Genesis 27:46

Posted on January 27, 2006 by Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus

Gn 27:46 Dixitque Rebecca ad Isaac: Tædet me vitæ meæ propter filias Heth: si acceperit Iacob uxorem de stirpe huius terræ, nolo vivere.

And Rebekah said to Isaac: “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife from the lineage of this land, I do not wish to live.”

# Latin Gloss GRAMMAR TAG
1 Dixitque and she said 3SG.PERF.ACT.IND + ENCLITIC
2 Rebecca Rebekah NOM.SG.F
3 ad to PREP+ACC
4 Isaac Isaac ACC.SG.M
5 Tædet it wearies / I am weary 3SG.PRES.ACT.IND (IMPERS.)
6 me me ACC.SG.1P.PRON
7 vitæ of life GEN.SG.F
8 meæ my GEN.SG.F.POSS.ADJ
9 propter because of PREP+ACC
10 filias daughters ACC.PL.F
11 Heth Heth GEN.SG.PROPER.NAME
12 si if SUB.CONJ
13 acceperit should take / will have taken 3SG.FUT.PERF.ACT.IND (OR SUBJ.)
14 Iacob Jacob NOM.SG.M
15 uxorem wife ACC.SG.F
16 de from PREP+ABL
17 stirpe lineage / race ABL.SG.F
18 huius of this GEN.SG.F.DEMONSTR.ADJ
19 terræ land GEN.SG.F
20 nolo I do not wish 1SG.PRES.ACT.IND
21 vivere to live PRES.ACT.INF

Syntax

Introductory Clause: Dixitque Rebecca ad Isaac — “And Rebekah said to Isaac.” The perfect tense continues the narrative chain with “-que” linking to the previous context.
Main Clause: Tædet me vitæ meæ propter filias Heth — An impersonal verb construction where “Tædet” takes an accusative of the person affected (“me”) and a genitive of the cause (“vitæ meæ”). Literal: “It wearies me of my life.”
Conditional Clause: si acceperit Iacob uxorem de stirpe huius terræ — Future or potential condition, “if Jacob should take a wife from the lineage of this land.”
Apodosis: nolo vivere — “I do not wish to live.” The infinitive expresses general desire or volition; paired with “nolo” for emphatic refusal.
The sentence expresses Rebekah’s deep despair at the prospect of intermarriage with the Hittite women, reflecting cultural and covenantal concerns.

