Genesis 38:19

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

She arose, and went away, and put off her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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צְעִיפָ֖הּ

tsâʻîyph

H6809

“shawl · her”

Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular

Appears 3× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 24:65

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from an unused root meaning to wrap over

TWOT: 1946a

wrapper, shawl, veil

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 צְעִיפָ֖הּ shawl H6809 — appearing just 3 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

צְעִיפָ֖הּ shawl H6809 occurs in 3 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
3 nouns
1 preposition

Verb forms

וַתָּ֣קָם Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַתֵּ֔לֶךְ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַתָּ֥סַר Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect
וַתִּלְבַּ֖שׁ Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 20 words from the Hebrew and 20 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.

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 38:19 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Genesis 38:14 She took off of her the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is by the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she wasn't given to him as a wife.
2 Samuel 14:2 Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched there a wise woman, and said to her, please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, Please, and don't anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman who has a long time mourned for the dead:
2 Samuel 14:5 The king said to her, What ails you? She answered, Of a truth I am a widow, and my husband is dead.

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 38:19 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַתָּ֣קָם וַתֵּ֔לֶךְ וַתָּ֥סַר צְעִיפָ֖הּ מֵעָלֶ֑יהָ וַתִּלְבַּ֖שׁ בִּגְדֵ֥י אַלְמְנוּתָֽהּ

She arose, and went away, and put off her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Genesis 38:19 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἀναἵστημι ἀποἔρχομαι καί περιαἱρέω ὁ θέριστρον ἀπό ἑαυτοῦ καί ἐνδύω ὁ ἱμάτιον ὁ χήρευσις αὐτός

And she arose and departed, and took her veil from off her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.

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)

וְקָמַת וַאֲזָלַת וְאַעְדִּיאַת עֵיפַהּ מִנַּהּ וּלְבִישַׁת לְבוּשֵׁי אַרְמְלוּתַהּ

(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)

וְקָמַת וְאָזְלַת וְעָדַת רְדִידָהּ מִנָהּ וּלְבִישַׁת לְבוּשֵׁי אַרְמְלוּתָהּ

And she arose and went, and put her veil from her, and put on the dress of her widowhood.

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 38:19 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 Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite,.... Who went with him to Timnath, and was privy to all this wickedness, and kept the secret; but would have acted the more friendly and faithful part had he dissuaded him from it: him he employed to carry the kid he had promised, and not any of his servants, for the greater secrecy: and

to receive his pledge from the woman's hand; his signet, bracelets, and staff, or whatever they were:

but he found her not; she was gone from the place where she sat, or where she retired to with Judah.

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

And she arose, and went away, and laid by her vail from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.

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

veil

This was a very thin material used to cover a woman's head and face. See how you translated these in Genesis 38:14.

clothing of her widowhood

"clothing that widows wear." See how you translated these in Genesis 38:14.

Adullamite

a person who lives in the village of Adullam. See how you translated this in Genesis 38:1. (See: How to Translate Names)

receive the pledge

This can be stated in active form. AT: "take back the pledge"(See: Active or Passive)

from the woman's hand

Here "hand" emphasizes that they were in here possession. The woman's hand refers to the woman. AT: "from the woman" (See: Synecdoche)

translationWords

Judah

goat

flocks

pledge

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

Radak

Rabbi David Kimhi (Radak)

ותסר צעיפה מעליה, from her head and face.

ותלבש, her conduct proves that she had no intention of becoming pregnant by anyone other than Yehudah. Many women of that period had an overpowering desire to somehow be impregnated by the sperm of Avraham the patriarch, even though it might have been diluted with other genes. Being biologically connected to Avraham was an important status symbol.

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 8 words (8 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is tsâʻîyph (“shawl”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word tsâʻîyph carries the sense “shawl.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Genesis 24:65, which shares the word «shawl», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«וַתָּ֣קָם» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how John Gill's Exposition and The Pulpit Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 15 words in this verse.
8 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 8 words in this verse.