Genesis 1:24

1:24 God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” ¹  It was so.

Genesis 11:7

11:7 Come, let’s go down and confuse ²  their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.” ³ 

Genesis 13:11

13:11 Lot chose for himself the whole region of the Jordan and traveled ⁴  toward the east.

So the relatives separated from each other. ⁵ 

Genesis 15:9

15:9 The Lord ⁶  said to him, “Take for me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”

Genesis 26:31

26:31 Early in the morning the men made a treaty with each other. ⁷  Isaac sent them off; they separated on good terms. ⁸ 

Genesis 43:33

43:33 They sat before him, arranged by order of birth, beginning with the firstborn and ending with the youngest. ⁹  The men looked at each other in astonishment. ¹⁰ 

Genesis 45:22

45:22 He gave sets of clothes to each one of them, ¹¹  but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five sets of clothes. ¹² 

Genesis 49:28

49:28 These ¹³  are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He gave each of them an appropriate blessing. ¹⁴ 

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¹ tn There are three groups of land animals here: the cattle or livestock (mostly domesticated), things that creep or move close to the ground (such as reptiles or rodents), and the wild animals (all animals of the field). The three terms are general classifications without specific details.

² tn The cohortatives mirror the cohortatives of the people. They build to ascend the heavens; God comes down to destroy their language. God speaks here to his angelic assembly. See the notes on the word “make” in 1:26 and “know” in 3:5, as well as Jub. 10:22-23, where an angel recounts this incident and says “And the Lord our God said to us…. And the Lord went down and we went down with him. And we saw the city and the tower which the sons of men built.” On the chiastic structure of the story, see G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:235.

³ tn Heb “they will not hear, a man the lip of his neighbor.”

⁴ tn Heb “Lot traveled.” The proper name has not been repeated in the translation at this point for stylistic reasons.

⁵ tn Heb “a man from upon his brother.”

sn Separated from each other. For a discussion of the significance of this event, see L. R. Helyer, “The Separation of Abram and Lot: Its Significance in the Patriarchal Narratives,” JSOT 26 (1983): 77-88.

⁶ tn Heb “He”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “and they got up early and they swore an oath, a man to his brother.”

⁸ tn Heb “and they went from him in peace.”

⁹ tn Heb “the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth.”

¹⁰ sn The brothers’ astonishment indicates that Joseph arranged them in this way. They were astonished because there was no way, as far as they were concerned, that Joseph could have known the order of their birth.

¹¹ tn Heb “to all of them he gave, to each one, changes of outer garments.”

¹² tn Heb “changes of outer garments.”

¹³ tn Heb “All these.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and he blessed them, each of whom according to his blessing, he blessed them.”