Kejadian 11:6

11:6 And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language ¹  they have begun to do this, then ²  nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. ³ 

Kejadian 15:9

15:9 The Lord ⁴  said to him, “Take for me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”

Kejadian 16:2

16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since ⁵  the Lord has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with ⁶  my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.” ⁷  Abram did what ⁸  Sarai told him.

Kejadian 16:5

16:5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You have brought this wrong on me! ⁹  I allowed my servant to have sexual relations with you, ¹⁰  but when she realized ¹¹  that she was pregnant, she despised me. ¹²  May the Lord judge between you and me!” ¹³ 

Kejadian 17:17

17:17 Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed ¹⁴  as he said to himself, ¹⁵  “Can ¹⁶  a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? ¹⁷  Can Sarah ¹⁸  bear a child at the age of ninety?” ¹⁹ 

Kejadian 19:14

19:14 Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. ²⁰  He said, “Quick, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy ²¹  the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them. ²² 

Kejadian 24:40

24:40 He answered, ‘The Lord, before whom I have walked, ²³  will send his angel with you. He will make your journey a success and you will find a wife for my son from among my relatives, from my father’s family.

Kejadian 25:23

25:23 and the Lord said to her,

“Two nations ²⁴  are in your womb,

and two peoples will be separated from within you.

One people will be stronger than the other,

and the older will serve the younger.”

Kejadian 26:22

26:22 Then he moved away from there and dug another well. They did not quarrel over it, so Isaac ²⁵  named it ²⁶  Rehoboth, ²⁷  saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will prosper in the land.”

Kejadian 26:29

26:29 so that ²⁸  you will not do us any harm, just as we have not harmed ²⁹  you, but have always treated you well ³⁰  before sending you away ³¹  in peace. Now you are blessed by the Lord.” ³² 

Kejadian 30:30

30:30 Indeed, ³³  you had little before I arrived, ³⁴  but now your possessions have increased many times over. ³⁵  The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. ³⁶  But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?” ³⁷ 

Kejadian 35:2

35:2 So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you. ³⁸  Purify yourselves and change your clothes. ³⁹ 

Kejadian 38:11

38:11 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up.” For he thought, ⁴⁰  “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.” ⁴¹  So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.

Kejadian 41:45

41:45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. ⁴²  He also gave him Asenath ⁴³  daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, ⁴⁴  to be his wife. So Joseph took charge of ⁴⁵  all the land of Egypt.

Kejadian 48:16

48:16 the Angel ⁴⁶  who has protected me ⁴⁷ 

from all harm –

bless these boys.

May my name be named in them, ⁴⁸ 

and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac.

May they grow into a multitude on the earth.”

Kejadian 49:26

49:26 The blessings of your father are greater

than ⁴⁹  the blessings of the eternal mountains ⁵⁰ 

or the desirable things of the age-old hills.

They will be on the head of Joseph

and on the brow of the prince of his brothers. ⁵¹ 

[11:6]  ¹ tn Heb “and one lip to all of them.”

[11:6]  ² tn Heb “and now.” The foundational clause beginning with הֵן (hen) expresses the condition, and the second clause the result. It could be rendered “If this…then now.”

[11:6]  ³ tn Heb “all that they purpose to do will not be withheld from them.”

[15:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “He”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) introduces the foundational clause for the imperative to follow.

[16:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “enter to.” The expression is a euphemism for sexual relations (also in v. 4).

[16:2]  sn The Hebrew expression translated have sexual relations with does not convey the intimacy of other expressions, such as “so and so knew his wife.” Sarai simply sees this as the social custom of having a child through a surrogate. For further discussion see C. F. Fensham, “The Son of a Handmaid in Northwest Semitic,” VT 19 (1969): 312-21.

[16:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “perhaps I will be built from her.” Sarai hopes to have a family established through this surrogate mother.

[16:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “listened to the voice of,” which is an idiom meaning “obeyed.”

[16:2]  sn Abram did what Sarai told him. This expression was first used in Gen 3:17 of Adam’s obeying his wife. In both cases the text highlights weak faith and how it jeopardized the plan of God.

[16:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “my wrong is because of you.”

[16:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I placed my female servant in your bosom.”

[16:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “saw.”

[16:5]  ¹² tn Heb “I was despised in her eyes.” The passive verb has been translated as active for stylistic reasons. Sarai was made to feel supplanted and worthless by Hagar the servant girl.

[16:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “me and you.”

[16:5]  sn May the Lord judge between you and me. Sarai blamed Abram for Hagar’s attitude, not the pregnancy. Here she expects to be vindicated by the Lord who will prove Abram responsible. A colloquial rendering might be, “God will get you for this.” It may mean that she thought Abram had encouraged the servant girl in her elevated status.

[17:17]  ¹⁴ sn Laughed. The Hebrew verb used here provides the basis for the naming of Isaac: “And he laughed” is וַיִּצְחָק (vayyitskhaq); the name “Isaac” is יִצְחָק (yitskhaq), “he laughs.” Abraham’s (and Sarah’s, see 18:12) laughter signals disbelief, but when the boy is born, the laughter signals surprise and joy.

[17:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “And he fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart.”

[17:17]  ¹⁶ tn The imperfect verbal form here carries a potential nuance, as it expresses the disbelief of Abraham.

[17:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to the son of a hundred years.”

[17:17]  ¹⁸ sn It is important to note that even though Abraham staggers at the announcement of the birth of a son, finding it almost too incredible, he nonetheless calls his wife Sarah, the new name given to remind him of the promise of God (v. 15).

[17:17]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the daughter of ninety years.”

