18:26 So the Lord replied, “If I find in the city of Sodom fifty godly people, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
18:29 Abraham 1 spoke to him again, 2 “What if forty are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty.”
47:16 Then Joseph said, “If your money is gone, bring your livestock, and I will give you food 31 in exchange for 32 your livestock.”
50:4 When the days of mourning 33 had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s royal court, 34 “If I have found favor in your sight, please say to Pharaoh, 35
1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn The construction is a verbal hendiadys – the preterite (“he added”) is combined with an adverb “yet” and an infinitive “to speak.”
3 tn Heb “If it is with your purpose.” The Hebrew noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) here has the nuance “purpose” or perhaps “desire” (see BDB 661 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ).
4 tn Heb “bury my dead out of my sight.” The last phrase “out of my sight” has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.
5 tn Or “hear me.”
6 tn Heb “intercede for me with.”
7 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative (with prefixed conjunction) indicates purpose or result.
8 tn Heb “Are you this one, Esau, my son, or not?” On the use of the interrogative particle here, see BDB 210 s.v. הֲ.
9 tn Heb “he did not put [them] in.” The referent of the [understood] direct object, “them,” has been specified as “the branches” in the translation for clarity.
10 tn Heb “were for Laban.”
11 tn Heb “and you have stolen my heart.” This expression apparently means “to deceive” (see v. 20).
12 tn Heb “and you have led away my daughters like captives of a sword.”
13 tn Heb “But Benjamin, the brother of Joseph, Jacob did not send with his brothers.” The disjunctive clause highlights the contrast between Benjamin and the other ten.
14 tn The Hebrew verb אָמַר (’amar, “to say”) could also be translated “thought” (i.e., “he said to himself”) here, giving Jacob’s reasoning rather than spoken words.
15 tn The Hebrew noun אָסוֹן (’ason) is a rare word meaning “accident, harm.” Apart from its use in these passages it occurs in Exodus 21:22-23 of an accident to a pregnant woman. The term is a rather general one, but Jacob was no doubt thinking of his loss of Joseph.
16 tn Heb “encounters.”
17 sn You are spies. Joseph wanted to see how his brothers would react if they were accused of spying.
18 tn Heb “to see the nakedness of the land you have come.”
19 tn Heb “bound in the house of your prison.”
20 tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial-temporal.
21 tn Heb “[for] the hunger of your households.”
22 tn Heb “made us.”
23 tn The words “if we were” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
24 tn Heb “The one with whom it is found from your servants.” Here “your servants” (a deferential way of referring to the brothers themselves) has been translated by the pronoun “us” to avoid confusion with Joseph’s servants.
25 tn The construction uses a perfect verbal form with the vav consecutive to introduce the conditional clause and then another perfect verbal form with a vav consecutive to complete the sentence: “if you take…then you will bring down.”
26 sn The expression bring down my gray hair is figurative, using a part for the whole – they would put Jacob in the grave. But the gray head signifies a long life of worry and trouble. See Gen 42:38.
27 tn Heb “evil/calamity.” The term is different than the one used in the otherwise identical statement recorded in v. 31 (see also 42:38).
28 tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.
29 tn The Hebrew text has “lest I see,” which expresses a negative purpose – “I cannot go up lest I see.”
30 tn Heb “the calamity which would find my father.”
31 tn The word “food” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
32 tn On the use of the preposition here see BDB 90 s.v. בְּ.
33 tn Heb “weeping.”
34 tn Heb “the house of Pharaoh.”
35 tn Heb “in the ears of Pharaoh.”