Kejadian 2:5

2:5 Now ¹  no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field ²  had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. ³ 

Kejadian 14:10

14:10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. ⁴  When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into them, ⁵  but some survivors ⁶  fled to the hills. ⁷ 

Kejadian 37:21

37:21 When Reuben heard this, he rescued Joseph ⁸  from their hands, ⁹  saying, ¹⁰  “Let’s not take his life!” ¹¹ 

Kejadian 45:11

45:11 I will provide you with food ¹²  there because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise you would become poor – you, your household, and everyone who belongs to you.”’

[2:5]  ¹ tn Heb “Now every sprig of the field before it was.” The verb forms, although appearing to be imperfects, are technically preterites coming after the adverb טֶּרֶם (terem). The word order (conjunction + subject + predicate) indicates a disjunctive clause, which provides background information for the following narrative (as in 1:2). Two negative clauses are given (“before any sprig…”, and “before any cultivated grain” existed), followed by two causal clauses explaining them, and then a positive circumstantial clause is given – again dealing with water as in 1:2 (water would well up).

[2:5]  ² tn The first term, שִׂיחַ (siakh), probably refers to the wild, uncultivated plants (see Gen 21:15; Job 30:4,7); whereas the second, עֵשֶׂב (’esev), refers to cultivated grains. It is a way of saying: “back before anything was growing.”

[2:5]  ³ tn The two causal clauses explain the first two disjunctive clauses: There was no uncultivated, general growth because there was no rain, and there were no grains because there was no man to cultivate the soil.

[2:5]  sn The last clause in v. 5, “and there was no man to cultivate the ground,” anticipates the curse and the expulsion from the garden (Gen 3:23).

[14:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “Now the Valley of Siddim [was] pits, pits of tar.” This parenthetical disjunctive clause emphasizes the abundance of tar pits in the area through repetition of the noun “pits.”

[14:10]  sn The word for “tar” (or “bitumen”) occurs earlier in the story of the building of the tower in Babylon (see Gen 11:3).

[14:10]  ⁵ tn Or “they were defeated there.” After a verb of motion the Hebrew particle שָׁם (sham) with the directional heh (שָׁמָּה, shammah) can mean “into it, therein” (BDB 1027 s.v. שָׁם).

[14:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “the rest.”

[14:10]  ⁷ sn The reference to the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah must mean the kings along with their armies. Most of them were defeated in the valley, but some of them escaped to the hills.

[37:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[37:21]  ⁹ sn From their hands. The instigators of this plot may have been the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah (see v. 2).

[37:21]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he said.”

[37:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “we must not strike him down [with respect to] life.”

[45:11]  ¹² tn The verb כּוּל (kul) in the Pilpel stem means “to nourish, to support, to sustain.” As in 1 Kgs 20:27, it here means “to supply with food.”