Genesis 46:19

Summary

This verse lists the sons born to Rachel, the wife of Jacob, naming them as Joseph and Benjamin. It forms part of the genealogical record of Jacob's household entering Egypt.

Key words

Benei ("sons of", H1121A) — masculine plural noun in construct state, opening the clause and linking grammatically to the following name; construct forms in Hebrew signal a possessive relationship ("sons of X") without a separate word for "of".

Rachel (H7354) — proper name, the person to whom the sons belong; stands as the noun completing the construct chain begun by benei.

'Eshet ("wife of", H0802H) — feminine singular noun in construct state, appositional to Rachel, identifying her relationship to Jacob; another construct form requiring the following name to complete its meaning.

Ya'aqov (H3290) — proper name, completing the construct phrase "wife of Jacob," anchoring Rachel's identity within the family structure being enumerated.

u ("and", H9002) — conjunction prefixed directly to Binyamin, joining the two names Yosef and Binyamin as the content of the construct chain "sons of Rachel."

What the text says

The verse is built as a single long construct chain followed by its resolution. The chain benei Rachel 'eshet Ya'aqov ("sons of Rachel, wife of Jacob") stacks two construct relationships: benei governs Rachel, and 'eshet governs Ya'aqov, with 'eshet Ya'aqov functioning appositionally to specify which Rachel is meant. Only after this full chain is stated do the actual names of the sons appear — Yosef and u-Binyamin — placed in apparent apposition to benei Rachel, effectively answering the question "which sons?" that the opening phrase raises.

This word order — genealogical relationship first, personal names second — is typical of Hebrew genealogical lists in the passage, where the parentage is established before the specific descendants are named. The conjunction u attached to Binyamin simply joins the two personal names as a pair, with no distinction in grammatical function between them; both function as the predicate identifying the "sons of Rachel."

Differences between versions

The LXX (Ἰωσὴφ καὶ Βενιαμείν) and Vulgate (Joseph et Benjamin) follow the same structure as the Hebrew, preserving the construct-chain-then-names pattern. The Vulgate renders the whole phrase as a single genitive construction ("Filii Rachel uxoris Jacob"), matching the Hebrew's stacked construct relationships closely. Modern translations such as BSB restructure the phrase as "Jacob's wife Rachel" rather than "Rachel, wife of Jacob," reversing the presentation order found in the Hebrew construct chain, though the underlying relationships are the same.