Genesis 38:27

Summary

The verse marks a temporal transition ("and it was...") introducing the moment of Tamar's delivery, then presents through the interjection hinneh ("there!", H2009) the discovery that she was carrying twins in her womb.

Key words

• va-yehi ("and it was", H1961) — qal narrative form, third person masculine, functioning as a standard narrative marker that opens a new scene ("and it happened that...").
• 'et ("time", H6256) — noun in construct state, linking directly to the following infinitive to form the phrase "time of her giving birth."
• lidtah ("her giving birth", H3205) — qal infinitive with pronominal suffix -ah ("her", H9044), functioning as a verbal noun: "in her bearing" / "when she bore."
• hinneh ("there!", H2009) — interjection that introduces a sudden or noteworthy observation, here shifting the narrative focus abruptly to the presence of twins.
• ve-vitnah ("in her womb", from H0990H + suffix H9024) — noun in construct with possessive suffix, indicating physical location of the twins.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula va-yehi ("and it was", H1961), a standard Hebrew construction that signals a transition in time or scene. This is followed by the temporal phrase be-'et lidtah — literally "at the time of her bearing" — where 'et ("time", H6256) stands in construct relationship with the infinitive lidtah ("her giving birth", H3205). The infinitive here functions as a verbal noun, and the attached suffix -ah ("her") identifies the subject as the woman giving birth (unnamed in the Hebrew text of this verse, though contextually understood as Tamar).

The second half of the verse pivots with ve-hinneh ("and there!", H2009), a discourse marker that draws attention to an unexpected or emphasized fact — here, the presence of te'omim ("twins", H8380), a plural masculine noun. The location of the twins is given by be-vitnah ("in her womb"), where vitnah combines the construct noun for "womb" with the possessive suffix "her" (H9024). The construction hinneh + noun without a finite verb is typical of Biblical Hebrew for presenting a discovery or a vivid scene, functioning almost like "and behold" in older English translations, without a specified verb "to be" — the noun clause is asyndetic.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew and the LXXSWETE agree closely in structure: both mark the temporal clause and use an interjection (hinneh / τῇδε) before naming the twins. The Vulgate (VULCLEM) diverges by adding narrative detail not present in this Hebrew verse alone — it introduces "the birth was imminent" (instante autem partu) and adds content from later verses (the hand, the scarlet thread, the midwife's words), which in the Hebrew textual unit given here belongs to subsequent verses, not verse 27 itself. Modern translations (BSB, SBLIBRE) supply the proper name "Tamar," which does not appear explicitly in the Hebrew of this verse — the pronominal suffixes ("her") carry that reference from context alone.