Genesis 36:4

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Adah bore to Esau Eliphaz. Basemath bore Reuel.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Highlights

2 first appearances in the Hebrew Bible

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Word by word

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וּבָ֣שְׂמַ֔ת

Bosmath

H1315

“and · Bashemath”

Conjunction + Noun, Proper

Appears 7× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 26:34

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H1314 (the second form)

TWOT: fragrance

Bashemath or Basmath = "spice" - Hittite wife of Esau, daughter of Ishmael, sister of Nebaioth - daughter of Solomon, wife of Ahimaaz, one of Solomon's commissariat officers

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 →

9: words
7: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is וּבָ֣שְׂמַ֔ת Bashemath H1315 — appearing just 7 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

First appearance in Scripture

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

אֱלִיפָ֑ז Eliphaz H464
רְעוּאֵֽל Reuel H7467

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וּבָ֣שְׂמַ֔ת Bashemath H1315 occurs in 7 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
5 nouns
2 particles

Verb forms

וַתֵּ֧לֶד Qal · Sequential Imperfect
יָלְדָ֖ה Qal · Perfect

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וַתֵּ֧לֶד to bear H3205 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 8 words from the Hebrew and 10 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 9 Hebrew tokens and 12 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 36:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

1 Chronicles 1:35 The sons of Esau: Eliphaz, Reuel, and Jeush, and Jalam, and Korah.
Exodus 2:18 When they came to Reuel, their father, he said, "How is it that you have returned so early today?"
Job 2:11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him.
Numbers 10:29 Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, We are journeying to the place of which Yahweh said, I will give it you: come you with us, and we will do you good; for Yahweh has spoken good concerning Israel.

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 36:4 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַתֵּ֧לֶד עָדָ֛ה לְעֵשָׂ֖ו אֶת אֱלִיפָ֑ז וּבָ֣שְׂמַ֔ת יָלְדָ֖ה אֶת רְעוּאֵֽל

Adah bore to Esau Eliphaz. Basemath bore Reuel.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 36:4 Septuagint · lemma form

τίκτω δέ αδα ὁ ησαυ ὁ ελιφας καί βασεμμαθ τίκτω ὁ ραγουηλ

And Ada bore to him Eliphas; and Basemath bore Raguel.

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)

וִילִידַת עָדָה לְעֵשָׂו יָת אֱלִיפָז וּבָשְׂמַת יְלִידַת יָת רְעוּאֵל

(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)

וִילֵידַת עָדָה לְעֵשָו יַת אֱלִיפַז וּבָשְמַת יְלֵידַת יַת רְעוּאֵל

And Adah bare to Esau Eliphaz, and Basemath bare Reuel.

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 36:4 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 36:4 And Adah bare to Esau Eliphaz; and Bashemath bare Reuel;

Ver. 4. Eliphaz.] Job’s friend, say some: a good man; but much mistaken in Job, whom he so sharply censures.

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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

4. Eliphaz] Familiar as the name of one of Job’s friends, Job_2:11.

Reuel] The same name as that of Moses’ father-in-law, a Midianite, Exo_2:18.

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 Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah,.... In this genealogy mention is made of another Korah among the sons of Eliphaz, Gen 36:16; which Jarchi thinks is the same with this, and takes him to be a bastard, and begotten in incest by Eliphaz, on his father's wife Aholibamah; but Aben Ezra observes, that some are of opinion that there were two Korahs, one the son of Aholibamah, and the other the son of Adah; but he thinks there were but one, which was the son of Aholibamah, and is reckoned among the sons of Eliphaz, because he dwelt among them; or perhaps his mother died when he was little, and Adah brought him up with her sons, and so was reckoned her son; such were the children of Michal, Saul's daughter:

these are the sons of Esau, which were born to him in the land of Canaan; and we do not read of any born to him elsewhere; so that of all his wives, which some think were four, others five, he had but five sons; what daughters he had is not related, though from Gen 36:6, it appears he had some.

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

Eliphaz; perphas the Themanite, and friend of Job, (St. Jerome) or his grandfather, by Theman; as Job was the grandson of Esau, and the second king, ver. 33. (Tirinus)

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).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Eliphaz, the progenitor of that Eliphaz, Job 2:11.

Reuel, the father of Jethro. See Exo 2:18; Num 10:29.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Vers. 4, 5. And Adah bare to Esau Eliphas; Strength of God" (Gesenius); afterwards the name of one of Job"s friends (Job_2:11 Job_4:1 Job_15:1) and Bashemath bare Reuel; Friend of God" (Gesenius); the name of Moses" father-in-law (Exo_2:18) and Aholibamah bare Jeush, (Furst, Lange); "whom God hastens" (Gesenius); afterwards the name of a son of Rehoboam (2Ch_11:19) and Jaalam, God hides" (Gesenius); "Ascender of the Mountains" (Furst)and Korah: (Furst, Gesenius); the name of a family of Levites and singers in the time of David to whom ten of the psalms are ascribedthese are the sons of Esau, which wore born unto him in the land of Canaan not necessarily implying" that other sons were born to him in Edom, but rather intimating that all his family were born before he left the Holy Land.

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

Adah ... Basemath ... Oholibamah

These are names of Esau's wives. See how you translated these in Genesis 36:2-3. (See: How to Translate Names)

Eliphaz ... Reuel ... Jeush ... Jalam ... Korah

These are names of Esau's sons. (See: How to Translate Names)

translationWords

Esau

Canaan

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

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 9 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Bosmath (“Bashemath”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “Bashemath” (Bosmath) shape what this verse is saying?
2 words make their first appearance in Scripture here. What does this debut establish?
How does Genesis 26:34, which shares the word «Bashemath», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “to bear” (2× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«וַתֵּ֧לֶד» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

2 words make their first canonical appearance in Scripture here.
This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 12 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 4 words in this verse.
“to bear” occurs 2× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.