428) — demonstrative particle opening the clause, pointing forward to the list that follows; it functions as the grammatical subject of the nominal sentence.
• bene ("sons of", H1121A) — masculine plural construct form of "son," linking directly to the following proper name Dishan to form the possessive phrase "sons of Dishan."
• Dishan (H1789H) — proper name of the father; note this form is distinct from the similarly spelled Dishon (a different son of Seir mentioned elsewhere in the chapter), though both belong to the same broader genealogy.
• ve- ("and", H9002) — the conjunction repeated before each subsequent name (Eshban, Ithran, Keran), and once with a shift to u- before the final name (Keran), a common Hebrew stylistic variant when closing a list.
• Keran (H3763) — the final proper name, joined by the conjunction form u- rather than ve-, a vowel-pointing change conditioned by the following consonant, not a change in meaning.

What the text says

The verse is a short nominal (verbless) sentence: the demonstrative 'Elleh ("these") serves as subject, followed by the predicate construct phrase bene Dishan ("sons of Dishan"). This construction — "these are the sons of X" — is a formulaic genealogical marker used repeatedly in the surrounding chapter to organize the descendants of Seir the Horite. After the introductory formula, four names are listed in sequence, each joined by the conjunction ve- ("and"), except the last, where the conjunction shifts phonetically to u- before Keran. This alternation is a normal feature of Hebrew phonology when a conjunction precedes a consonant cluster and does not indicate any semantic distinction between the sons.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew and the Vulgate both explicitly name the father as Dishan/"Dison" before listing his four sons. The Septuagint text given here, by contrast, does not render a separate father's name matching Dishan; instead, the first name in its list, "Ἁμαδὰ," corresponds to the Hebrew Hemdan (the first son), meaning the LXX as presented begins directly with the sons' names without a distinct rendering of the father Dishan. The remaining three names (Eshban, Ithran, Keran) are transliterated similarly across the LXX ("ἐσβὰν," "Ἰεθρὰν," "Χαρράν"), the Vulgate ("Eseban," "Jethram," "Charan"), and modern translations, with only minor spelling variation.