21st Century Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 4:17-20, "decreeing a child"

Genesis 4:17-20

 

יז וַיֵּ֤דַע קַ֨יִן֙ אֶת־אִשְׁתּ֔וֹ וַתַּ֖הַר וַתֵּ֣לֶד אֶת־חֲנ֑וֹךְ וַֽיְהִי֙ בֹּ֣נֶה עִ֔יר וַיִּקְרָא֙ שֵׁ֣ם הָעִ֔יר כְּשֵׁ֖ם בְּנ֥וֹ חֲנֽוֹךְ:

יח וַיִּוָּלֵ֤ד לַֽחֲנוֹךְ֙ אֶת־עִירָ֔ד וְעִירָ֕ד יָלַ֖ד אֶת־מְחֽוּיָאֵ֑ל וּמְחִיָּיאֵ֗ל יָלַד֙ אֶת־מְת֣וּשָׁאֵ֔ל וּמְתֽוּשָׁאֵ֖ל יָלַ֥ד אֶת־לָֽמֶךְ:

יט וַיִּֽקַּח־ל֥וֹ לֶ֖מֶךְ שְׁתֵּ֣י נָשִׁ֑ים שֵׁ֤ם הָֽאַחַת֙ עָדָ֔ה וְשֵׁ֥ם הַשֵּׁנִ֖ית צִלָּֽה:

כ וַתֵּ֥לֶד עָדָ֖ה אֶת־יָבָ֑ל ה֣וּא הָיָ֔ה אֲבִ֕י ישֵׁ֥ב אֹ֖הֶל וּמִקְנֶֽה:

 

Translation: Qain knew his wife, she became pregnant and gave birth to Chanokh; it must have been boneh ir that he named the city for his son Chanokh.

There was born to Chanokh Irad and Irad sired Mechuyael and Mechiyael sired Metushael and Metushael sired Lemekh.

Lemekh took himself two wives; the name of one was Adah and the name of the other was Tsillah.

Adah gave birth to Yaval; he was the father of those living in tents and flocks.

 

Vocabulary

 

עִיר	city
אֹהֶל	tent
מִקְנֶה	flocks

 

Yeda in the first verse of this section is perfect aspect; this is a new episode. The ancient question of “where did Qain’s wife come from” is irrelevant. Olrik says: oral narratives don’t give all the gory details, they are stripped down to essentials.  It’s not important to the story who was Chanokh’s mother or where she came from. The city had a tradition that it had been named after the son of Qain who built it, and that’s what is recorded here.

 

And so va-y’hi “it must have been when” plus the progressive boneh and so on.

 

Boneh ir is a construct phrase, using the progressive in a descriptive sense that edges over into the substantive. But it also takes advantage of progressive in the sense of something just done.

 

Va-yivaled is nifal in the narrative past. It sounds strange to say that it was decreed that Irad was born to Chanokh, but it suggests that there wasn’t necessarily a biological relationship.  Irad inherited from Chanokh due to a legal decree. The biology was irrelevant.

 

Yalad, on the other hand, means “sired” when used with a masculine subject. We’ll see the hifil later, and it’s a beautiful demonstration that BH uses verbs in a causative way even if they aren’t hifil.  That’s on top of using hifil without causative meaning, with a strictly transitive meaning. So just like I told you to kick “intensive” to the curb with reference to piel, you can kick “causative” to the curb with reference to hifil.  They are labels that don’t really help you get at the meaning of the material.

 

What yalad is not, is yoled which we’ll see soon.