Kejadian 31:27

31:27 Why did you run away secretly ¹  and deceive me? ²  Why didn’t you tell me so I could send you off with a celebration complete with singing, tambourines, and harps? ³ 

Kejadian 31:39

31:39 Animals torn by wild beasts I never brought to you; I always absorbed the loss myself. ⁴  You always made me pay for every missing animal, ⁵  whether it was taken by day or at night.

Kejadian 37:8

37:8 Then his brothers asked him, “Do you really think you will rule over us or have dominion over us?” ⁶  They hated him even more ⁷  because of his dream and because of what he said. ⁸ 

Kejadian 37:20

37:20 Come now, let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and then say that a wild ⁹  animal ate him. Then we’ll see how his dreams turn out!” ¹⁰ 

[31:27]  ¹ tn Heb “Why did you hide in order to flee?” The verb “hide” and the infinitive “to flee” form a hendiadys, the infinitive becoming the main verb and the other the adverb: “flee secretly.”

[31:27]  ² tn Heb “and steal me.”

[31:27]  ³ tn Heb “And [why did] you not tell me so I could send you off with joy and with songs, with a tambourine and with a harp?”

[31:39]  ⁴ tn The imperfect verbal form indicates that this was a customary or typical action.

[31:39]  ⁵ tn Heb “from my hand you exacted it.” The imperfect verbal form again indicates that this was a customary or typical action. The words “for every missing animal” are supplied in the translation for clarity; the following clause in Hebrew, “stolen by day or stolen by night,” probably means “stolen by wild beasts” and refers to the same animals “torn by wild beasts” in the previous clause, although it may refer to animals stolen by people. The translation used here, “missing,” is ambiguous enough to cover either eventuality.

[37:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “Ruling, will you rule over us, or reigning, will you reign over us?” The statement has a poetic style, with the two questions being in synonymous parallelism. Both verbs in this statement are preceded by the infinitive absolute, which lends emphasis. It is as if Joseph’s brothers said, “You don’t really think you will rule over us, do you? You don’t really think you will have dominion over us, do you?”

[37:8]  ⁷ tn This construction is identical to the one in Gen 37:5.

[37:8]  ⁸ sn The response of Joseph’s brothers is understandable, given what has already been going on in the family. But here there is a hint of uneasiness – they hated him because of his dream and because of his words. The dream bothered them, as well as his telling them. And their words in the rhetorical question are ironic, for this is exactly what would happen. The dream was God’s way of revealing it.

[37:20]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew word can sometimes carry the nuance “evil,” but when used of an animal it refers to a dangerous wild animal.

[37:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “what his dreams will be.”