Genesis 37:1

Summary

The verse states that Jacob ("Ya'aqov", H3290) settled in the land where his father had previously sojourned, identifying that land as Canaan. The sentence opens a new narrative unit with a verb of dwelling, followed by two construct phrases specifying the location.

Key words

• va-yeshev ("and he dwelt", H9001 + H3427) — narrative vav prefixed to a qal verb, the standard form that advances the story sequence ("and then he settled").
• 'erets ("land of", H0776G) — feminine singular noun in construct state, appearing twice; construct form means it must be followed by another noun to complete its meaning ("land of X").
• meguray ("sojournings of", H4033) — masculine plural noun in construct, linking to 'avi to form "the sojournings of my/his father."
• 'avi ("father", H0001G) + suffix -v ("his", H9023) — construct noun plus pronominal suffix, producing "his father."
• Kena'an ("Canaan", H3667A) — proper noun marking the geographic identity of the land just described.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of construct phrases stacked onto the initial verb. The verb va-yeshev ("and he dwelt", H3427) with the narrative vav (H9001) marks this as a new episode following prior material, and its subject is Ya'aqov ("Jacob", H3290). The location is given twice, in apposition: first as 'erets meguray 'avi-v ("the land of the sojournings of his father", combining H0776G, H4033, H0001G, H9023), and then restated plainly as 'erets Kena'an ("the land of Canaan", H0776G + H3667A). The construct chain 'erets meguray 'avi-v is three nouns linked in sequence — "land" governs "sojournings," which governs "father" plus the suffix "his" — a compact way of saying "the land in which his father had sojourned," without any relative pronoun or subordinate clause in the Hebrew itself. The word meguray (H4033), from a root associated with temporary residence rather than permanent settlement, contrasts implicitly with yeshev (H3427), the verb used for Jacob himself, which denotes settling or dwelling. This lexical contrast — sojourning for the father versus dwelling for Jacob — is embedded in the choice of roots but is not marked by any additional grammatical device in the Hebrew text.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the construct chain with a relative clause, "ἐν τῇ γῇ οὗ παρῴκησεν ὁ πατὴρ αὐτοῦ" ("in the land where his father sojourned"), using a finite verb (παρῴκησεν) to unpack what the Hebrew expresses through the noun meguray ("sojournings", H4033) in construct. The Vulgate similarly uses a relative clause, "in qua pater suus peregrinatus est," with the verb peregrinatus est corresponding to the notion of temporary sojourning. Both versions convert the Hebrew's compact double construct phrase into an explicit relative clause with a finite verb, a structure the Hebrew itself does not use.