Genesis 22:1

The Sacrifice of Isaac

22:1 Some time after these things God tested ¹  Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” Abraham ²  replied.

Genesis 22:11

22:11 But the Lord’s angel ³  called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am!” he answered.

Genesis 27:18

27:18 He went to his father and said, “My father!” Isaac ⁴  replied, “Here I am. Which are you, my son?” ⁵ 

Genesis 29:6

29:6 “Is he well?” ⁶  Jacob asked. They replied, “He is well. ⁷  Now look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”

Genesis 29:26

29:26 “It is not our custom here,” ⁸  Laban replied, “to give the younger daughter in marriage ⁹  before the firstborn.

Genesis 41:41

41:41 “See here,” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I place ¹⁰  you in authority over all the land of Egypt.” ¹¹ 

Genesis 46:2

46:2 God spoke to Israel in a vision during the night ¹²  and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” He replied, “Here I am!”

Genesis 50:18

50:18 Then his brothers also came and threw themselves down before him; they said, “Here we are; we are your slaves.”

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¹ 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.

² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ sn Heb “the messenger of the Lord” (also in v. 15). Some identify the angel of the Lord as the preincarnate Christ because in some texts the angel is identified with the Lord himself. However, see the note on the phrase “the Lord’s angel” in Gen 16:7.

⁴ tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ sn Which are you, my son? Isaac’s first question shows that the deception is going to require more subterfuge than Rebekah had anticipated. Jacob will have to pull off the deceit.

⁶ tn Heb “and he said to them, ‘Is there peace to him?’”

⁷ tn Heb “peace.”

⁸ tn Heb “and Laban said, ‘It is not done so in our place.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁹ tn Heb “to give the younger.” The words “daughter” and “in marriage” are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

¹⁰ tn The translation assumes that the perfect verbal form is descriptive of a present action. Another option is to understand it as rhetorical, in which case Pharaoh describes a still future action as if it had already occurred in order to emphasize its certainty. In this case one could translate “I have placed” or “I will place.” The verb נָתַן (natan) is translated here as “to place in authority [over].”

¹¹ sn Joseph became the grand vizier of the land of Egypt. See W. A. Ward, “The Egyptian Office of Joseph,” JSS 5 (1960): 144-50; and R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 129-31.

¹² tn Heb “in visions of the night.” The plural form has the singular meaning, probably as a plural of intensity.