27:5 Now Rebekah had been listening while Isaac spoke to his son Esau. 13 When Esau went out to the open fields to hunt down some wild game and bring it back, 14
39:1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. 28 An Egyptian named Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard, 29 purchased him from 30 the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.
48:15 Then he blessed Joseph and said,
“May the God before whom my fathers
Abraham and Isaac walked –
the God who has been my shepherd 36
all my life long to this day,
1 tn The disjunctive clause calls attention to the “uncircumcised male” and what will happen to him.
2 tn Heb “that person will be cut off.” The words “that person” have not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
sn The meaning of “cut off” has been discussed at great length. An entire tractate in the Mishnah is devoted to this subject (tractate Keritot). Being ostracized from the community is involved at the least, but it is not certain whether this refers to the death penalty.
3 tn Heb “he has broken my covenant.” The noun בְּרִית (bÿrit) here refers to the obligation required by God in conjunction with the covenantal agreement. For the range of meaning of the term, see the note on the word “requirement” in v. 9.
4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn The words “the food” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text the verb has no stated object.
6 tn The disjunctive clause is a temporal circumstantial clause subordinate to the main verb.
7 tn Heb “he returned and dug,” meaning “he dug again” or “he reopened.”
8 tn Heb “that they dug.” Since the subject is indefinite, the verb is translated as passive.
9 tn Heb “and the Philistines had stopped them up.” This clause explains why Isaac had to reopen them.
10 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the wells) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tn Heb “called names to them according to the names that his father called them.”
13 tn The disjunctive clause (introduced by a conjunction with the subject, followed by the predicate) here introduces a new scene in the story.
14 tc The LXX adds here “to his father,” which may have been accidentally omitted in the MT.
15 tn Heb “and may he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you.” The name “Abraham” is an objective genitive here; this refers to the blessing that God gave to Abraham.
16 tn The words “the land” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
17 tn Heb “the land of your sojournings,” that is, the land where Jacob had been living as a resident alien, as his future descendants would after him.
18 tn Heb “blessing.” It is as if Jacob is trying to repay what he stole from his brother twenty years earlier.
19 tn Or “gracious,” but in the specific sense of prosperity.
20 tn Heb “all.”
21 tn Heb “and he urged him and he took.” The referent of the first pronoun in the sequence (“he”) has been specified as “Jacob” in the translation for clarity.
22 tn Heb “let us arise and let us go up.” The first cohortative gives the statement a sense of urgency.
23 tn The cohortative with the prefixed conjunction here indicates purpose or consequence.
24 tn Heb “day of distress.” See Ps 20:1 which utilizes similar language.
25 tn Heb “in the way in which I went.” Jacob alludes here to God’s promise to be with him (see Gen 28:20).
26 tn Heb “the men of her place,” that is, who lived at the place where she had been.
27 sn The Hebrew noun translated “cult prostitute” is derived from a verb meaning “to be set apart; to be distinct.” Thus the term refers to a woman who did not marry, but was dedicated to temple service as a cult prostitute. The masculine form of this noun is used for male cult prostitutes. Judah thought he had gone to an ordinary prostitute (v. 15); but Hirah went looking for a cult prostitute, perhaps because it had been a sheep-shearing festival. For further discussion see E. M. Yamauchi, “Cultic Prostitution,” Orient and Occident (AOAT), 213-23.
28 tn The disjunctive clause resumes the earlier narrative pertaining to Joseph by recapitulating the event described in 37:36. The perfect verbal form is given a past perfect translation to restore the sequence of the narrative for the reader.
29 sn Captain of the guard. See the note on this phrase in Gen 37:36.
30 tn Heb “from the hand of.”
31 tn Heb “the days of.”
32 tn Heb “sojournings.” Jacob uses a term that depicts him as one who has lived an unsettled life, temporarily residing in many different places.
33 tn Heb “the days of.”
34 tn The Hebrew word רַע (ra’) can sometimes mean “evil,” but that would give the wrong connotation here, where it refers to pain, difficulty, and sorrow. Jacob is thinking back through all the troubles he had to endure to get to this point.
35 tn Heb “and they have not reached the days of the years of my fathers in the days of their sojournings.”
36 tn Heb “shepherded me.” The verb has been translated as an English noun for stylistic reasons.