Kejadian 16:2

16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since ¹  the Lord has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with ²  my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.” ³  Abram did what ⁴  Sarai told him.

Kejadian 21:23

21:23 Now swear to me right here in God’s name ⁵  that you will not deceive me, my children, or my descendants. ⁶  Show me, and the land ⁷  where you are staying, ⁸  the same loyalty ⁹  that I have shown you.” ¹⁰ 

Kejadian 27:33

27:33 Isaac began to shake violently ¹¹  and asked, “Then who else hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it just before you arrived, and I blessed him. ¹²  He will indeed be blessed!”

Kejadian 38:14

38:14 So she removed her widow’s clothes and covered herself with a veil. She wrapped herself and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the way to Timnah. (She did this because ¹³  she saw that she had not been given to Shelah as a wife, even though he had now grown up.) ¹⁴ 

[16:2]  ¹ tn Heb “look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) introduces the foundational clause for the imperative to follow.

[16:2]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “perhaps I will be built from her.” Sarai hopes to have a family established through this surrogate mother.

[16:2]  ⁴ 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.

[21:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “And now swear to me by God here.”

[21:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “my offspring and my descendants.”

[21:23]  ⁷ tn The word “land” refers by metonymy to the people in the land.

[21:23]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew verb means “to stay, to live, to sojourn” as a temporary resident without ownership rights.

[21:23]  ⁹ tn Or “kindness.”

[21:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “According to the loyalty which I have done with you, do with me and with the land in which you are staying.”

[27:33]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and Isaac trembled with a great trembling to excess.” The verb “trembled” is joined with a cognate accusative, which is modified by an adjective “great,” and a prepositional phrase “to excess.” All of this is emphatic, showing the violence of Isaac’s reaction to the news.

[27:33]  ¹² tn Heb “Who then is he who hunted game and brought [it] to me so that I ate from all before you arrived and blessed him?”

[38:14]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text simply has “because,” connecting this sentence to what precedes. For stylistic reasons the words “she did this” are supplied in the translation and a new sentence begun.

[38:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “she saw that Shelah had grown up, but she was not given to him as a wife.”