16:13 So Hagar named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” 4 for she said, “Here I have seen one who sees me!” 5
24:61 Then Rebekah and her female servants mounted the camels and rode away with 13 the man. So Abraham’s servant 14 took Rebekah and left.
30:1 When Rachel saw that she could not give Jacob children, she 18 became jealous of her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children 19 or I’ll die!”
34:8 But Hamor made this appeal to them: “My son Shechem is in love with your daughter. 23 Please give her to him as his wife.
35:16 They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, 24 Rachel went into labor 25 – and her labor was hard.
1 tn The Hebrew verb is בָּנָה (banah, “to make, to build, to construct”). The text states that the
2 sn He did treat Abram well. The construction of the parenthetical disjunctive clause, beginning with the conjunction on the prepositional phrase, draws attention to the irony of the story. Abram wanted Sarai to lie “so that it would go well” with him. Though he lost Sarai to Pharaoh, it did go well for him – he received a lavish bride price. See also G. W. Coats, “Despoiling the Egyptians,” VT 18 (1968): 450-57.
3 tn Heb “and there was to him.”
4 tn Heb “God of my seeing.” The pronominal suffix may be understood either as objective (“who sees me,” as in the translation) or subjective (“whom I see”).
5 tn Heb “after one who sees me.”
sn For a discussion of Hagar’s exclamation, see T. Booij, “Hagar’s Words in Genesis 16:13b,” VT 30 (1980): 1-7.
6 tn Heb “Sarah.” The proper name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“she”) for stylistic reasons.
7 sn Mourn…weep. The description here is of standard mourning rites (see K. A. Kitchen, NBD3 149-50). They would have been carried out in the presence of the corpse, probably in Sarah’s tent. So Abraham came in to mourn; then he rose up to go and bury his dead (v. 3).
8 tn Heb “and she hurried and emptied.”
9 tn Following the imperatives, the jussive with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
10 tn Heb “as the
11 tn Heb “her”; the referent (Rebekah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tn The imperfect verbal form here has a modal nuance, expressing desire.
13 tn Heb “And she arose, Rebekah and her female servants, and they rode upon camels and went after.”
14 tn Heb “the servant”; the word “Abraham’s” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
15 tn Heb “in exchange for Rachel.”
16 sn But they seemed like only a few days to him. This need not mean that the time passed quickly. More likely it means that the price seemed insignificant when compared to what he was getting in the bargain.
17 tn Heb “because of his love for her.” The words “was so great” are supplied for stylistic reasons.
18 tn Heb “Rachel.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“she”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
19 tn Heb “sons.”
20 sn This kind of ranking according to favoritism no doubt fed the jealousy over Joseph that later becomes an important element in the narrative. It must have been painful to the family to see that they were expendable.
21 tn Heb “his soul stuck to [or “joined with”],” meaning Shechem became very attached to Dinah emotionally.
22 tn Heb “and he spoke to the heart of the young woman,” which apparently refers in this context to tender, romantic speech (Hos 2:14). Another option is to translate the expression “he reassured the young woman” (see Judg 19:3, 2 Sam 19:7; cf. NEB “comforted her”).
23 tn Heb “Shechem my son, his soul is attached to your daughter.” The verb means “to love” in the sense of being emotionally attached to or drawn to someone. This is a slightly different way of saying what was reported earlier (v. 3). However, there is no mention here of the offense. Even though Hamor is speaking to Dinah’s brothers, he refers to her as their daughter (see v. 17).
24 tn Heb “and there was still a stretch of the land to go to Ephrath.”
25 tn Normally the verb would be translated “she gave birth,” but because that obviously had not happened yet, it is better to translate the verb as ingressive, “began to give birth” (cf. NIV) or “went into labor.”
26 tn Heb “he fled and he went out.” The construction emphasizes the point that Joseph got out of there quickly.
27 sn For discussion of this episode, see A. M. Honeyman, “The Occasion of Joseph’s Temptation,” VT 2 (1952): 85-87.