Genesis 36:3

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

and Basemath, Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebaioth.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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נְבָיֽוֹת

Nᵉbâyôwth

H5032

“Nebaioth”

Noun, Proper

Appears 5× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 25:13

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H5107

TWOT: None

Nebaioth or Nebajoth = "heights" - a son of Ishmael - people descended from 1 called the Nabateans with their capital at Petra

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

The rarest word here is נְבָיֽוֹת Nebaioth H5032 — appearing just 5 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

נְבָיֽוֹת Nebaioth H5032 occurs in 5 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

5 nouns
1 particle

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 7 words from the Hebrew and 8 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 7 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 36:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 28:9 Esau went to Ishmael, and took, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife.
Genesis 25:13 These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to the order of their birth: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

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 36:3 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְאֶת בָּשְׂמַ֥ת בַּת יִשְׁמָעֵ֖אל אֲח֥וֹת נְבָיֽוֹת

and Basemath, Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebaioth.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 36:3 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ὁ βασεμμαθ θυγάτηρ ισμαηλ ἀδελφή ναβαιωθ

and Basemath, daughter of Ismael, sister of Nabaioth.

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)

וְיָת בָּשְׂמַת בַּת יִשְׁמָעֵאל אֲחָתֵהּ דִנְבָיוֹת

(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)

וְיַת בָּשְמַת בְּרַת יִשְׁמָעֵאל דַאֲסִיבָא לֵיהּ נְבָיוֹת אָחָהּ

and Basemath the daughter of Ishmael whom Nebaioth her brother gave to him.

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 36:3 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 →

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) Bashemath Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebajoth.—The Samaritan text reads Mahalath here, and in Gen_36:4; Gen_36:10; Gen_36:17, as in Gen_28:9. There can be little doubt that Mahalath is the right reading, but the versions, nevertheless, agree with the Masoretic Hebrew text, so that the error must have been of very ancient date. As Mahalath was of a Semitic stock, she would have her own Semitic name, and there would be no double translation of it, as in the case of the daughter of Elon.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And Bashemath, Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebaioth,.... The eldest son of Ishmael, see Gen 28:9; called there Mahalath.

; called there Mahalath.

Genesis 36:4

gen 36:4

gen 36:4

gen 36:4And Adah bare to Esau Eliphaz,.... This son of Esau, according to Jerom (n), is the same with him mentioned in the book of Job, as one of his friends that came to visit him, Job 2:11; and so says the Targum of Jonathan on Gen 36:10; but he rather was the grandson of this man, since he is called the Temanite:

and Bashemath bare Reuel; the name is the same with Reuel or Raguel, the name of Jethro; but cannot be the same person as is said by some, for he was a Midianite and not an Edomite, Exo 2:18.

(n) Trad. Heb. in Gen. fol. 71. L. tom. 3.

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)

בשמת בת ישמעאל BASE-MATH ISHMAEL’S DAUGHTER — But elsewhere (28:9) she is called Mahalath! We find in the Agadic Midrash on the Book of Samuel (Ch. 17) that there are three classes whose sins are pardoned: a proselyte, one who is exalted to a high position and a man on his marriage. It derives the proof for the latter case from here; viz., the reason why she was also calleth Mahalath (pardon) was because his (Esau’s) sins were pardoned on his marriage to her (Megillah 17a; cf. also Genesis Rabbah 63).

אחות נביות SISTER OF NEBAIOTH — because he gave her in marriage after Ishmael’s death she is called after his name (Nebaioth’s sister).

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.

Ramban (Nachmanides)

Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban / Nachmanides)

BASMATH ISHMAEL’s DAUGHTER. But elsewhere Scripture calls her Mahalath!, 28:9. I have found in the Agadic Midrash on the Book of Samuel: There are three persons all of whose sins are pardoned: a proselyte on conversion, one who is exalted to a high position, and a man on his marriage. It derives the proof for the latter case from here. The reason she was called Mahalath, [from the word mechilah (pardon)], is that Esau’s sins were pardoned when he married her. All this, [including the comment on Verse 2 above], is the language of Rashi.But Rashi has not explained the reason why the father of Oholibamah, who, according to Rashi, is identical with Judith, is there called Be’eri and here called Anah. And Basmath Ishmael’s daughter is here a proper name while there, according to Rashi, is an adjectival noun on account of her burning the incense! And in Bereshith Rabbah, the Sages have said: “Esau set his mind to repent. Mahalath means that the Holy One, blessed be He, did pardon him for his sins. Basmath means that he was content [with his well-born wives and his decision to repent].” Thus according to the Midrash, both names (Mahalath and Basmath) are descriptive, and their proper names are unknown. For this reason Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra has said that she had two names, Adah and Basmath. Also in the case of Abijah, [king of Judah, we find that his mother had two names, Micaiah — II Chronicles 13:2 - and Maacah - ibid., 11:20].It is possible to say that those two women [mentioned above, 26:34, i.e., Judith and Basmath], died childless perhaps as a punishment because they were a bitterness of spirit unto Isaac and to Rebekah. Esau then married his wife’s sister Adah, the daughter of Elon, and another woman by the name of Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah. But as regards Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebaioth, [who was originally called Mahalath], 28:9. because of the repugnance of her name, [which suggests choli, (sickness)] in the Sacred Language, Esau called her by the honorable name of his first wife Basmath, derived from the word besamim (spices). This was because she was beloved by him since she was of his family and was not evil in the eyes of Isaac his father., 28:8.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). 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 6 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Nᵉbâyôwth (“Nebaioth”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “Nebaioth” (Nᵉbâyôwth) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Genesis 25:13 shares the word «Nebaioth» with this verse. 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?
Reading how Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers and John Gill's Exposition read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 6 Hebrew ↔ 7 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 6 words in this verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.