Genesis 38:1

Summary

The verse opens a new narrative unit with the formula "and it was at that time," reporting that Judah separated from his brothers, went down, and turned aside toward an Adullamite man named Hirah. The Hebrew marks this as a temporal transition away from the Joseph narrative that precedes it.

Key words

• va-yehi ("and it was", H1961) — narrative vav + qal verb, the standard formula opening a new episode, signaling a shift in the story's focus.
• ba-'et ha-hiv' ("at that time", H6256 / H1931) — the noun 'et with article and demonstrative pronoun "that," anchoring the episode temporally relative to the preceding narrative rather than giving an absolute date.
• yered ("he went down", H3381) — qal narrative verb from the root meaning "to descend," describing Judah's physical movement.
• me-'et 'echav ("from with his brothers", H0854 / H0251G) — the compound preposition me-'et ("from with") plus 'echav ("his brothers," construct plural with pronominal suffix -o, H9023), indicating separation from the brothers as a group.
• yet ("he turned aside", H5186) — qal narrative verb indicating a deviation of path, followed by 'ad ("to/until," H5704) marking the destination.

What the text says

The verse is built on a chain of narrative vav-consecutive verbs (va-yehi, va-yered, va-yet), the typical backbone of Hebrew storytelling, each introduced by "and then." This chain moves the action forward in three steps: the temporal marker "it was at that time," Judah's descent (yered) away from his brothers, and his turning aside (yet) toward the Adullamite man. The verb yered ("went down") together with the preposition me-'et ("from with") emphasizes physical and relational separation from the group of brothers named just before with the pronominal suffix -o ("his brothers"). The final clause names the destination not directly by proper noun for the location but through 'ish 'adullami ("a man, an Adullamite," H0376G + gentilic H5726), identifying the person by his ethnic/geographic origin, and then adds his personal name, Hirah (H2437), through the construct phrase shem-o ("his name," H8034 + suffix H9023).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders va-yet ("he turned aside") with ἀφίκετο ("he arrived"), a verb of arrival rather than of deviation, which shifts the nuance from "turning off the path" to "reaching a destination." The Vulgate's divertit ("he turned aside/diverted") stays closer to the sense of deviation present in the Hebrew yet. The Hebrew me-'et 'echav ("from with his brothers") is rendered in the LXX simply as ἀπὸ τῶν αὐτοῦ ("from his own," omitting explicit "brothers"), while the Vulgate's a fratribus suis ("from his brothers") preserves the Hebrew term directly.