Genesis 1:7

1:7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. ¹  It was so. ² 

Genesis 21:27

21:27 Abraham took some sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech. The two of them made a treaty. ³ 

Genesis 24:21

24:21 Silently the man watched her with interest to determine ⁴  if the Lord had made his journey successful ⁵  or not.

Genesis 39:3

39:3 His master observed that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he was doing successful. ⁶ 

Genesis 41:52

41:52 He named the second child Ephraim, ⁷  saying, ⁸  “Certainly ⁹  God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”

Genesis 47:21

47:21 Joseph ¹⁰  made all the people slaves ¹¹  from one end of Egypt’s border to the other end of it.

---

¹ tn Heb “the expanse.”

² tn This statement indicates that it happened the way God designed it, underscoring the connection between word and event.

³ tn Heb “cut a covenant.”

⁴ tn Heb “to know.”

⁵ tn The Hebrew term צָלָה (tsalah), meaning “to make successful” in the Hiphil verbal stem, is a key term in the story (see vv. 40, 42, 56).

⁶ tn The Hebrew text adds “in his hand,” a phrase not included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁷ 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.

⁸ tn The word “saying” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁹ tn Or “for.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tc The MT reads “and the people he removed to the cities,” which does not make a lot of sense in this context. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the LXX read “he enslaved them as slaves.”