Genesis 4:17

American Standard Version with Strong's Numbers

And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וַיֵּ֤דַע קַ֙יִן֙ אֶת־אִשְׁתּ֔וֹ וַתַּ֖הַר וַתֵּ֣לֶד אֶת־חֲנ֑וֹךְ וַֽיְהִי֙ בֹּ֣נֶה עִ֔יר וַיִּקְרָא֙ שֵׁ֣ם הָעִ֔יר כְּשֵׁ֖ם בְּנ֥וֹ חֲנֽוֹךְ׃

Transliteration

And-yedaʿ Qayin ʾet-his-wife and-she-tahar and-she-teled ʾet-Ḥanok and-yehi boneh ʿir and-yiqraʾ name-of the-ʿir like-name-of his-son Ḥanok

Grammar Details

• *yedaʿ*: qal imperfect with waw-consecutive, 3rd masculine singular - knew
• *Qayin*: proper noun, masculine singular - Cain
• *ʾet*: direct object marker
• *ʾishto*: noun, feminine singular + 3rd masculine singular suffix - his wife
• *tahar*: qal imperfect with waw-consecutive, 3rd feminine singular - conceived
• *teled*: qal imperfect with waw-consecutive, 3rd feminine singular - gave birth to
• *Ḥanok*: proper noun, masculine singular - Enoch
• *yehi*: qal imperfect with waw-consecutive, 3rd masculine singular - he was
• *boneh*: qal participle, masculine singular construct - building
• *ʿir*: noun, feminine singular - city
• *yiqraʾ*: qal imperfect with waw-consecutive, 3rd masculine singular - called
• *shem*: noun, masculine singular construct - name of
• *ha-ʿir*: definite noun, feminine singular - the city
• *ke-shem*: preposition + noun, masculine singular construct - like name of
• *beno*: noun, masculine singular + 3rd masculine singular suffix - his son

Word Meanings

• *yedaʿ*: knew/had sexual relations with
• *boneh ʿir*: building a city/was a city-builder

Referenced Verses

• Gen 5:18 : 18 And Jared lived a hundred sixty and two years, and begat Enoch:
• Gen 5:22 : 22 and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
• Gen 11:4 : 4 And they said, Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top [may reach] unto heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
• 2 Sam 18:18 : 18 Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself the pillar, which is in the king's dale; for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name; and it is called Absalom's monument, unto this day.
• Ps 49:11 : 11 Their inward thought is, [that] their houses [shall continue] for ever, [And] their dwelling-places to all generations; They call their lands after their own names.
• Eccl 2:4-9 : 4 I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards; 5 I made me gardens and parks, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit; 6 I made me pools of water, to water therefrom the forest where trees were reared; 7 I bought men-servants and maid-servants, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of herds and flocks, above all that were before me in Jerusalem; 8 I gathered me also silver and gold, and the treasure of kings and of the provinces; I gat me men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men, musical instruments, and that of all sorts. 9 So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor; and this was my portion from all my labor. 11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do; and, behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
• Dan 4:30 : 30 The king spake and said, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling-place, by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?
• Luke 17:28-29 : 28 Likewise even as it came to pass in the days of Lot; they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29 but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all: