17:19 God said, “No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. 3 I will confirm my covenant with him as a perpetual 4 covenant for his descendants after him.
Now Joseph was well built and good-looking. 22
41:8 In the morning he 24 was troubled, so he called for 25 all the diviner-priests 26 of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, 27 but no one could interpret 28 them for him. 29
47:13 But there was no food in all the land because the famine was very severe; the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan wasted away 40 because of the famine.
1 tn Here for the first time the Hebrew word אָדָם (’adam) appears without the article, suggesting that it might now be the name “Adam” rather than “[the] man.” Translations of the Bible differ as to where they make the change from “man” to “Adam” (e.g., NASB and NIV translate “Adam” here, while NEB and NRSV continue to use “the man”; the KJV uses “Adam” twice in v. 19).
2 tn Heb “there was not found a companion who corresponded to him.” The subject of the third masculine singular verb form is indefinite. Without a formally expressed subject the verb may be translated as passive: “one did not find = there was not found.”
3 tn Heb “will call his name Isaac.” The name means “he laughs,” or perhaps “may he laugh” (see the note on the word “laughed” in v. 17).
4 tn Or “as an eternal.”
5 tn Heb “and the firstborn said.”
6 tn Or perhaps “on earth,” in which case the statement would be hyperbolic; presumably there had been some men living in the town of Zoar to which Lot and his daughters had initially fled.
7 tn Heb “to enter upon us.” This is a euphemism for sexual relations.
8 tn Heb “give.” The perfect tense has here a present nuance; this is a formal, legally binding declaration. Abraham asked only for a burial site/cave within the field; Ephron agrees to sell him the entire field.
9 tn The Hebrew text adds “to you I give [i.e., sell] it.” This is redundant in English and has not been translated for stylistic reasons.
10 tn Heb “in the presence of the sons of my people.”
11 tn Heb “And the young woman was very good of appearance, a virgin, and a man she had not known.” Some argue that the Hebrew noun translated “virgin” (בְּתוּלָה, bÿtulah) is better understood in a general sense, “young woman” (see Joel 1:8, where the word appears to refer to one who is married). In this case the circumstantial clause (“and a man she had not known”) would be restrictive, rather than descriptive. If the term actually means “virgin,” one wonders why the circumstantial clause is necessary (see Judg 21:12 as well). Perhaps the repetition emphasizes her sexual purity as a prerequisite for her role as the mother of the covenant community.
12 tn Heb “arose, stood”; which here suggests that they stood by him in his time of grief.
13 tn Heb “and he said, ‘Indeed I will go down to my son mourning to Sheol.’” Sheol was viewed as the place where departed spirits went after death.
14 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
15 tn Heb “the men of her place,” that is, who lived at the place where she had been.
16 sn The Hebrew noun translated “cult prostitute” is derived from a verb meaning “to be set apart; to be distinct.” Thus the term refers to a woman who did not marry, but was dedicated to temple service as a cult prostitute. The masculine form of this noun is used for male cult prostitutes. Judah thought he had gone to an ordinary prostitute (v. 15); but Hirah went looking for a cult prostitute, perhaps because it had been a sheep-shearing festival. For further discussion see E. M. Yamauchi, “Cultic Prostitution,” Orient and Occident (AOAT), 213-23.
17 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Potiphar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 sn The Hebrew verb translated left indicates he relinquished the care of it to Joseph. This is stronger than what was said earlier. Apparently Potiphar had come to trust Joseph so much that he knew it was in better care with Joseph than with anyone else.
19 tn Heb “hand.” This is a metonymy for being under the control or care of Joseph.
20 tn Heb “did not know.”
21 sn The expression except the food he ate probably refers to Potiphar’s private affairs and should not be limited literally to what he ate.
22 tn Heb “handsome of form and handsome of appearance.” The same Hebrew expressions were used in Gen 29:17 for Rachel.
23 tn The nuance of potential imperfect fits this context.
24 tn Heb “his spirit.”
25 tn Heb “he sent and called,” which indicates an official summons.
26 tn The Hebrew term חַרְטֹם (khartom) is an Egyptian loanword (hyr-tp) that describes a class of priests who were skilled in such interpretations.
27 tn The Hebrew text has the singular (though the Samaritan Pentateuch reads the plural). If retained, the singular must be collective for the set of dreams. Note the plural pronoun “them,” referring to the dreams, in the next clause. However, note that in v. 15 Pharaoh uses the singular to refer to the two dreams. In vv. 17-24 Pharaoh seems to treat the dreams as two parts of one dream (see especially v. 22).
28 tn “there was no interpreter.”
29 tn Heb “for Pharaoh.” The pronoun “him” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
30 tn Heb “when they went inside them.”
31 tn Heb “it was not known.”
32 tn The words “all this” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
33 tn Heb “and there was no one telling me.”
34 tn Heb “twelve [were] your servants, brothers [are] we.”
35 tn Heb “today.”
36 tn Heb “and the one is not.”
37 tn Heb “twelve [were] we, brothers, sons of our father [are] we.”
38 tn Heb “the one is not.”
39 tn Heb “today.”
40 tn The verb לַהַה (lahah, = לָאָה, la’ah) means “to faint, to languish”; it figuratively describes the land as wasting away, drooping, being worn out.