1:6 God said, “Let there be an expanse 4 in the midst of the waters and let it separate water 5 from water. 1:7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. 6 It was so. 7
2:8 The Lord God planted an orchard 8 in the east, 9 in Eden; 10 and there he placed the man he had formed. 11
9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
9:26 He also said,
“Worthy of praise is 20 the Lord, the God of Shem!
May Canaan be the slave of Shem! 21
“Blessed be Abram by 24 the Most High God,
Creator 25 of heaven and earth. 26
21:20 God was with the boy as he grew. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer.
22:1 Some time after these things God tested 29 Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” Abraham 30 replied.
30:22 Then God took note of 37 Rachel. He paid attention to her and enabled her to become pregnant. 38 30:23 She became pregnant 39 and gave birth to a son. Then she said, “God has taken away my shame.” 40
1 tn Heb “he called to,” meaning “he named.”
sn God called. Seven times in this chapter naming or blessing follows some act of creation. There is clearly a point being made beyond the obvious idea of naming. In the Babylonian creation story Enuma Elish, naming is equal to creating. In the Bible the act of naming, like creating, can be an indication of sovereignty (see 2 Kgs 23:34). In this verse God is sovereign even over the darkness.
2 tn Heb “and the darkness he called night.” The words “he called” have not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3 tn Another option is to translate, “Evening came, and then morning came.” This formula closes the six days of creation. It seems to follow the Jewish order of reckoning time: from evening to morning. Day one started with the dark, continued through the creation of light, and ended with nightfall. Another alternative would be to translate, “There was night and then there was day, one day.”
sn The first day. The exegetical evidence suggests the word “day” in this chapter refers to a literal twenty-four hour day. It is true that the word can refer to a longer period of time (see Isa 61:2, or the idiom in 2:4, “in the day,” that is, “when”). But this chapter uses “day,” “night,” “morning,” “evening,” “years,” and “seasons.” Consistency would require sorting out how all these terms could be used to express ages. Also, when the Hebrew word יוֹם (yom) is used with a numerical adjective, it refers to a literal day. Furthermore, the commandment to keep the sabbath clearly favors this interpretation. One is to work for six days and then rest on the seventh, just as God did when he worked at creation.
4 tn The Hebrew word refers to an expanse of air pressure between the surface of the sea and the clouds, separating water below from water above. In v. 8 it is called “sky.”
sn An expanse. In the poetic texts the writers envision, among other things, something rather strong and shiny, no doubt influencing the traditional translation “firmament” (cf. NRSV “dome”). Job 37:18 refers to the skies poured out like a molten mirror. Dan 12:3 and Ezek 1:22 portray it as shiny. The sky or atmosphere may have seemed like a glass dome. For a detailed study of the Hebrew conception of the heavens and sky, see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World (AnBib), 37-60.
5 tn Heb “the waters from the waters.”
6 tn Heb “the expanse.”
7 tn This statement indicates that it happened the way God designed it, underscoring the connection between word and event.
8 tn Traditionally “garden,” but the subsequent description of this “garden” makes it clear that it is an orchard of fruit trees.
sn The
9 tn Heb “from the east” or “off east.”
sn One would assume this is east from the perspective of the land of Israel, particularly since the rivers in the area are identified as the rivers in those eastern regions.
10 sn The name Eden (עֵדֶן, ’eden) means “pleasure” in Hebrew.
11 tn The perfect verbal form here requires the past perfect translation since it describes an event that preceded the event described in the main clause.
12 sn This is the first time in the Bible that the verb tsavah (צָוָה, “to command”) appears. Whatever the man had to do in the garden, the main focus of the narrative is on keeping God’s commandments. God created humans with the capacity to obey him and then tested them with commands.
13 tn The imperfect verb form probably carries the nuance of permission (“you may eat”) since the man is not being commanded to eat from every tree. The accompanying infinitive absolute adds emphasis: “you may freely eat,” or “you may eat to your heart’s content.”
14 tn The word “fruit” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied as the direct object of the verb “eat.” Presumably the only part of the tree the man would eat would be its fruit (cf. 3:2).
15 tn Or “God saw how corrupt the earth was.”
16 tn The repetition in the text (see v. 11) emphasizes the point.
17 tn Heb “flesh.” Since moral corruption is in view here, most modern western interpreters understand the referent to be humankind. However, the phrase “all flesh” is used consistently of humankind and the animals in Gen 6-9 (6:17, 19; 7:15-16, 21; 8:17; 9:11, 15-17), suggesting that the author intends to picture all living creatures, humankind and animals, as guilty of moral failure. This would explain why the animals, not just humankind, are victims of the ensuing divine judgment. The OT sometimes views animals as morally culpable (Gen 9:5; Exod 21:28-29; Jonah 3:7-8). The OT also teaches that a person’s sin can contaminate others (people and animals) in the sinful person’s sphere (see the story of Achan, especially Josh 7:10). So the animals could be viewed here as morally contaminated because of their association with sinful humankind.
18 tn Heb “had corrupted its way.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix on “way” refers to the collective “all flesh.” The construction “corrupt one’s way” occurs only here (though Ezek 16:47 uses the Hiphil in an intransitive sense with the preposition בְּ [bet, “in”] followed by “ways”). The Hiphil of שָׁחָת (shakhat) means “to ruin, to destroy, to corrupt,” often as here in a moral/ethical sense. The Hebrew term דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) here refers to behavior or moral character, a sense that it frequently carries (see BDB 203 s.v. דֶּרֶךְ 6.a).
19 tn Heb “Those that went in, male and female from all flesh they went in.”
20 tn Heb “blessed be.”
21 tn Heb “a slave to him”; the referent (Shem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
22 sn Salem is traditionally identified as the Jebusite stronghold of old Jerusalem. Accordingly, there has been much speculation about its king. Though some have identified him with the preincarnate Christ or with Noah’s son Shem, it is far more likely that Melchizedek was a Canaanite royal priest whom God used to renew the promise of the blessing to Abram, perhaps because Abram considered Melchizedek his spiritual superior. But Melchizedek remains an enigma. In a book filled with genealogical records he appears on the scene without a genealogy and then disappears from the narrative. In Psalm 110 the
23 tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause significantly identifies Melchizedek as a priest as well as a king.
sn It is his royal priestly status that makes Melchizedek a type of Christ: He was identified with Jerusalem, superior to the ancestor of Israel, and both a king and a priest. Unlike the normal Canaanites, this man served “God Most High” (אֵל עֶלְיוֹן, ’el ’elyon) – one sovereign God, who was the creator of all the universe. Abram had in him a spiritual brother.
24 tn The preposition לְ (lamed) introduces the agent after the passive participle.
25 tn Some translate “possessor of heaven and earth” (cf. NASB). But cognate evidence from Ugaritic indicates that there were two homonymic roots ָקנָה (qanah), one meaning “to create” (as in Gen 4:1) and the other “to obtain, to acquire, to possess.” While “possessor” would fit here, “creator” is the more likely due to the collocation with “heaven and earth.”
26 tn The terms translated “heaven” and “earth” are both objective genitives after the participle in construct.
27 tn Heb “Isaac his son, the son of eight days.” The name “Isaac” is repeated in the translation for clarity.
28 sn Just as God had commanded him to do. With the birth of the promised child, Abraham obeyed the
29 sn The Hebrew verb used here means “to test; to try; to prove.” In this passage God tests Abraham to see if he would be obedient. See T. W. Mann, The Book of the Torah, 44-48. See also J. L. Crenshaw, A Whirlpool of Torment (OBT), 9-30; and J. I. Lawlor, “The Test of Abraham,” GTJ 1 (1980): 19-35.
30 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
31 tn Heb “make it happen before me today.” Although a number of English translations understand this as a request for success in the task (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV) it is more likely that the servant is requesting an omen or sign from God (v. 14).
32 tn Heb “act in loyal love with” or “show kindness to.”
33 tn Heb “and I return in peace to the house of my father.”
34 tn Heb “listened to.”
35 tn Or “she conceived” (also in v. 19).
36 tn Heb “and she bore for Jacob a fifth son,” i.e., this was the fifth son that Leah had given Jacob.
37 tn Heb “remembered.”
38 tn Heb “and God listened to her and opened up her womb.” Since “God” is the subject of the previous clause, the noun has been replaced by the pronoun “he” in the translation for stylistic reasons
39 tn Or “conceived.”
40 tn Heb “my reproach.” A “reproach” is a cutting taunt or painful ridicule, but here it probably refers by metonymy to Rachel’s barren condition, which was considered shameful in this culture and was the reason why she was the object of taunting and ridicule.
41 tn Heb “and Jacob said when he saw them.”
42 sn The name Mahanaim apparently means “two camps.” Perhaps the two camps were those of God and of Jacob.
43 sn The name Peniel means “face of God.” Since Jacob saw God face to face here, the name is appropriate.
44 tn The word “explaining” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
45 tn Or “because.”
46 sn I have seen God face to face. See the note on the name “Peniel” earlier in the verse.
47 tn Heb “and my soul [= life] has been preserved.”
sn I have survived. It was commonly understood that no one could see God and live (Gen 48:16; Exod 19:21, 24:10; and Judg 6:11, 22). On the surface Jacob seems to be saying that he saw God and survived. But the statement may have a double meaning, in light of his prayer for deliverance in v. 11. Jacob recognizes that he has survived his encounter with God and that his safety has now been guaranteed.
48 tn Heb “not within me.”
49 tn Heb “God will answer.”
50 tn The expression שְׁלוֹם פַּרְעֹה (shÿlom par’oh) is here rendered “the welfare of Pharaoh” because the dream will be about life in his land. Some interpret it to mean an answer of “peace” – one that will calm his heart, or give him the answer that he desires (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT).
51 tn Heb “it is the word that I spoke.”
52 sn The name Ephraim (אֶפְרַיִם, ’efrayim), a form of the Hebrew verb פָּרָה (parah), means “to bear fruit.” The theme of fruitfulness is connected with this line of the family from Rachel (30:2) on down (see Gen 49:22, Deut 33:13-17, and Hos 13:15). But there is some difficulty with the name “Ephraim” itself. It appears to be a dual, for which F. Delitzsch simply said it meant “double fruitfulness” (New Commentary on Genesis, 2:305). G. J. Spurrell suggested it was a diphthongal pronunciation of a name ending in -an or -am, often thought to be dual suffixes (Notes on the text of the book of Genesis, 334). Many, however, simply connect the name to the territory of Ephraim and interpret it to be “fertile land” (C. Fontinoy, “Les noms de lieux en -ayim dans la Bible,” UF 3 [1971]: 33-40). The dual would then be an old locative ending. There is no doubt that the name became attached to the land in which the tribe settled, and it is possible that is where the dual ending came from, but in this story it refers to Joseph’s God-given fruitfulness.
53 tn The word “saying” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
54 tn Or “for.”
55 tn Heb “Do this.”
56 tn After the preceding imperative, the imperative with vav (ו) can, as here, indicate logical sequence.
57 sn For I fear God. Joseph brings God into the picture to awaken his brothers’ consciences. The godly person cares about the welfare of people, whether they live or die. So he will send grain back, but keep one of them in Egypt. This action contrasts with their crime of selling their brother into slavery.
58 tn Heb “in visions of the night.” The plural form has the singular meaning, probably as a plural of intensity.
59 tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.