Genesis 36:7

Summary

The verse explains why Jacob and Esau (referred to by their plural possessions) separated: their wealth had grown too large to allow them to remain together, and the land where they were sojourning could not sustain them because of their livestock.

Key words

• rekhuSham ("their possession[s]", H7399) — construct noun with pronominal suffix "their," indicating accumulated wealth or property belonging jointly to the two groups.
• rav ("[too] much", H7227A) — adjective describing rekhusham, marking the possessions as excessive, the stated cause of the inability to dwell together.
• miShevet ("from dwelling", H3427) — infinitive construct with prefixed preposition mi- ("for"), expressing the idea "too much for dwelling," a purpose/result construction.
• yakheLah ("it was able", H3201) — perfect verb, feminine singular agreeing with 'eretz ("land"), attributing the incapacity to the land itself rather than to a person.
• mippenei ("because of", H6440I) — construct form of "face," used idiomatically with mi- to mean "because of" or "on account of," here introducing the cause (their livestock).

What the text says

The verse is built from two parallel clauses joined by ve- ("and"), each stating a cause-and-effect relationship. The first clause uses ki- ("for/that") to introduce the reason: rekhusham ("their possessions") rav ("much") mi-shevet yachdav ("from dwelling together") — literally "their possessions were too much for dwelling together." The construction with mi- plus infinitive (mi-shevet) expresses excess relative to an action, a common Hebrew way of saying "too much to do X."

The second clause shifts the grammatical subject to 'eretz meguireihem ("the land of their sojournings"), a construct chain where 'eretz ("land") governs meguirei ("sojournings") plus the suffix "their." The verb yakhelah ("it was able," feminine to match 'eretz) is negated by lo' ("not"), so the land itself is described as incapable of la-set 'otam ("to support them")—an infinitive construct with a direct object marker ('otam, "them") explicitly naming who is being supported. The final phrase, mippenei miknei-hem ("because of their livestock"), supplies the reason for the land's inability, using the idiomatic mi-penei ("from the face of," rendered "because of") construction.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate expands the first clause into an independent statement, "Divites enim erant valde" ("For they were very rich"), rather than tying wealth directly to the infinitive of dwelling as the Hebrew does with mi-shevet. The LXX omits any equivalent to the first Hebrew clause about wealth causing inability to dwell together, moving directly to the land's incapacity, and renders miknei-hem ("their livestock") as tōn hyparchontōn autōn ("their possessions/belongings"), a broader term than the Hebrew's specific reference to livestock (mikneihem).