Genesis 36:27

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

These are the children of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

1 hapax legomenon — only here in the Hebrew Bible
3 first appearances in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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וַעֲקָֽן

ʻÂqân

H6130

“and · Akan”

Conjunction + Noun, Proper

Appears 1× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears here

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from an unused root meaning to twist

TWOT: None

Akan = "sharp-sighted" - son of Ezer, descendant of Seir, and one of the chiefs of the Horites of Edom

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 →

6: words
6: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

1 hapax legomenon — a word that appears only here in the entire Hebrew Bible:

וַעֲקָֽן Akan H6130

First appearance in Scripture

These words make their first canonical appearance in the Hebrew Bible here:

בִּלְהָ֥ן Bilhan H1092
וְזַעֲוָ֖ן Zaavan H2190
וַעֲקָֽן Akan H6130

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וְזַעֲוָ֖ן Zaavan H2190 occurs in 2 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

1 Chronicles 1:42

Grammatical profile

5 nouns
1 pronoun

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 6 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

Topical passages linked to Genesis 36:27 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 36:21 Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These are the chiefs who came of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom.
1 Chronicles 1:38 The sons of Seir: Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah, and Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan.
1 Chronicles 1:42 The sons of Ezer: Bilhan, and Zaavan, Jaakan. The sons of Dishan: Uz, and Aran.

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 36:27 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

אֵ֖לֶּה בְּנֵי אֵ֑צֶר בִּלְהָ֥ן וְזַעֲוָ֖ן וַעֲקָֽן

These are the children of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 36:27 Septuagint · lemma form

οὗτος δέ υἱός ασαρ βαλααν καί ζουκαμ καί ιωυκαμ καί ουκαν

And these are the sons of Asar; Balaam, and Zucam, and Jucam.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, John Gill's Exposition discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

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)

אִלֵּין בְּנֵי אֵצֶר בִּלְהָן וְזַעֲוָן וַעֲקָן

(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)

אִלֵין בְּנֵי אֵצֶר בִּלְהָן וְזַעֲוָן וַעֲקָן

These are the sons of Etser, Bilhan, and Zaavan, and Akan.

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 36:27 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 →

John Gill's Exposition

And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom,.... His name was not Balac, as the Septuagint version, which may lead to think of Balak king of Moab; nor is this the same with Balaam, the son of Beor, who lived ages after, as some in Aben Ezra: who he was we know no more of than what is here said; he was the first Horite king, and is placed by Mr. Bedford (i) in A. M. 2002:

and the name of his city was Dinhabah, the place either where he was born, or where he had been governor before, but of it we read nowhere else.

(i) Scripture Chronology, p. 316.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

The children of Ezer are these; Bilhan, (Gesenius), "Tender" (Furst)and Zaavan, "(Gesenius) and Akan Jakan; (1Ch_1:42) "Twisting" (Gesenius, Murphy).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 6 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʻÂqân (“Akan”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “Akan” (ʻÂqân) contribute to the verse as a whole?
This verse holds 1 word here found nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. What might the rare word draw attention to?
3 words here appear for the first time in Scripture. What is being introduced at this debut?
1 Chronicles 1:42 shares the word «Zaavan» 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?
Reading how John Gill's Exposition and The Pulpit Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

1 word in this verse appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.
3 words make their first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 6 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 2 words in this verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.