18:3 He said, “My lord, 7 if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by and leave your servant. 8
27:11 “But Esau my brother is a hairy man,” Jacob protested to his mother Rebekah, “and I have smooth skin! 14
30:29 “You know how I have worked for you,” Jacob replied, 17 “and how well your livestock have fared under my care. 18
40:9 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph: 21 “In my dream, there was a vine in front of me.
41:17 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “In my dream I was standing 28 by the edge of the Nile.
1 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative indicates consequence. If Abram is blameless, then the
2 tn Heb “I will multiply you exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.
3 tn Heb “I.”
4 tn Heb “is” (הִנֵּה, hinneh).
5 tn Heb “This is my covenant that you must keep between me and you and your descendants after you.”
6 sn For a discussion of male circumcision as the sign of the covenant in this passage see M. V. Fox, “The Sign of the Covenant: Circumcision in the Light of the Priestly ‘ot Etiologies,” RB 81 (1974): 557-96.
7 tc The MT has the form אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Master”) which is reserved for God. This may reflect later scribal activity. The scribes, knowing it was the
8 tn Heb “do not pass by from upon your servant.”
9 tn Heb “that it be for me for a witness.”
10 sn This well. Since the king wanted a treaty to share in Abraham’s good fortune, Abraham used the treaty to secure ownership of and protection for the well he dug. It would be useless to make a treaty to live in this territory if he had no rights to the water. Abraham consented to the treaty, but added his rider to it.
11 tn Heb “and she hurried and lowered.”
12 tn The imperfect is used here in a modal sense to indicate desire.
13 tn Heb “after me.”
14 tn Heb “And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, ‘Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, but I am a smooth [skinned] man.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
15 tn Or “conceived.”
16 tn Heb “my reproach.” A “reproach” is a cutting taunt or painful ridicule, but here it probably refers by metonymy to Rachel’s barren condition, which was considered shameful in this culture and was the reason why she was the object of taunting and ridicule.
17 tn Heb “and he said to him, ‘You know how I have served you.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons, and the referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 tn Heb “and how your cattle were with me.”
19 tn The imperative in this sentence has more of the nuance of a request than a command.
20 tn Heb “that I raised.”
21 tn The Hebrew text adds “and he said to him.” This has not been translated because it is redundant in English.
22 tn Heb “interpreted.”
23 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Pharaoh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
24 tn Heb “him”; the referent (the baker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
25 tn Heb “not within me.”
26 tn Heb “God will answer.”
27 tn The expression שְׁלוֹם פַּרְעֹה (shÿlom par’oh) is here rendered “the welfare of Pharaoh” because the dream will be about life in his land. Some interpret it to mean an answer of “peace” – one that will calm his heart, or give him the answer that he desires (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT).
28 tn Heb “In my dream look, I was standing.” The use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) here (and also in vv. 18, 19, 22, 23) invites the hearer (within the context of the narrative, Joseph; but in the broader sense the reader or hearer of the Book of Genesis) to observe the scene through Pharaoh’s eyes.
29 tn Heb “and I saw in my dream and look.”
30 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.
31 tn The word “saying” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
32 tn Or “for.”
33 tn Heb “Is this not what my master drinks from.” The word “cup” is not in the Hebrew text, but is obviously the referent of “this,” and so has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
34 tn Heb “and he, divining, divines with it.” The infinitive absolute is emphatic, stressing the importance of the cup to Joseph.
35 tn Heb “you have caused to be evil what you have done.”
36 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the boy’s father, i.e., Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
37 tn The last two verbs are perfect tenses with vav consecutive. The first is subordinated to the second as a conditional clause.