26:10 Then Abimelech exclaimed, “What in the world have you done to us? 9 One of the men 10 might easily have had sexual relations with 11 your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!”
30:14 At the time 19 of the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found some mandrake plants 20 in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
1 tn Or “one of them”; Heb “he.” Several ancient versions (LXX, Vulgate, Syriac) read the plural “they.” See also the note on “your” in v. 19.
2 tn Heb “escape.”
3 tn The Hebrew verb translated “look” signifies an intense gaze, not a passing glance. This same verb is used later in v. 26 to describe Lot’s wife’s self-destructive look back at the city.
4 tn Or “in the plain”; Heb “in the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.
5 tn Heb “her”; the referent has been specified here in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Heb “Rebekah”; here the proper name was replaced by the pronoun (“her”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
7 tn Heb “and he took Rebekah and she became his wife and he loved her.”
8 tn Heb “after his mother.” This must refer to Sarah’s death.
9 tn Heb “What is this you have done to us?” The Hebrew demonstrative pronoun “this” adds emphasis: “What in the world have you done to us?” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).
10 tn Heb “people.”
11 tn The Hebrew verb means “to lie down.” Here the expression “lie with” or “sleep with” is euphemistic for “have sexual relations with.”
12 tn Heb “and he said to his father”; the referent of “he” (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity, while the words “his father” have been replaced by the pronoun “him” for stylistic reasons.
13 tn Or “arise” (i.e., sit up).
14 tn Heb “so that your soul may bless me.”
15 tn Heb “and Isaac trembled with a great trembling to excess.” The verb “trembled” is joined with a cognate accusative, which is modified by an adjective “great,” and a prepositional phrase “to excess.” All of this is emphatic, showing the violence of Isaac’s reaction to the news.
16 tn Heb “Who then is he who hunted game and brought [it] to me so that I ate from all before you arrived and blessed him?”
17 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 tn Heb “and he told to Laban all these things.” This might mean Jacob told Laban how he happened to be there, but Laban’s response (see v. 14) suggests “all these things” refers to what Jacob had previously told Rachel (see v. 12).
19 tn Heb “during the days.”
20 sn Mandrake plants were popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac in the culture of the time.
21 tn The imperfect verbal form indicates that this was a customary or typical action.
22 tn Heb “from my hand you exacted it.” The imperfect verbal form again indicates that this was a customary or typical action. The words “for every missing animal” are supplied in the translation for clarity; the following clause in Hebrew, “stolen by day or stolen by night,” probably means “stolen by wild beasts” and refers to the same animals “torn by wild beasts” in the previous clause, although it may refer to animals stolen by people. The translation used here, “missing,” is ambiguous enough to cover either eventuality.
23 tn Heb “blessing.” It is as if Jacob is trying to repay what he stole from his brother twenty years earlier.
24 tn Or “gracious,” but in the specific sense of prosperity.
25 tn Heb “all.”
26 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.
27 tn The verb has no expressed subject, and so it could be treated as a passive (“a Hebrew man was brought in”; cf. NIV). But it is clear from the context that her husband brought Joseph into the household, so Potiphar is the apparent referent here. Thus the translation supplies “my husband” as the referent of the unspecified pronominal subject of the verb (cf. NEB, NRSV).
28 sn A Hebrew man. Potiphar’s wife raises the ethnic issue when talking to her servants about what their boss had done.
29 tn Heb “to make fun of us.” The verb translated “to humiliate us” here means to hold something up for ridicule, or to toy with something harmfully. Attempted rape would be such an activity, for it would hold the victim in contempt.
30 tn Heb “he came to me to lie with me.” Here the expression “lie with” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
31 tn Heb “and I cried out with a loud voice.”
32 tn Or “in exchange.” On the use of the preposition here see BDB 90 s.v. בְּ.
33 tn Heb “house.”
34 tn Heb “heavy.”
sn The disjunctive clause provides supplemental information that is important to the story. The weakness of Israel’s sight is one of several connections between this chapter and Gen 27. Here there are two sons, and it appears that the younger is being blessed over the older by a blind old man. While it was by Jacob’s deception in chap. 27, here it is with Jacob’s full knowledge.
35 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
36 tn Heb “them”; the referent (Joseph’s sons) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
37 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Joseph’s father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
38 tn Heb “and Joseph took the two of them.”
39 tn Heb “and he brought near to him.” The referents of the pronouns “he” and “him” (Joseph and his father respectively) have been specified in the translation for clarity.