[19:14]  ²⁰ sn The language has to be interpreted in the light of the context and the social customs. The men are called “sons-in-law” (literally “the takers of his daughters”), but the daughters had not yet had sex with a man. It is better to translate the phrase “who were going to marry his daughters.” Since formal marriage contracts were binding, the husbands-to-be could already be called sons-in-law.

[19:14]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew active participle expresses an imminent action.

[19:14]  ²² tn Heb “and he was like one taunting in the eyes of his sons-in-law.” These men mistakenly thought Lot was ridiculing them and their lifestyle. Their response illustrates how morally insensitive they had become.

[24:40]  ²³ tn The verb is the Hitpael of הָלַךְ (halakh), meaning “live one’s life” (see Gen 17:1). The statement may simply refer to serving the Lord or it may have a more positive moral connotation (“serve faithfully”).

[25:23]  ²⁴ sn By metonymy the two children in her womb are described as two nations of which the two children, Jacob and Esau, would become the fathers. The language suggests there would be a struggle between these nations, with one being stronger than the other. The oracle reveals that all of Jacob’s scheming was unnecessary in the final analysis. He would have become the dominant nation without using deception to steal his brother’s blessing.

[26:22]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[26:22]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and he called its name.”

[26:22]  ²⁷ sn The name Rehoboth (רְהֹבוֹת, rehovot) is derived from a verbal root meaning “to make room.” The name was a reminder that God had made room for them. The story shows Isaac’s patience with the opposition; it also shows how God’s blessing outdistanced the men of Gerar. They could not stop it or seize it any longer.

[26:29]  ²⁸ tn The oath formula is used: “if you do us harm” means “so that you will not do.”

[26:29]  ²⁹ tn Heb “touched.”

[26:29]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and just as we have done only good with you.”

[26:29]  ³¹ tn Heb “and we sent you away.”

[26:29]  ³² tn The Philistine leaders are making an observation, not pronouncing a blessing, so the translation reads “you are blessed” rather than “may you be blessed” (cf. NAB).

[30:30]  ³³ tn Or “for.”

[30:30]  ³⁴ tn Heb “before me.”

[30:30]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and it has broken out with respect to abundance.”

[30:30]  ³⁶ tn Heb “at my foot.”

[30:30]  ³⁷ tn Heb “How long [until] I do, also I, for my house?”

[35:2]  ³⁸ tn Heb “which are in your midst.”

[35:2]  ³⁹ sn The actions of removing false gods, becoming ritually clean, and changing garments would become necessary steps in Israel when approaching the Lord in worship.

[38:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “said.”

[38:11]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Otherwise he will die, also he, like his brothers.”

[38:11]  sn I don’t want him to die like his brothers. This clause explains that Judah had no intention of giving Shelah to Tamar for the purpose of the levirate marriage. Judah apparently knew the nature of his sons, and feared that God would be angry with the third son and kill him as well.

[41:45]  ⁴² sn The meaning of Joseph’s Egyptian name, Zaphenath-Paneah, is uncertain. Many recent commentators have followed the proposal of G. Steindorff that it means “the god has said, ‘he will live’” (“Der Name Josephs Saphenat-Pa‘neach,” ZÄS 31 [1889]: 41-42); others have suggested “the god speaks and lives” (see BDB 861 s.v. צָפְנָת פַּעְנֵחַ); “the man he knows” (J. Vergote, Joseph en Égypte, 145); or “Joseph [who is called] áIp-àankh” (K. A. Kitchen, NBD³ 1262).

[41:45]  ⁴³ sn The name Asenath may mean “she belongs to the goddess Neit” (see HALOT 74 s.v. אָֽסְנַת). A novel was written at the beginning of the first century entitled Joseph and Asenath, which included a legendary account of the conversion of Asenath to Joseph’s faith in Yahweh. However, all that can be determined from this chapter is that their children received Hebrew names. See also V. Aptowitzer, “Asenath, the Wife of Joseph – a Haggadic Literary-Historical Study,” HUCA 1 (1924): 239-306.

[41:45]  ⁴⁴ sn On (also in v. 50) is another name for the city of Heliopolis.

[41:45]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “and he passed through.”

[48:16]  ⁴⁶ sn The Samaritan Pentateuch reads “king” here, but the traditional reading (“angel”) may be maintained. Jacob closely associates God with an angelic protective presence. This does not mean that Jacob viewed his God as a mere angel, but it does suggest that he was aware of an angelic presence sent by God to protect him. Here he so closely associates the two that they become virtually indistinguishable. In this culture messengers typically carried the authority of the one who sent them and could even be addressed as such. Perhaps Jacob thought that the divine blessing would be mediated through this angelic messenger.

[48:16]  ⁴⁷ tn The verb גָּאַל (ga’al) has the basic idea of “protect” as a near relative might do. It is used for buying someone out of bondage, marrying a deceased brother’s widow, paying off debts, avenging the family, and the like. The meanings of “deliver, protect, avenge” are most fitting when God is the subject (see A. R. Johnson, “The Primary Meaning of √גאל,” Congress Volume: Copenhagen, 1953 [VTSup], 67-77).

[48:16]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “be recalled through them.”

[49:26]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “have prevailed over.”

[49:26]  ⁵⁰ tn One could interpret the phrase הוֹרַי (horay) to mean “my progenitors” (literally, “the ones who conceived me”), but the masculine form argues against this. It is better to emend the text to הַרֲרֵי (harare, “mountains of”) because it forms a better parallel with the next clause. In this case the final yod (י) on the form is a construct plural marker, not a pronominal suffix.

[49:26]  ⁵¹ tn For further discussion of this passage, see I. Sonne, “Genesis 49:24-26,” JBL 65 (1946): 303-6.