Genesis 21:17

21:17 But God heard the boy’s voice. ¹  The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, ²  Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard ³  the boy’s voice right where he is crying.

Genesis 26:7

26:7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he replied, “She is my sister.” ⁴  He was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” for he thought to himself, ⁵  “The men of this place will kill me to get ⁶  Rebekah because she is very beautiful.”

Genesis 27:36

27:36 Esau exclaimed, “‘Jacob’ is the right name for him! ⁷  He has tripped me up ⁸  two times! He took away my birthright, and now, look, he has taken away my blessing!” Then he asked, “Have you not kept back a blessing for me?”

Genesis 38:16

38:16 He turned aside to her along the road and said, “Come on! I want to have sex with you.” ⁹  (He did not realize ¹⁰  it was his daughter-in-law.) She asked, “What will you give me in exchange for having sex with you?” ¹¹ 

Genesis 42:7

42:7 When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger ¹²  to them and spoke to them harshly. He asked, “Where do you come from?” They answered, ¹³  “From the land of Canaan, to buy grain for food.” ¹⁴ 

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¹ sn God heard the boy’s voice. The text has not to this point indicated that Ishmael was crying out, either in pain or in prayer. But the text here makes it clear that God heard him. Ishmael is clearly central to the story. Both the mother and the Lord are focused on the child’s imminent death.

² tn Heb “What to you?”

³ sn Here the verb heard picks up the main motif of the name Ishmael (“God hears”), introduced back in chap. 16.

⁴ sn Rebekah, unlike Sarah, was not actually her husband’s sister.

⁵ tn Heb “lest.” The words “for he thought to himself” are supplied because the next clause is written with a first person pronoun, showing that Isaac was saying or thinking this.

⁶ tn Heb “kill me on account of.”

⁷ tn Heb “Is he not rightly named Jacob?” The rhetorical question, since it expects a positive reply, has been translated as a declarative statement.

⁸ sn He has tripped me up. When originally given, the name Jacob was a play on the word “heel” (see Gen 25:26). The name (since it is a verb) probably means something like “may he protect,” that is, as a rearguard, dogging the heels. This name was probably chosen because of the immediate association with the incident of grabbing the heel. Esau gives the name “Jacob” a negative connotation here, the meaning “to trip up; to supplant.”

⁹ tn Heb “I will go to you.” The imperfect verbal form probably indicates his desire here. The expression “go to” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

¹⁰ tn Heb “for he did not know that.”

¹¹ tn Heb “when you come to me.” This expression is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

¹² sn But pretended to be a stranger. Joseph intends to test his brothers to see if they have changed and have the integrity to be patriarchs of the tribes of Israel. He will do this by putting them in the same situations that they and he were in before. The first test will be to awaken their conscience.

¹³ tn Heb “said.”

¹⁴ tn The verb is denominative, meaning “to buy grain”; the word “food” could simply be the direct object, but may also be an adverbial accusative.