19:2 He said, “Here, my lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house. Stay the night 6 and wash your feet. Then you can be on your way early in the morning.” 7 “No,” they replied, “we’ll spend the night in the town square.” 8
34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin 27 on me by making me a foul odor 28 among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I 29 am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”
38:11 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up.” For he thought, 30 “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.” 31 So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.
48:19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude 42 of nations.”
1 tn Heb “my wrong is because of you.”
2 tn Heb “I placed my female servant in your bosom.”
3 tn Heb “saw.”
4 tn Heb “I was despised in her eyes.” The passive verb has been translated as active for stylistic reasons. Sarai was made to feel supplanted and worthless by Hagar the servant girl.
5 tn Heb “me and you.”
sn May the
6 tn The imperatives have the force of invitation.
7 tn These two verbs form a verbal hendiadys: “you can rise up early and go” means “you can go early.”
8 sn The town square refers to the wide street area at the gate complex of the city.
9 tn Heb “who have not known.” Here this expression is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
10 tn Heb “according to what is good in your eyes.”
11 tn Heb “shadow.”
12 sn This chapter portrays Lot as a hypocrite. He is well aware of the way the men live in his city and is apparently comfortable in the midst of it. But when confronted by the angels, he finally draws the line. But he is nevertheless willing to sacrifice his daughters’ virginity to protect his guests. His opposition to the crowds leads to his rejection as a foreigner by those with whom he had chosen to live. The one who attempted to rescue his visitors ends up having to be rescued by them.
13 tn Heb “the firstborn.”
14 tn Heb “Look, I lied down with my father. Let’s make him drink wine again tonight.”
15 tn Heb “And go, lie down with him and we will keep alive from our father descendants.”
16 tn Heb “How did I sin against you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin?” The expression “great sin” refers to adultery. For discussion of the cultural background of the passage, see J. J. Rabinowitz, “The Great Sin in Ancient Egyptian Marriage Contracts,” JNES 18 (1959): 73, and W. L. Moran, “The Scandal of the ‘Great Sin’ at Ugarit,” JNES 18 (1959): 280-81.
17 tn Heb “Deeds which should not be done you have done to me.” The imperfect has an obligatory nuance here.
18 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose.
19 tn Heb “because you must not take.”
20 sn I will also give your camels water. It would be an enormous test for a young woman to water ten camels. The idea is that such a woman would not only be industrious but hospitable and generous.
21 tn Heb “And let the young woman to whom I say, ‘Lower your jar that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink and I will also give your camels water,’ – her you have appointed for your servant, for Isaac, and by it I will know that you have acted in faithfulness with my master.”
22 tn Heb “must come in to me.” The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. She has acquired him for the night and feels he is obligated to have sexual relations with her.
23 tn Heb “I have surely hired.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verbal form for emphasis. The name Issachar (see v. 18) seems to be related to this expression.
24 tn This is the same Hebrew verb (שָׁכַב, shakhav) translated “sleep with” in v. 15. In direct discourse the more euphemistic “sleep with” was used, but here in the narrative “marital relations” reflects more clearly the emphasis on sexual intercourse.
25 tn Heb “the fear of Isaac,” that is, the one whom Isaac feared and respected. For further discussion of this title see M. Malul, “More on pahad yitschaq (Gen. 31:42,53) and the Oath by the Thigh,” VT 35 (1985): 192-200.
26 tn Heb “My oppression and the work of my hands God saw.”
27 tn The traditional translation is “troubled me” (KJV, ASV), but the verb refers to personal or national disaster and suggests complete ruin (see Josh 7:25, Judg 11:35, Prov 11:17). The remainder of the verse describes the “trouble” Simeon and Levi had caused.
28 tn In the causative stem the Hebrew verb בָּאַשׁ (ba’ash) means “to cause to stink, to have a foul smell.” In the contexts in which it is used it describes foul smells, stenches, or things that are odious. Jacob senses that the people in the land will find this act terribly repulsive. See P. R. Ackroyd, “The Hebrew Root באשׁ,” JTS 2 (1951): 31-36.
29 tn Jacob speaks in the first person as the head and representative of the entire family.
30 tn Heb “said.”
31 tn Heb “Otherwise he will die, also he, like his brothers.”
sn I don’t want him to die like his brothers. This clause explains that Judah had no intention of giving Shelah to Tamar for the purpose of the levirate marriage. Judah apparently knew the nature of his sons, and feared that God would be angry with the third son and kill him as well.
32 tn Heb “and a small boy of old age,” meaning that he was born when his father was elderly.
33 tn Heb “his”; the referent (the boy just mentioned) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
34 tn Heb “he, only he, to his mother is left.”
35 tn Heb “men of skill.”
36 tn Heb “make them rulers.”
sn Put them in charge of my livestock. Pharaoh is, in effect, offering Joseph’s brothers jobs as royal keepers of livestock, a position mentioned often in Egyptian inscriptions, because the Pharaohs owned huge herds of cattle.
37 tn Heb “days.”
38 sn On the expression put your hand under my thigh see Gen 24:2.
39 tn Or “deal with me in faithful love.”
40 tn Heb “upon me, against me,” which might mean something like “to my sorrow.”
41 map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.
42 tn Heb “fullness.”