Genesis 15:16

15:16 In the fourth generation ¹  your descendants ²  will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.” ³ 

Genesis 16:13

16:13 So Hagar named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” ⁴  for she said, “Here I have seen one who sees me!” ⁵ 

Genesis 24:13

24:13 Here I am, standing by the spring, ⁶  and the daughters of the people ⁷  who live in the town are coming out to draw water.

Genesis 24:51

24:51 Rebekah stands here before you. Take her and go so that she may become ⁸  the wife of your master’s son, just as the Lord has decided.” ⁹ 

Genesis 30:3

30:3 She replied, “Here is my servant Bilhah! Have sexual relations with ¹⁰  her so that she can bear ¹¹  children ¹²  for me ¹³  and I can have a family through her.” ¹⁴ 

Genesis 31:51

31:51 “Here is this pile of stones and this pillar I have set up between me and you,” Laban said to Jacob. ¹⁵ 

Genesis 38:22

38:22 So he returned to Judah and said, “I couldn’t find her. Moreover, the men of the place said, ‘There has been no cult prostitute here.’”

Genesis 40:15

40:15 for I really was kidnapped ¹⁶  from the land of the Hebrews and I have done nothing wrong here for which they should put me in a dungeon.”

Genesis 42:15

42:15 You will be tested in this way: As surely as Pharaoh lives, ¹⁷  you will not depart from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.

Genesis 42:19

42:19 If you are honest men, leave one of your brothers confined here in prison ¹⁸  while the rest of you go ¹⁹  and take grain back for your hungry families. ²⁰ 

Genesis 45:5

45:5 Now, do not be upset and do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, ²¹  for God sent me ²²  ahead of you to preserve life!

Genesis 45:13

45:13 So tell ²³  my father about all my honor in Egypt and about everything you have seen. But bring my father down here quickly!” ²⁴ 

Genesis 47:23

47:23 Joseph said to the people, “Since I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you. Cultivate ²⁵  the land.

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¹ sn The term generation is being used here in its widest sense to refer to a full life span. When the chronological factors are considered and the genealogies tabulated, there are four hundred years of bondage. This suggests that in this context a generation is equivalent to one hundred years.

² tn Heb “they”; the referent (“your descendants”) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “is not yet complete.”

sn The sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit. The justice of God is apparent. He will wait until the Amorites are fully deserving of judgment before he annihilates them and gives the land to Israel.

⁴ tn Heb “God of my seeing.” The pronominal suffix may be understood either as objective (“who sees me,” as in the translation) or subjective (“whom I see”).

⁵ tn Heb “after one who sees me.”

sn For a discussion of Hagar’s exclamation, see T. Booij, “Hagar’s Words in Genesis 16:13b,” VT 30 (1980): 1-7.

⁶ tn Heb “the spring of water.”

⁷ tn Heb “the men.”

⁸ tn Following the imperatives, the jussive with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.

⁹ tn Heb “as the Lord has spoken.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “go in to.” The expression “go in to” in this context refers to sexual intercourse.

¹¹ tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with the conjunction indicates the immediate purpose of the proposed activity.

¹² tn The word “children” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹³ tn Heb “upon my knees.” This is an idiomatic way of saying that Bilhah will be simply a surrogate mother. Rachel will adopt the child as her own.

¹⁴ tn Heb “and I will be built up, even I, from her.” The prefixed verbal form with the conjunction is subordinated to the preceding prefixed verbal form and gives the ultimate purpose for the proposed action. The idiom of “built up” here refers to having a family (see Gen 16:2, as well as Ruth 4:11 and BDB 125 s.v. בָנָה).

¹⁵ tn Heb “and Laban said to Jacob, ‘Behold this heap and behold the pillar which I have set between men and you.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁶ tn The verb גָּנַב (ganav) means “to steal,” but in the Piel/Pual stem “to steal away.” The idea of “kidnap” would be closer to the sense, meaning he was stolen and carried off. The preceding infinitive absolute underscores the point Joseph is making.

¹⁷ tn Heb “[By] the life of Pharaoh.”

sn As surely as Pharaoh lives. Joseph uses an oath formula to let the brothers know the certainty of what he said. There is some discussion in the commentaries on swearing by the life of Pharaoh, but since the formulation here reflects the Hebrew practice, it would be hard to connect the ideas exactly to Egyptian practices. Joseph did this to make the point in a way that his Hebrew brothers would understand. See M. R. Lehmann, “Biblical Oaths,” ZAW 81 (1969): 74-92.

¹⁸ tn Heb “bound in the house of your prison.”

¹⁹ tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial-temporal.

²⁰ tn Heb “[for] the hunger of your households.”

²¹ tn Heb “let there not be anger in your eyes.”

²² sn You sold me here, for God sent me. The tension remains as to how the brothers’ wickedness and God’s intentions work together. Clearly God is able to transform the actions of wickedness to bring about some gracious end. But this is saying more than that; it is saying that from the beginning it was God who sent Joseph here. Although harmonization of these ideas remains humanly impossible, the divine intention is what should be the focus. Only that will enable reconciliation.

²³ tn The perfect verbal form with the vav consecutive here expresses instruction.

²⁴ tn Heb “and hurry and bring down my father to here.”

²⁵ tn The perfect verbal form with the vav consecutive is equivalent to a command here.