וַיְחִ֣י רְע֔וּ שְׁתַּ֥יִם וּשְׁלֹשִׁ֖ים שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד אֶת שְׂרֽוּג
Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug.
World English Bible · Public Domain
Genesis 11:20
Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex) Genesis 11:20 appears in the Hebrew Old Testament. The text above is from the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Each word links to its Strong’s number, a concise gloss, and parsing drawn from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology. Click any word for its full Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) entry.
English Translation
Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug.
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Compare translations 3
The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
Each is an independent rendering of the whole verse — the interlinear is not word-aligned to these translations.
Highlighted words mark where these versions differ — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment.
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World English Bible Public Domain
Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug.
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King James Version Public Domain
And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And Reu lived thirty-two years, then he fathered Serug.
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Show all 18 translations
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
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World English Bible Public Domain
Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug.
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Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
When Reu was 32 years old, he became the father of Serug.
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Majority Standard Bible Public Domain
When Reu was 32 years old, he became the father of Serug.
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King James Version Public Domain
And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:
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American Standard Version (1901) Public Domain
And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:
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Revised Version (1885) Public Domain
And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug:
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Geneva Bible (1599) Public Domain
Also Reu liued two and thirtie yeeres, and begate Serug.
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Douay-Rheims (1899) Public Domain
And Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Sarug.
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Young's Literal Translation Public Domain
And Reu liveth two and thirty years, and begetteth Serug.
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Literal Standard Version CC BY-SA 4.0
And Reu lives thirty-two years [[or one hundred and thirty-two years]], and begets Serug.
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Unlocked Literal Bible CC BY-SA 4.0
When Reu had lived thirty-two years, he became the father of Serug.
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unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
And Reu lived thirty-two years, then he fathered Serug.
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Darby Bible Public Domain
And Reu lived thirty-two years, and begot Serug.
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World Messianic Bible Public Domain
Reu lived thirty-two years, and became the father of Serug.
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Webster's Bible Public Domain
And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begat Serug.
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Free Bible Version CC BY-SA 4.0
When Reu was 32, he had Serug.
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Bible in Basic English Public Domain
And Reu was thirty-two years old when he became the father of Serug:
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JPS Tanakh (1917) Public Domain
And Reu lived two and thirty years, and begot Serug.
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
Word by word
More ways to search: Search by grammar → Find every occurrence → Compare this word →
Practice this passage: Drill this verse → Learn its vocabulary →
רְע֔וּ
Rᵉʻûw
H7466
“Reu”
Noun, Proper
- Appears 5× in the Hebrew Bible
- First appears at Genesis 11:18
- Part of Speech
- Noun
- Type
- Proper
Full BDB Definition
Reu = "friend"
- son of Peleg and an ancestor of Abraham
- וַיְחִ֣י châyâh H2421 “and · to live” Conjunction + Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- רְע֔וּ Rᵉʻûw H7466 “Reu” Noun, Proper
- שְׁתַּ֥יִם shᵉnayim H8147 “two” Adjective, Cardinal number, Feminine, Dual, Absolute
- וּשְׁלֹשִׁ֖ים shᵉlôwshîym H7970 “and · thirty” Conjunction + Adjective, Cardinal number, Both, Plural, Absolute
- שָׁנָ֑ה shâneh H8141 “year” Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute
- וַיּ֖וֹלֶד yâlad H3205 “and · to bear” Conjunction + Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular
- אֶת ʼêth H853 “-” Particle, Direct Object
- שְׂרֽוּג Sᵉrûwg H8286 “Serug” Noun, Proper
About this verse
These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →
- 8
- words
- 8
- distinct lemmas
- Pentateuch
- section
Notable vocabulary
The rarest word here is רְע֔וּ Reu H7466 — appearing just 5 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.
First appearance in Scripture
This word makes its first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:
- שְׂרֽוּג Serug H8286
Shared distinctive vocabulary
רְע֔וּ Reu H7466 occurs in 5 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
- 2 verbs
- 3 nouns
- 2 adjectives
- 1 particle
Verb forms
- וַיְחִ֣י Qal · Sequential Imperfect
- וַיּ֖וֹלֶד Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 10 words from the Hebrew and 12 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.
A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.
Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.
In the original languages it is 8 Hebrew tokens and 11 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.
Cross-references
1Topical passages linked to Genesis 11:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
- Luke 3:35 the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint
The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
καί ζάω ραγαυ ἑκατόν τριάκοντα δύο ἔτος καί γεννάω ὁ σερουχ
And Ragau lived one hundred thirty and two years, and begot Seruch.
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →
Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)
The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.
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Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
וַחֲיָא רְעוּ תְּלָתִין וְתַרְתֵּין שְׁנִין וְאוֹלִיד יָת שְׂרוּג
And Reu lived thirty and two years, and begat Serug.
Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
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Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)
וַחֲיָא רְעוּ תְּלָתִין וְתַרְתֵּין שְׁנִין וְאוֹלִיד יַת שְרוּג
And Reu lived thirty-two years, and begat Serug.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Lesson kit
Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.
Genesis, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 8 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Rᵉʻûw (“Reu”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Discussion questions
- What does “Reu” (Rᵉʻûw) contribute to the verse as a whole?
- The word “Serug” first appears here in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
- Genesis 11:18 shares the word «Reu» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
- These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
- The verb «וַיְחִ֣י» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
- Reading how The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges and John Gill's Exposition read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?
Things to notice
- 1 word makes its first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
- This verse counts 8 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
- These translations choose different wording for 7 words in this verse.
- 8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.
Commentary
Notes on Genesis 11:20 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.
Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill's Exposition
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes
Door43 World Missions Community
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.