Kejadian 1:28

1:28 God blessed ¹  them and said ²  to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! ³  Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.” ⁴ 

Kejadian 3:14

3:14 The Lord God said to the serpent, ⁵ 

“Because you have done this,

cursed ⁶  are you above all the wild beasts

and all the living creatures of the field!

On your belly you will crawl ⁷ 

and dust you will eat ⁸  all the days of your life.

Kejadian 11:3

11:3 Then they said to one another, ⁹  “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” ¹⁰  (They had brick instead of stone and tar ¹¹  instead of mortar.) ¹² 

Kejadian 23:13

23:13 and said to Ephron in their hearing, “Hear me, if you will. I pay ¹³  to you the price ¹⁴  of the field. Take it from me so that I may ¹⁵  bury my dead there.”

Kejadian 41:8

41:8 In the morning he ¹⁶  was troubled, so he called for ¹⁷  all the diviner-priests ¹⁸  of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, ¹⁹  but no one could interpret ²⁰  them for him. ²¹ 

Kejadian 43:21

43:21 But when we came to the place where we spent the night, we opened our sacks and each of us found his money – the full amount ²²  – in the mouth of his sack. So we have returned it. ²³ 

Kejadian 46:31

46:31 Then Joseph said to his brothers and his father’s household, “I will go up and tell Pharaoh, ²⁴  ‘My brothers and my father’s household who were in the land of Canaan have come to me.

[1:28]  ¹ tn As in v. 22 the verb “bless” here means “to endow with the capacity to reproduce and be fruitful,” as the following context indicates. As in v. 22, the statement directly precedes the command “be fruitful and multiply.” The verb carries this same nuance in Gen 17:16 (where God’s blessing of Sarai imparts to her the capacity to bear a child); Gen 48:16 (where God’s blessing of Joseph’s sons is closely associated with their having numerous descendants); and Deut 7:13 (where God’s blessing is associated with fertility in general, including numerous descendants). See also Gen 49:25 (where Jacob uses the noun derivative in referring to “blessings of the breast and womb,” an obvious reference to fertility) and Gen 27:27 (where the verb is used of a field to which God has given the capacity to produce vegetation).

[1:28]  ² tn Heb “and God said.” For stylistic reasons “God” has not been repeated here in the translation.

[1:28]  ³ tn Elsewhere the Hebrew verb translated “subdue” means “to enslave” (2 Chr 28:10; Neh 5:5; Jer 34:11, 16), “to conquer,” (Num 32:22, 29; Josh 18:1; 2 Sam 8:11; 1 Chr 22:18; Zech 9:13; and probably Mic 7:19), and “to assault sexually” (Esth 7:8). None of these nuances adequately meets the demands of this context, for humankind is not viewed as having an adversarial relationship with the world. The general meaning of the verb appears to be “to bring under one’s control for one’s advantage.” In Gen 1:28 one might paraphrase it as follows: “harness its potential and use its resources for your benefit.” In an ancient Israelite context this would suggest cultivating its fields, mining its mineral riches, using its trees for construction, and domesticating its animals.

[1:28]  ⁴ sn The several imperatives addressed to both males and females together (plural imperative forms) actually form two commands: reproduce and rule. God’s word is not merely a form of blessing, but is now addressed to them personally; this is a distinct emphasis with the creation of human beings. But with the blessing comes the ability to be fruitful and to rule. In procreation they will share in the divine work of creating human life and passing on the divine image (see 5:1-3); in ruling they will serve as God’s vice-regents on earth. They together, the human race collectively, have the responsibility of seeing to the welfare of that which is put under them and the privilege of using it for their benefit.

[3:14]  ⁵ sn Note that God asks no question of the serpent, does not call for confession, as he did to the man and the woman; there is only the announcement of the curse. The order in this section is chiastic: The man is questioned, the woman is questioned, the serpent is cursed, sentence is passed on the woman, sentence is passed on the man.

[3:14]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew word translated “cursed,” a passive participle from אָרָר (’arar), either means “punished” or “banished,” depending on how one interprets the following preposition. If the preposition is taken as comparative, then the idea is “cursed [i.e., punished] are you above [i.e., more than] all the wild beasts.” In this case the comparative preposition reflects the earlier comparison: The serpent was more shrewd than all others, and so more cursed than all others. If the preposition is taken as separative (see the note on the word “ground” in 4:11), then the idea is “cursed and banished from all the wild beasts.” In this case the serpent is condemned to isolation from all the other animals.

[3:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “go”; “walk,” but in English “crawl” or “slither” better describes a serpent’s movement.

[3:14]  ⁸ sn Dust you will eat. Being restricted to crawling on the ground would necessarily involve “eating dust,” although that is not the diet of the serpent. The idea of being brought low, of “eating dust” as it were, is a symbol of humiliation.

[11:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.” The Hebrew idiom may be translated “to each other” or “one to another.”

[11:3]  ¹⁰ tn The speech contains two cohortatives of exhortation followed by their respective cognate accusatives: “let us brick bricks” (נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים, nilbbÿnah lÿvenim) and “burn for burning” (נִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה, nisrÿfah lisrefah). This stresses the intensity of the undertaking; it also reflects the Akkadian text which uses similar constructions (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 75-76).

[11:3]  ¹¹ tn Or “bitumen” (cf. NEB, NRSV).

[11:3]  ¹² tn The disjunctive clause gives information parenthetical to the narrative.

[23:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “give.”

[23:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “silver.”

[23:13]  ¹⁵ tn After the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction expresses purpose or result.

[41:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “his spirit.”

[41:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he sent and called,” which indicates an official summons.

[41:8]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew term חַרְטֹם (khartom) is an Egyptian loanword (hyr-tp) that describes a class of priests who were skilled in such interpretations.

[41:8]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text has the singular (though the Samaritan Pentateuch reads the plural). If retained, the singular must be collective for the set of dreams. Note the plural pronoun “them,” referring to the dreams, in the next clause. However, note that in v. 15 Pharaoh uses the singular to refer to the two dreams. In vv. 17-24 Pharaoh seems to treat the dreams as two parts of one dream (see especially v. 22).

[41:8]  ²⁰ tn “there was no interpreter.”

[41:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “for Pharaoh.” The pronoun “him” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[43:21]  ²² tn Heb “in its weight.”

[43:21]  ²³ tn Heb “brought it back in our hand.”

[46:31]  ²⁴ tn Heb “tell Pharaoh and say to him.”