Morphology

  1. Dixitque — Lemma: dico; Part of Speech: verb; Form: perfect indicative active 3rd person singular + enclitic “-que”; Function: narrative verb introducing speech; Translation: “and she said”; Notes: The enclitic joins the statement with the preceding context, maintaining narrative flow.
  2. Rebecca — Lemma: Rebecca; Part of Speech: proper noun; Form: nominative singular feminine; Function: subject of “Dixitque”; Translation: “Rebekah”; Notes: Subject and speaker; feminine nominative proper name in Latin form of Hebrew “Rivqah.”
  3. ad — Lemma: ad; Part of Speech: preposition; Form: governs accusative; Function: indicates direction of speech; Translation: “to”; Notes: Introduces the addressee of Rebekah’s statement — “to Isaac.”
  4. Isaac — Lemma: Isaac; Part of Speech: proper noun; Form: accusative singular masculine; Function: object of “ad”; Translation: “Isaac”; Notes: Retains Hebrew form; direct recipient of Rebekah’s words.
  5. Tædet — Lemma: taedet; Part of Speech: impersonal verb; Form: present indicative active 3rd person singular; Function: expresses disgust or weariness; Translation: “I am weary / it wearies me”; Notes: Takes accusative of the person (me) and genitive of the thing causing displeasure (vitæ meæ).
  6. me — Lemma: ego; Part of Speech: pronoun; Form: accusative singular; Function: accusative of the affected person with impersonal verb; Translation: “me”; Notes: Directly affected by the feeling of weariness; syntactically linked to “Tædet.”
  7. vitæ — Lemma: vita; Part of Speech: noun; Form: genitive singular feminine; Function: genitive of cause; Translation: “of life”; Notes: Common idiom “taedet me vitæ” means “I am weary of life.”
  8. meæ — Lemma: meus; Part of Speech: possessive adjective; Form: genitive singular feminine; Function: modifies “vitæ”; Translation: “my”; Notes: Personalizes the expression, indicating her own life experience as the cause of weariness.
  9. propter — Lemma: propter; Part of Speech: preposition; Form: governs accusative; Function: expresses cause or reason; Translation: “because of”; Notes: Introduces causal explanation for Rebekah’s despair.
  10. filias — Lemma: filia; Part of Speech: noun; Form: accusative plural feminine; Function: object of “propter”; Translation: “daughters”; Notes: Refers to Hittite women, wives of Esau, whose behavior grieves Rebekah.
  11. Heth — Lemma: Heth; Part of Speech: proper noun; Form: genitive singular; Function: possessive genitive modifying “filias”; Translation: “of Heth”; Notes: Denotes the Hittite nation, from whom Esau’s wives came; source of cultural conflict.
  12. si — Lemma: si; Part of Speech: conjunction; Form: invariant; Function: introduces conditional clause; Translation: “if”; Notes: Begins a conditional sentence expressing her fear of repetition through Jacob.
  13. acceperit — Lemma: accipio; Part of Speech: verb; Form: future perfect or perfect subjunctive active 3rd person singular; Function: verb of conditional protasis; Translation: “should take / will have taken”; Notes: The tense expresses potential future action with strong emotional implication.
  14. Iacob — Lemma: Iacob; Part of Speech: proper noun; Form: nominative singular masculine; Function: subject of “acceperit”; Translation: “Jacob”; Notes: Central figure in the condition — subject of the feared act of intermarriage.
  15. uxorem — Lemma: uxor; Part of Speech: noun; Form: accusative singular feminine; Function: direct object of “acceperit”; Translation: “wife”; Notes: Common Latin expression “uxorem accipere” meaning “to take a wife / to marry.”
  16. de — Lemma: de; Part of Speech: preposition; Form: governs ablative; Function: expresses source or origin; Translation: “from”; Notes: Indicates ethnic or familial lineage — “from the stock of this land.”
  17. stirpe — Lemma: stirps; Part of Speech: noun; Form: ablative singular feminine; Function: object of “de”; Translation: “lineage / stock / race”; Notes: Term for genetic or family origin; here used pejoratively to indicate the local pagan population.
  18. huius — Lemma: hic; Part of Speech: demonstrative adjective; Form: genitive singular feminine; Function: modifies “terræ”; Translation: “of this”; Notes: Deictic reference to the Canaanite territory where they reside.
  19. terræ — Lemma: terra; Part of Speech: noun; Form: genitive singular feminine; Function: complement of “huius”; Translation: “land”; Notes: Refers to the land of Canaan — the local people viewed as unsuitable for the covenant line.
  20. nolo — Lemma: nolo; Part of Speech: verb (compound of “non + volo”); Form: present indicative active 1st person singular; Function: main verb of apodosis; Translation: “I do not wish”; Notes: Expresses emphatic negation of will — stronger than “non volo.”
  21. vivere — Lemma: vivo; Part of Speech: verb; Form: present infinitive active; Function: complementary infinitive with “nolo”; Translation: “to live”; Notes: Completes Rebekah’s lament — dramatic hyperbole emphasizing moral and spiritual distress.

 

About Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus

Born around 346 A.D. in Stridon, St. Jerome was a scholar fluent in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew whose ascetic discipline and deep engagement with Scripture prepared him for a monumental task: translating the Bible into Latin. Commissioned by Pope Damasus I around 382 A.D., Jerome began by revising the flawed Old Latin Gospels, then expanded his work to the entire Bible. For the New Testament, he corrected Latin texts using Greek manuscripts; for the Old Testament, he translated most books directly from Hebrew—a controversial but principled choice. His final Psalter, however, followed the Greek Septuagint tradition for liturgical use. This composite translation, later known as the Vulgate (editio vulgata), became the authoritative biblical text of the Western Church, formally endorsed at the Council of Trent in 1546. The Vulgate’s influence extends beyond theology into textual criticism and Latin education. As one of the earliest translations grounded in original-language scholarship, it offers a vital witness to the state of biblical texts in late antiquity. Jerome’s lexical and syntactic decisions are studied to trace manuscript history and assess variant readings. Its elegant Latin, consistent in grammar and rich in vocabulary, became a model for medieval and Renaissance learning, bridging classical and ecclesiastical Latin. More than a translation, the Vulgate helped define Christian doctrine, preserved the Latin language, and laid essential groundwork for the critical study of Scripture—remaining indispensable to students of Latin, theology, and textual history.
This entry was posted in Genesis. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.