Genesis 49:6

Summary

In this verse, spoken within Jacob's testament to his sons, the speaker (Jacob) declares his refusal to be associated with the sod ("council", H5475) and qahal ("assembly", H6951) of Simeon and Levi. He then gives the reason: in their anger they killed a man, and in their self-will they hamstrung an ox.

Key words

• so.Da — sod ("council", H5475), masculine singular construct with 3rd person plural suffix ("their council"), denotes a closed group or secret deliberation.
• ta.Vo' — bo' ("to enter", H0935G), qal jussive, feminine form agreeing with nefesh ("soul/self"): "let it not enter" — a wish/prohibition rather than a simple negative statement.
• naf.Sh — nefesh ("self", H5315G), feminine singular construct with 1st person suffix ("my self/soul"), the grammatical subject of the jussive verb, functioning here as a stand-in for "I".
• te.Chad — yachad ("to be united", H3161), qal jussive, parallel in form to ta.Vo', governing kevodi ("my honor") as its subject.
• 'i.ke.ru — 'aqar ("to hamstring", H6131B), piel perfect, an intensive stem indicating the deliberate, completed act of cutting the leg tendons of the animal.

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel jussive clauses of refusal: be-sodam 'al tavo' nafshi ("in their council, let my self not enter") and biqhalam 'al techad kevodi ("in their assembly, let my honor not be united"). Both verbs, tavo' ("it enter", H0935G) and techad ("it be united", H3161), are feminine jussives, agreeing grammatically with their feminine/abstract subjects nefesh ("self") and kavod ("honor"). This construction allows the speaker to express personal disassociation indirectly, through his "self" and "honor," rather than with a direct first-person verb.

The causal clause introduced by ki ("for", H3588A) explains the refusal: be-'apam hargu 'ish ("in their anger they killed a man") and bi-retzonam 'iqqeru shor ("in their pleasure/will they hamstrung an ox"). The verb hargu ("they slew", H2026) is a simple qal perfect, while 'iqqeru ("they hamstrung", H6131B) is in the piel stem, marking an intensified or deliberate action. The parallel structure — anger paired with killing a man, pleasure/will paired with maiming an ox — sets human violence against animal violence, both attributed to the same group's disposition ('af, "anger", H0639G, versus ratzon, "pleasure/will", H7522).

Differences between versions

The Hebrew 'ish ("a man", H0376G) is singular, but the LXX renders it as plural, anthropous ("men"). The Vulgate's virum ("a man") matches the Hebrew singular. For the final noun, the Hebrew has shor ("ox", H7794, singular), matched by the LXX's tauron ("bull/ox") and the BSB/SBLIBRE translations ("oxen"/"toros"), but the Vulgate reads murum ("wall") instead of an animal term, diverging from both the Hebrew and the LXX.