Genesis 36:37

Summary

The verse records a succession in a king-list: Samlah dies, and Shaul, originating from Rehoboth on the River, becomes king in his place. The sentence follows the standard narrative pattern used throughout this genealogical chapter.

Key words

• va-yamot ("and he died", H4191) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine singular, marking the sequential death of the preceding king.
• va-yimlokh ("and he reigned", H4427A) — qal narrative verb, third person masculine singular, marking the sequential accession of the new king.
• tachtav ("in place of him", H8478H + H9033) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, literally "under-place of him," expressing succession "instead of" the deceased.
• me-Rechovot ("from Rehoboth", H7344H) — proper noun with prefixed preposition me ("from", H9006), indicating the geographic origin of the new king.
• ha-Nahar ("the River", H5104G) — definite noun functioning as a proper geographic designation, "the River," attached to Rehoboth to specify which Rehoboth is meant.

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel narrative clauses joined by the vav-consecutive construction (va- + verb), a pattern that drives the sequence of events in Hebrew narrative: "and he died... and he reigned." This structure marks a direct temporal succession without any connecting conjunctions beyond the narrative vav itself — the death of one figure and the enthronement of the next are presented as immediately consecutive events.

The phrase tachtav ("in place of him") uses the noun tachat ("under, in place of") in construct form with a third-person suffix, a common idiom in these king-lists to express dynastic replacement. The final phrase, me-Rechovot ha-Nahar, identifies Shaul's origin: the preposition me ("from") governs the place name Rechovot, which is further specified by the construct-like appositional phrase ha-Nahar ("the River"), distinguishing this Rehoboth from other places bearing the same name by anchoring it geographically to a river.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew Sam.lah ("Samlah") appears in the LXX as Salamá, a transliteration variant. The Hebrew place name Rechovot ha-Nahar ("Rehoboth of the River") is rendered in the LXX as Rhoōbōth tēs para potamon ("Rhoobōth, the one by the river"), preserving the sense of a river-adjacent location without naming the river. The Vulgate gives de fluvio Rohoboth ("from the river Rohoboth"), which reads the place name and the river designation somewhat differently than the Hebrew's construct phrase. Some modern translations (BSB) add "Euphrates" as an identification of "the River," a specification not present in the Hebrew text itself, which only says ha-Nahar ("the River").