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The interpretation timeline

Gen 34:29

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

Gen 34:29 · Douay-Rheims
“And their children and wives they took captive,”
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
Rashi Jewish
1040–1105
“חילם means THEIR WEALTH. Examples are: (Deuteronomy 8:17) “hath gotten me this (חיל) wealth”; (Numbers 19:18) “and Israel acquireth (חיל) wealth”; (Psalms 49:11) “and they leave (חילם) their wealth to others”. שבו has the meaning of taking captive (i.e. it is the Kal. perfect, 3rd pl. of the root שבה and means “they took captive”), and therefore it is accented on the last syllable (whereas שָׁבוּ, accented on the first syllable, is the same form of the verb שוב and means “they returned”).”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.