30:25 After Rachel had given birth 11 to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send 12 me on my way so that I can go 13 home to my own country. 14
49:1 Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather together so I can tell you 21 what will happen to you in the future. 22
1 tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to him.” This is redundant in English and has not been translated for stylistic reasons.
2 tn The Hebrew verb יָדַע (yada’, “to know”) is used here in the sense of “to lie with” or “to have sex with” (as in Gen 4:1). That this is indeed the meaning is clear from Lot’s warning that they not do so wickedly, and his willingness to give them his daughters instead.
sn The sin of the men of Sodom is debated. The fact that the sin involved a sexual act (see note on the phrase “have sex” in 19:5) precludes an association of the sin with inhospitality as is sometimes asserted (see W. Roth, “What of Sodom and Gomorrah? Homosexual Acts in the Old Testament,” Explor 1 [1974]: 7-14). The text at a minimum condemns forced sexual intercourse, i.e., rape. Other considerations, though, point to a condemnation of homosexual acts more generally. The narrator emphasizes the fact that the men of Sodom wanted to have sex with men: They demand that Lot release the angelic messengers (seen as men) to them for sex, and when Lot offers his daughters as a substitute they refuse them and attempt to take the angelic messengers by force. In addition the wider context of the Pentateuch condemns homosexual acts as sin (see, e.g., Lev 18:22). Thus a reading of this text within its narrative context, both immediate and broad, condemns not only the attempted rape but also the attempted homosexual act.
3 tn Heb “drink wine.”
4 tn Heb “and we will lie down.” The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive is subordinated to the preceding cohortative and indicates purpose/result.
5 tn Or “that we may preserve.” Here the cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates their ultimate goal.
6 tn Heb “and we will keep alive from our father descendants.”
sn For a discussion of the cultural background of the daughters’ desire to preserve our family line see F. C. Fensham, “The Obliteration of the Family as Motif in the Near Eastern Literature,” AION 10 (1969): 191-99.
7 tn Heb “her”; the referent (Rebekah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
8 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative (with prefixed conjunction) indicates purpose or result.
9 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.
10 tn The perfect verbal forms with the vav (ו) consecutive carry on the sequence begun by the initial imperfect form.
11 tn The perfect verbal form is translated as a past perfect because Rachel’s giving birth to Joseph preceded Jacob’s conversation with Laban.
12 tn The imperatival form here expresses a request.
sn For Jacob to ask to leave would mean that seven more years had passed. Thus all Jacob’s children were born within the range of seven years of each other, with Joseph coming right at the end of the seven years.
13 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
14 tn Heb “to my place and to my land.”
15 tn Heb “I see the face of your father, that he is not toward me as formerly.”
16 tn Heb “like this,” but the referent could be misunderstood to be a man like that described by Joseph in v. 33, rather than Joseph himself. For this reason the proper name “Joseph” has been supplied in the translation.
17 tn The rhetorical question expects the answer “No, of course not!”
18 tn The Hebrew text has “lest I see,” which expresses a negative purpose – “I cannot go up lest I see.”
19 tn Heb “the calamity which would find my father.”
20 tn Heb “And, look, your eyes see and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that my mouth is the one speaking to you.”
21 tn After the imperative, the cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose/result.
22 tn The expression “in the future” (אַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים, ’akharit hayyamim, “in the end of days”) is found most frequently in prophetic passages; it may refer to the end of the age, the eschaton, or to the distant future. The contents of some of the sayings in this chapter stretch from the immediate circumstances to the time of the settlement in the land to the coming of Messiah. There is a great deal of literature on this chapter, including among others C. Armerding, “The Last Words of Jacob: Genesis 49,” BSac 112 (1955): 320-28; H. Pehlke, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Genesis 49:1-28” (Th.D. dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1985); and B. Vawter, “The Canaanite Background of Genesis 49,” CBQ 17 (1955): 1-18.