Kejadian 35:7

35:7 He built an altar there and named the place El Bethel ¹  because there God had revealed himself ²  to him when he was fleeing from his brother.

Kejadian 35:18

35:18 With her dying breath, ³  she named him Ben-Oni. ⁴  But his father called him Benjamin instead. ⁵ 

Kejadian 41:21

41:21 When they had eaten them, ⁶  no one would have known ⁷  that they had done so, for they were just as bad-looking as before. Then I woke up.

Kejadian 44:32

44:32 Indeed, ⁸  your servant pledged security for the boy with my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame before my father all my life.’

[35:7]  ¹ sn The name El-Bethel means “God of Bethel.”

[35:7]  ² tn Heb “revealed themselves.” The verb נִגְלוּ (niglu), translated “revealed himself,” is plural, even though one expects the singular form with the plural of majesty. Perhaps אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is here a numerical plural, referring both to God and the angelic beings that appeared to Jacob. See the note on the word “know” in Gen 3:5.

[35:18]  ³ tn Heb “in the going out of her life, for she was dying.” Rachel named the child with her dying breath.

[35:18]  ⁴ sn The name Ben-Oni means “son of my suffering.” It is ironic that Rachel’s words to Jacob in Gen 30:1, “Give me children or I’ll die,” take a different turn here, for it was having the child that brought about her death.

[35:18]  ⁵ tn The disjunctive clause is contrastive.

[35:18]  sn His father called him Benjamin. There was a preference for giving children good or positive names in the ancient world, and “son of my suffering” would not do (see the incident in 1 Chr 4:9-10), because it would be a reminder of the death of Rachel (in this connection, see also D. Daube, “The Night of Death,” HTR 61 [1968]: 629-32). So Jacob named him Benjamin, which means “son of the [or “my”] right hand.” The name Benjamin appears in the Mari texts. There have been attempts to connect this name to the resident tribe listed at Mari, “sons of the south” (since the term “right hand” can also mean “south” in Hebrew), but this assumes a different reading of the story. See J. Muilenburg, “The Birth of Benjamin,” JBL 75 (1956): 194-201.

[41:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “when they went inside them.”

[41:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “it was not known.”

[44:32]  ⁸ tn Or “for.”