Genesis 24:37

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

My master made me swear, saying, 'You shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live,

World English Bible · Public Domain

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הַֽכְּנַעֲנִ֔י

Kᵉnaʻanîy

H3669

“the · Canaanite”

Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Gentilic, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 73× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 10:18

Full BDB Definition

Origin: patrial from H3667

TWOT: 1002a , 1002b

Canaanite = see Cana " zealous" - descendant of inhabitant of Canaan (adjective) - descendant or inhabitant of Canaan (noun) - a merchant, trader (noun)

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 →

13: words
13: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
6 nouns
1 pronoun
2 particles

Verb forms

וַיַּשְׁבִּעֵ֥נִי Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect
לֵאמֹ֑ר Qal · Infinitive Construct
תִקַּ֤ח Qal · Imperfect
יֹשֵׁ֥ב Qal · Participle Active

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 26 words from the Hebrew and 30 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.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Genesis 24:37 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 24:2–9 Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his house, who ruled over all that he had, "Please put your hand under my thigh.
Genesis 27:46 Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?"
Ezra 9:1–3 Now when these things were done, the princes drew near to me, saying, The people of Israel, and the priests and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, [doing] according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
Genesis 6:2 that God's sons saw that men's daughters were beautiful, and they took for themselves wives of all that they chose.

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.

Hebrew Genesis 24:37 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיַּשְׁבִּעֵ֥נִי אֲדֹנִ֖י לֵאמֹ֑ר לֹא תִקַּ֤ח אִשָּׁה֙ לִבְנִ֔י מִבְּנוֹת֙ הַֽכְּנַעֲנִ֔י אֲשֶׁ֥ר אָנֹכִ֖י יֹשֵׁ֥ב בְּאַרְצֽוֹ

My master made me swear, saying, 'You shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 24:37 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ὁρκίζω ἐγώ ὁ κύριος ἐγώ λέγω οὐ λαμβάνω γυνή ὁ υἱός ἐγώ ἀπό ὁ θυγάτηρ ὁ χαναναῖος ἐν ὅς ἐγώ παραοἰκέω ἐν ὁ γῆ αὐτός

And my master caused me to swear, saying, You shall not take a wife to my son of the daughters of the Chananites, among whom I sojourn in their land.

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.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְקַיֵּם עָלַי רִבּוֹנִי לְמֵימָר לָא תִסַבּ אִתְּתָא לִבְרִי מִבְּנַת כְּנַעֲנָאֵי דִי אֲנָא יָתֵב בְּאַרְעֵהּ

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

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.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וְאוֹמֵי יָתִי רִבּוֹנִי לְמֵימָר לָא תִסַב אִיתְּתָא לִבְרִי מִבְּנַת כְּנַעֲנָאֵי דַאֲנָא יָתִיב בְּאַרְעֲהוֹן

And my master made me swear, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Kenaanites in whose land I dwell,

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.

Commentary

Notes on Genesis 24:37 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 →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Gen 24:37 And my master made me swear, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell:

Ver. 37. {See Trapp on "Gen 24:3"} {See Trapp on "Gen 24:4"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

The Canaanites were accursed, and therefore the godly could not join with them in marriage.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

37. And my master made me swear] This and the four following verses recapitulate the substance of Gen_24:3-8. The dénouement of the story is thus retarded. Similarly in the following vv. (42–48) the suspense caused by the repetition tends to heighten the interest.

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

And I said unto my master, Peradventure the woman will not follow me. See Gill on Gen 24:5.

.

Genesis 24:40

gen 24:40

gen 24:40

gen 24:40And he said unto me, the Lord, before whom I walk, will send his angel with thee. See Gill on Gen 24:7.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

לא תקח אשה לבני מבנות הכנעני THOU SHALT NOT TAKE A WIFE FOR MY SON FROM THE DAUGHTERS OF THE CANAANITES if you do not first go to my father’s house and to my family that thou mayest take a wife to my son and she will not be willing to follow you.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Radak

Rabbi David Kimhi (Radak)

וישביעני, if you were to ask that if all this is true, why is that I come all this way to find a wife for this man, the reason is that my master made me swear to find a suitable wife for his son from among members of his own family.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (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 13 words (13 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Kᵉnaʻanîy (“Canaanite”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Canaanite” (Kᵉnaʻanîy) shape what this verse is saying?
Genesis 24:2–9 shares this passage’s theme. How do the two illuminate each other?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «וַיַּשְׁבִּעֵ֥נִי» is Hiphil Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 7 words in this verse.
13 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 13 words in this verse.