Genesis 46:8

וְאֵלֶּה שְׁמוֹת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל הַבָּאִים מִצְרַיְמָה יַעֲקֹב וּבָנָיו בְּכֹר יַעֲקֹב רְאוּבֵֽן׃

✦ Hebrew interlinear

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✦ The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

וְאֵ֨לֶּה שְׁמ֧וֹת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל הַבָּאִ֥ים מִצְרַ֖יְמָה יַעֲקֹ֣ב וּבָנָ֑יו בְּכֹ֥ר יַעֲקֹ֖ב רְאוּבֵֽן׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Ταῦτα δὲ τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ τῶν εἰσελθόντων εἰς Αἴγυπτον. Ἰακὼβ καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ· πρωτότοκος Ἰακὼβ Ῥουβήν·

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

Hæc sunt autem nomina filiorum Israël, qui ingressi sunt in Ægyptum, ipse cum liberis suis. Primogenitus Ruben.

Spanish

Éstos son los nombres de los israelitas que llegaron a Egipto (Jacob y sus descendientes): Rubén, el hijo mayor de Jacob.

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

Y estos son los nombres de los hijos de Israel, que entraron en Egipto, Jacob y sus hijos: Rubén, el primogénito de Jacob.

English

Now these are the names of the sons of Israel (Jacob and his descendants) who went to Egypt: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.

✦ What the text says

Summary

The verse opens a genealogical list by identifying "the sons of Israel" who went to Egypt as Jacob and his sons, then begins naming them starting with Reuben, called the firstborn of Jacob.

Key words

'Elleh ("these", H0428) — demonstrative particle that introduces the list, pointing forward to the names that follow.
sheMot ("names of", H8034) — construct-state plural noun, grammatically bound to "sons of Israel," meaning it cannot stand alone but requires the following genitive.
ba'Im ("the ones going/who went", H0935G) — qal participle with definite article, functioning as a substantival relative clause ("the ones who go/went"), describing the sons of Israel as those in motion toward Egypt.
beno ("his sons", H1121A + H9023) — plural construct noun with third-person masculine singular suffix, meaning "his sons," referring back to Jacob.
beKhor ("firstborn of", H1060) — singular construct noun, syntactically linking Reuben directly to Jacob as "firstborn of Jacob."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence structure is built around the construct chain sheMot beNei-Yisra'El ("names of the sons of Israel"), a typical genealogical heading formula. The participle ba'Im ("the ones going/who went," H0935G) carries the definite article ha (H9009), functioning here as a relative clause modifier: "the sons of Israel, the ones who went to Egypt." This participial construction allows Hebrew to embed a full descriptive clause within the noun phrase without a separate relative pronoun equivalent to "who."

The directional suffix -mah (H9011, glossed here as "towards") attached to Mitzrayim ("Egypt", H4714G) indicates motion toward a place, a common Hebrew mechanism for expressing direction without a separate preposition. After this participial phrase, the text places Ya'aqov ("Jacob") and baNav ("his sons," H1121A + suffix H9023) in apposition, listing the two parties comprising the group. The final clause then narrows to Reuben specifically: beKhor Ya'aqov Re'uven ("firstborn of Jacob, Reuben"), using the construct noun beKhor ("firstborn of," H1060) to link Reuben's identity directly to his father Jacob before the enumeration presumably continues.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders "Jacob and his sons" as "ipse cum liberis suis" ("he himself with his children"), replacing the coordinated pair "Jacob and his sons" found in the Hebrew (Ya'aqov uvaNav) and LXX (Ἰακὼβ καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ) with a prepositional phrase expressing accompaniment rather than simple conjunction. The LXX inserts δὲ ("but/now") after Ταῦτα, a connective particle not present as a separate lexical item in the Hebrew text's ve- ("and", H9002), though both serve similar transitional functions.

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.