Genesis 36:32

Summary

The verse reports that Bela, son of Beor, reigned as king in Edom, and states that the name of his city was Dinhabah. It belongs to a genealogical list of Edomite kings.

Key words

• va-yyimlokh ("and he reigned", H4427A) — qal narrative verb with narrative vav prefix (H9001), marking the next event in the king-list sequence.
• be-Edom ("in Edom", H0123G with preposition H9003) — the preposition H9003 locates the reign geographically.
• Bela ("Bela", H1106G) — proper name of the person who reigns, placed after the verb and location.
• ben-Be'or ("son of Beor", H1121A construct + H1160G) — construct chain identifying Bela's father.
• shem-iro ("the name of his city", H8034 construct + H5892B construct + H9023 suffix) — double construct chain culminating in the pronominal suffix "his," tying the city to Bela.

What the text says

The sentence divides into two clauses joined by the conjunction ve- ("and", H9002). The first clause opens with the narrative verb yimlokh ("he reigned", H4427A), which carries the sequential "and then" force typical of Hebrew narrative chains. This verb is followed by the prepositional phrase be-Edom ("in Edom"), specifying where the reign takes place, and only then by the subject Bela and the identifying phrase ben-Be'or ("son of Beor"). This word order — verb, location, subject, then patronymic — is a feature of the Hebrew clause structure and differs from how English or Spanish translations typically front the subject "Bela" before the verb.

The second clause uses a construct chain: shem ("name of", H8034) governs ir ("city", H5892B), which in turn takes the pronominal suffix -o ("his", H9023), producing "the name of his city." This chain places "Dinhabah" as the predicate noun at the end, giving the sentence a naming formula parallel to other entries in the king-list (name, patronymic, city).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the king's name as Βαλακ (Balak) instead of the Hebrew Bela (H1106G), while the patronymic "son of Beor" and the place name (rendered Δεννάβα/Denaba in LXX and Vulgate) correspond more closely to the Hebrew Dinhavah (H1838), with minor consonantal variation across the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew forms.