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Genesis 35:17

in Genesis 35

During her severe labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you are having another son.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; for now thou shalt have another son.

KJV

And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.

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This verse in Genesis 35

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

We are apt in extreme perils to comfort ourselves and our friends with the hopes of a temporal deliverance, in which we may be disappointed; we had better ground our comforts on that which cannot fail us, the hope of eternal life. Rachel had passionately said, Give me children, or else I die; and now she had children (for this was her second) she died.

This site's exposition

some distance from Ephrath

on Genesis 35:16-18

Rachel had asked God for another son at Genesis 30:24, and Benjamin is that son. Bearing him kills her, and with her last breath she names him Ben-oni, son of sorrow. His father calls him Benjamin, son of the right hand. He is the one child in Genesis whose mother's name for him is overruled by his father.

This site's exposition

the midwife said to her

This is the first midwife in Scripture, and midwives return at Genesis 38:28 and Exodus 1:15. Women say nearly the same words to the dying wife of Phinehas at 1 Samuel 4:20. Both mothers die in labor and name the son.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Her travail was to the life of the child, but to her own death. Note, Though the pains and perils of childbearing were introduced by sin, yet they have sometimes been fatal to very holy women, who, though not saved in childbearing, are saved through it with an everlasting salvation.

The words behind it

13 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיְהִ֥יand it was

    vayhiH1961 →3559 times

  • בְהַקְשֹׁתָ֖הּwhen had difficulties she

    vehakshotahH7185 →28 times

  • בְּלִדְתָּ֑הּwhen gave birth she

    belidtahH3205 →496 times

  • וַתֹּ֨אמֶרand she said

    vatomerH559 →5305 times

  • לָ֤הּto <the> her

    lah

  • הַמְיַלֶּ֙דֶת֙the midwife

    hamyaledetH3205 →496 times

  • אַל־may not

    ʾal-H408 →724 times

  • תִּ֣ירְאִ֔יyou be afraid

    tiriH3372 →315 times

  • כִּֽי־for

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • גַם־also

    gam-H1571 →769 times

  • זֶ֥הthis [one]

    zehH2088 →1180 times

  • לָ֖ךְfor <the> you

    lakh

  • בֵּֽן׃[is] a son

    benH1121 →4930 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Genesis 30:24

    She named him Joseph, and said, “May the LORD add to me another son.”

    it leads to

    • Genesis 35:24

      The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.

    • Genesis 49:22–26

      Joseph is a fruitful vine—a fruitful vine by a spring, whose branches scale the wall.

    • Genesis 37:2

      This is the account of Jacob. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flock with his brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah, and he brought their father…

    • Revelation 7:8

      from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, and from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.

    • Genesis 42:6

      Now Joseph was the ruler of the land; he was the one who sold grain to all its people. So when his brothers arrived, they bowed down before him with their faces to the…

Where this verse is studied

About Genesis

The Tower of Babel, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563. Public domain.
The Tower of Babel, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563. Public domain.
Genesis: the study guide →Read Genesis 35 →

This page draws on Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Genesis 35 →