Genesis 35:16

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.

Genesis 35:18

35:18 With her dying breath, ³  she named him Ben-Oni. ⁴  But his father called him Benjamin instead. ⁵ 

[35:16]  ¹ tn Heb “and there was still a stretch of the land to go to Ephrath.”

[35:16]  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.”

[35:18]  ³ tn Heb “in the going out of her life, for she was dying.” Rachel named the child with her dying breath.

[35:18]  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.

[35:18]  ⁵ tn The disjunctive clause is contrastive.