20:8 Early in the morning 1 Abimelech summoned 2 all his servants. When he told them about all these things, 3 they 4 were terrified.
22:1 Some time after these things God tested 8 Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” Abraham 9 replied.
36:20 These were the sons of Seir the Horite, 12 who were living in the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, 36:21 Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These were the chiefs of the Horites, the descendants 13 of Seir in the land of Edom.
36:31 These were the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king ruled over the Israelites: 14
1 tn Heb “And Abimelech rose early in the morning and he summoned.”
2 tn The verb קָרָא (qara’) followed by the preposition לְ (lamed) means “to summon.”
3 tn Heb “And he spoke all these things in their ears.”
4 tn Heb “the men.” This has been replaced by the pronoun “they” in the translation for stylistic reasons.
5 tn Heb “What are these?”
6 tn Heb “that it be for me for a witness.”
7 sn This well. Since the king wanted a treaty to share in Abraham’s good fortune, Abraham used the treaty to secure ownership of and protection for the well he dug. It would be useless to make a treaty to live in this territory if he had no rights to the water. Abraham consented to the treaty, but added his rider to it.
8 sn The Hebrew verb used here means “to test; to try; to prove.” In this passage God tests Abraham to see if he would be obedient. See T. W. Mann, The Book of the Torah, 44-48. See also J. L. Crenshaw, A Whirlpool of Torment (OBT), 9-30; and J. I. Lawlor, “The Test of Abraham,” GTJ 1 (1980): 19-35.
9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tn The disjunctive clause gives information that is important but parenthetical to the narrative. Rebekah would become the wife of Isaac (Gen 24:15).
11 tn Or “sons.”
12 sn The same pattern of sons, grandsons, and chiefs is now listed for Seir the Horite. “Seir” is both the name of the place and the name of the ancestor of these tribes. The name “Horite” is probably not to be identified with “Hurrian.” The clan of Esau settled in this area, intermarried with these Horites and eventually dispossessed them, so that they all became known as Edomites (Deut 2:12 telescopes the whole development).
13 tn Or “sons.”
14 tn Or perhaps “before any Israelite king ruled over [them].”
15 tn Heb “she lifted up her eyes toward,” an expression that emphasizes her deliberate and careful scrutiny of him.
16 tn Heb “lie with me.” Here the expression “lie with” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
sn The story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife has long been connected with the wisdom warnings about the strange woman who tries to seduce the young man with her boldness and directness (see Prov 5-7, especially 7:6-27). This is part of the literary background of the story of Joseph that gives it a wisdom flavor. See G. von Rad, God at Work in Israel, 19-35; and G. W. Coats, “The Joseph Story and Ancient Wisdom: A Reappraisal,” CBQ 35 (1973): 285-97.