Genesis 4:19

Summary

The verse reports that Lamech took two wives for himself, and gives their names: the first was Adah, and the second was Zillah.

Key words

• va-yikkach ("and he took", H3947) — qal verb with narrative vav, marking the next event in the sequence of the story; the subject is Lamech.
• lo ("for himself", H9033 + H9005) — preposition with pronominal suffix attached to the verb, indicating the action is done on Lamech's own behalf.
• shtei ("two of", H8147) — cardinal number in construct form, feminine dual, syntactically binding to the noun that follows.
• nashim ("wives", H0802) — masculine plural noun (used here for the feminine referents "women/wives"), the object taken.
• shem ("name of", H8034) — masculine singular noun in construct form, used twice to introduce each wife's name.

What the text says

The clause opens with va-yikkach ("and he took", H3947), a qal verb carrying the narrative vav that continues the chain of events from the preceding verses. The phrase lo ("for himself", H9033+H9005) immediately follows, marking that the taking is done on Lamech's own behalf — a common Hebrew construction for marriage ("to take a wife for oneself"). The subject Lemekh ("Lamech", H3929) is named explicitly, followed by the object shtei nashim ("two wives", H8147+H0802), where shtei is a construct-form numeral governing the plural noun nashim.

The second half of the verse names the two wives through parallel construct phrases: shem ha-achat ("the name of the one", H8034+H0259) and shem ha-shenit ("the name of the second", H8034+H8145). Both use the noun shem ("name") in construct form, each paired with a numeral (achat, "one"; shenit, "second") that is definite via the article ha- (H9009). This creates a balanced, symmetrical structure: first wife named Adah (Adah, H5711), second wife named Zillah (Tzillah, H6741). The repetition of shem rather than a single shared construction gives each naming equal grammatical weight.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text and the Vulgate (VULCLEM) differ in explicitness: the Hebrew states va-yikkach-lo Lemekh ("and Lamech took for himself"), naming the subject Lamech directly, while the Vulgate begins with the relative pronoun "Qui" ("who"), linking the sentence to the prior verse rather than repeating the name Lamech. The LXX (Ἔλαβεν ἑαυτῷ Λάμεχ) follows the Hebrew structure closely, retaining both the reflexive "for himself" (ἑαυτῷ) and the explicit name Λάμεχ. The BSB rendering "Lamech married two women" interprets the Hebrew va-yikkach... nashim ("took... wives") with the verb "married," which is a translational choice not present as a distinct lexical item in the Hebrew, LXX, or Vulgate, all of which use "took" (yikkach/ἔλαβεν/accepit) rather than a specific marriage verb.