Genesis 18:19

18:19 I have chosen him ¹  so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep ²  the way of the Lord by doing ³  what is right and just. Then the Lord will give ⁴  to Abraham what he promised ⁵  him.”

Genesis 24:30

24:30 When he saw the bracelets on his sister’s wrists and the nose ring ⁶  and heard his sister Rebekah say, ⁷  “This is what the man said to me,” he went out to meet the man. There he was, standing ⁸  by the camels near the spring.

Genesis 38:11

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, ⁹  “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.” ¹⁰  So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.

Genesis 40:20

40:20 On the third day it was Pharaoh’s birthday, so he gave a feast for all his servants. He “lifted up” ¹¹  the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker in the midst of his servants.

Genesis 44:20

44:20 We said to my lord, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young boy who was born when our father was old. ¹²  The boy’s ¹³  brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, ¹⁴  and his father loves him.’

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¹ tn Heb “For I have known him.” The verb יָדַע (yada’) here means “to recognize and treat in a special manner, to choose” (see Amos 3:2). It indicates that Abraham stood in a special covenantal relationship with the Lord.

² tn Heb “and they will keep.” The perfect verbal form with vav consecutive carries on the subjective nuance of the preceding imperfect verbal form (translated “so that he may command”).

³ tn The infinitive construct here indicates manner, explaining how Abraham’s children and his household will keep the way of the Lord.

⁴ tn Heb “bring on.” The infinitive after לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) indicates result here.

⁵ tn Heb “spoke to.”

⁶ tn Heb “And it was when he saw the nose ring and the bracelets on the arms of his sister.” The word order is altered in the translation for the sake of clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying.”

⁸ tn Heb “and look, he was standing.” The disjunctive clause with the participle following the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) invites the audience to view the scene through Laban’s eyes.

⁹ tn Heb “said.”

¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ tn The translation puts the verb in quotation marks because it is used rhetorically here and has a double meaning. With respect to the cup bearer it means “reinstate” (see v. 13), but with respect to the baker it means “decapitate” (see v. 19).

¹² tn Heb “and a small boy of old age,” meaning that he was born when his father was elderly.

¹³ tn Heb “his”; the referent (the boy just mentioned) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn Heb “he, only he, to his mother is left.”