What Does Genesis 36:12 Mean in the King James?
And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz Esau’s son; and she bare to Eliphaz Amalek: these were the sons of Adah Esau’s wife.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verb translated “bare” shares its root with “child” and “generations,” so this birth already carries the seed of a continuing line.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two facts together: Timna is identified by a secondary marital status, and the son she bears is named within Esau’s family line. A birth carries a life into the family record even when the relationship that produced it is given a lesser place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a child born through a relationship marked as secondary disappears from the family record: Amalek is named.
THE ROOT
וַתֵּלֶד
vattēled
GROWS FROM
ילד
To bear, beget, or bring forth.
“bare” in this verse is vattēled. The verse’s word is וַתֵּלֶד (vattēled, “and she bore”), from ילד (yalad, “to bear or beget”). The same root names the child and the generations that follow, binding birth to the continuation of a line.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: Child or offspring.
יֶלֶד
The child-word is the person held inside the verb “bear”; here, the verse names Amalek as the child born.
toledot: Generations, descendants, or an account of lineage.
תּוֹלְדוֹת
This branch shows how bearing opens into descent; the birth becomes part of a continuing family record.
THE PATTERN
Birth becomes a named link through which a family line continues.
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;THE THREAD
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.Genesis 4:1 uses the same Hebrew root ילד (yalad, “bear or beget”) for Eve’s act of bearing Cain. In both verses, that birth verb gives way to a named child within a family line.
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