Genesis 16:2

16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since ¹  the Lord has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with ²  my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.” ³  Abram did what ⁴  Sarai told him.

Genesis 30:30

30:30 Indeed, ⁵  you had little before I arrived, ⁶  but now your possessions have increased many times over. ⁷  The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. ⁸  But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?” ⁹ 

Genesis 42:13

42:13 They replied, “Your servants are from a family of twelve brothers. ¹⁰  We are the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. The youngest is with our father at this time, ¹¹  and one is no longer alive.” ¹² 

Genesis 42:32

42:32 We are from a family of twelve brothers; we are the sons of one father. ¹³  One is no longer alive, ¹⁴  and the youngest is with our father at this time ¹⁵  in the land of Canaan.’

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¹ tn Heb “look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) introduces the foundational clause for the imperative to follow.

² tn Heb “enter to.” The expression is a euphemism for sexual relations (also in v. 4).

sn The Hebrew expression translated have sexual relations with does not convey the intimacy of other expressions, such as “so and so knew his wife.” Sarai simply sees this as the social custom of having a child through a surrogate. For further discussion see C. F. Fensham, “The Son of a Handmaid in Northwest Semitic,” VT 19 (1969): 312-21.

³ tn Heb “perhaps I will be built from her.” Sarai hopes to have a family established through this surrogate mother.

⁴ tn Heb “listened to the voice of,” which is an idiom meaning “obeyed.”

sn Abram did what Sarai told him. This expression was first used in Gen 3:17 of Adam’s obeying his wife. In both cases the text highlights weak faith and how it jeopardized the plan of God.

⁵ tn Or “for.”

⁶ tn Heb “before me.”

⁷ tn Heb “and it has broken out with respect to abundance.”

⁸ tn Heb “at my foot.”

⁹ tn Heb “How long [until] I do, also I, for my house?”

¹⁰ tn Heb “twelve [were] your servants, brothers [are] we.”

¹¹ tn Heb “today.”

¹² tn Heb “and the one is not.”

¹³ tn Heb “twelve [were] we, brothers, sons of our father [are] we.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “the one is not.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “today.”