Genesis 35:17-19

35:17 When her labor was at its hardest, ¹  the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you are having another son.” ²  35:18 With her dying breath, ³  she named him Ben-Oni. ⁴  But his father called him Benjamin instead. ⁵  35:19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). ⁶ 

¹ tn The construction uses a Hiphil infinitive, which E. A. Speiser classifies as an elative Hiphil. The contrast is with the previous Piel: there “she had hard labor,” and here, “her labor was at its hardest.” Failure to see this, Speiser notes, has led to redundant translations and misunderstandings (Genesis [AB], 273).

² sn Another son. The episode recalls and fulfills the prayer of Rachel at the birth of Joseph (Gen 30:24): “may he add” another son.

³ tn Heb “in the going out of her life, for she was dying.” Rachel named the child with her dying breath.

⁴ sn The name Ben-Oni means “son of my suffering.” It is ironic that Rachel’s words to Jacob in Gen 30:1, “Give me children or I’ll die,” take a different turn here, for it was having the child that brought about her death.

⁵ tn The disjunctive clause is contrastive.

⁵ sn This explanatory note links the earlier name Ephrath with the later name Bethlehem.