35:16 They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, 1 Rachel went into labor 2 – and her labor was hard.
1 tn Heb “and there was still a stretch of the land to go to Ephrath.”
2 tn Normally the verb would be translated “she gave birth,” but because that obviously had not happened yet, it is better to translate the verb as ingressive, “began to give birth” (cf. NIV) or “went into labor.”
3 sn This explanatory note links the earlier name Ephrath with the later name Bethlehem.