Genesis 4:1

And the man knew Eve his woman, and she conceived and bore Cain, and she said... (Genesis 4:1)

The first portion of Genesis 4:1 is relatively straightforward and can be translated literally as, “and the man knew Eve his woman and she conceived and bore Cain, and she said…”

It is the final portion of this verse where the translation becomes more complex. Consider the following translations:

I have gotten a man from the LORD. (KJV)

I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD. (RSV)

Now let us examine the Hebrew text:

qaniytiy iysh et Yahweh

קניתי איש את יהוה

Let us look at each of these words individually:

• qaniytiy (קניתי): From the root qanah (קנה), meaning “to purchase” or “to acquire.” The form qaniytiy means “I acquired.”
• iysh (איש): This word means “man.” (Both iysh and adam can mean “man.”)
• et (את): This may function as a marker of the definite direct object, or it may be understood as “with.”
• Yahweh (יהוה): The tetragrammaton, the name of God, sometimes rendered as Jehovah, Yahweh, Yehovah, Yahu’ah, etc.

From this Hebrew phrase, we arrive at two possible translations:

I have acquired a man with Yahweh.

I have acquired Yahweh, a man.

Both of these renderings present interpretive difficulties. Many translators resolve this by modifying the text—adding clarifying words or smoothing the grammar—to avoid the ambiguity. However, this approach removes the problem from the reader rather than exposing it.

There is another possibility: the Hebrew text itself may preserve a textual issue. Such issues are not uncommon, as the Hebrew manuscripts contain occasional grammatical, spelling, and contextual irregularities.

Approximately two thousand years ago, the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek in what is known as the Septuagint. While we do not know the exact Hebrew Vorlage used by the translators, we do know it differed in places from the Masoretic Text.

The Septuagint renders this phrase as:

ektēsámēn anthrōpon dia tou theou

ἐκτησάμην ἄνθρωπον διὰ τοῦ θεοῦ

This can be translated as:

I acquired a man for God.

So which rendering is correct? The Masoretic possibilities or the Septuagint reading? The evidence does not allow for a definitive conclusion. However, by examining the Hebrew grammar and the textual tradition, the reader is equipped with the necessary information to evaluate the possibilities.