Genesis 36:4

Summary

Genesis 36:4 records that Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, and Basemath bore Reuel. The verse is part of a genealogical list detailing the offspring of Esau's wives.

Key words

• Teled ("she bore", H3205) — qal verb in narrative (vav-consecutive) form; this construction chains the action to the preceding narrative flow, marking it as the next event in sequence.
• le ("to", H9005) — preposition attached to 'Esav, indicating the recipient/father for whom the child is born; it links Eliphaz to Esau specifically.
• 'et ("", H0853) — direct object marker, appearing twice (before 'Elifaz and before Re'u'El); it has no independent meaning but marks each personal name as the grammatical object of the verb "bore."
• Yalda ("she bore", H3205) — same root as Teled, but here in the perfect form without the narrative vav, joined only by the simple conjunction u ("and", H9002); this creates a different syntactic rhythm from the first clause.

What the text says

The verse contains two parallel statements about childbirth, but the Hebrew grammar treats them differently. The first clause uses Teled, a qal verb in the narrative (vav-consecutive) form that continues the ongoing story sequence — this is the typical way Hebrew narrative advances from one event to the next. The second clause, however, uses Yalda, the same verb root but in a plain perfect form, joined by the ordinary conjunction u ("and") rather than the narrative vav. This shift signals a slight change in syntactic pacing: the second birth notice is presented as a parallel completed fact rather than a strict continuation of the narrative chain.

Both clauses use the direct object marker 'et (H0853) before the children's names ('Elifaz, Re'u'El), which is standard Hebrew practice for marking definite objects and carries no translatable content. The preposition le ("to", H9005) attached to 'Esav specifies Esau as the one to whom Eliphaz is born, a detail that ties Adah's offspring explicitly to Esau within the sentence itself.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate's rendering, "Peperit autem Ada Eliphaz," omits an explicit equivalent for le'Esav ("to Esau", H9005 + H6215G) in the first clause, whereas the Hebrew and the LXX (τῷ Ἠσαὺ) both explicitly state that Eliphaz was born "to Esau." The Vulgate assumes this connection from context rather than restating it grammatically.