26:10 Then Abimelech exclaimed, “What in the world have you done to us? 4 One of the men 5 might easily have had sexual relations with 6 your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!”
1 tn Heb “Hear us, my lord.”
2 tn Heb “prince of God.” The divine name may be used here as a means of expressing the superlative, “mighty prince.” The word for “prince” probably means “tribal chief” here. See M. H. Gottstein, “Nasi’ ‘elohim (Gen 23:6),” VT 3 (1953) 298-99; and D. W. Thomas, “Consideration of Some Unusual Ways of Expressing the Superlative in Hebrew,” VT 3 (1953) 215-16.
3 tn The phrase “to prevent you” has been added in the translation for stylistic reasons.
4 tn Heb “What is this you have done to us?” The Hebrew demonstrative pronoun “this” adds emphasis: “What in the world have you done to us?” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).
5 tn Heb “people.”
6 tn The Hebrew verb means “to lie down.” Here the expression “lie with” or “sleep with” is euphemistic for “have sexual relations with.”
7 tn Heb “when every one of our males is circumcised.”
8 tn Heb “Ruling, will you rule over us, or reigning, will you reign over us?” The statement has a poetic style, with the two questions being in synonymous parallelism. Both verbs in this statement are preceded by the infinitive absolute, which lends emphasis. It is as if Joseph’s brothers said, “You don’t really think you will rule over us, do you? You don’t really think you will have dominion over us, do you?”
9 tn This construction is identical to the one in Gen 37:5.
10 sn The response of Joseph’s brothers is understandable, given what has already been going on in the family. But here there is a hint of uneasiness – they hated him because of his dream and because of his words. The dream bothered them, as well as his telling them. And their words in the rhetorical question are ironic, for this is exactly what would happen. The dream was God’s way of revealing it.
11 tn The verb has no expressed subject, and so it could be treated as a passive (“a Hebrew man was brought in”; cf. NIV). But it is clear from the context that her husband brought Joseph into the household, so Potiphar is the apparent referent here. Thus the translation supplies “my husband” as the referent of the unspecified pronominal subject of the verb (cf. NEB, NRSV).
12 sn A Hebrew man. Potiphar’s wife raises the ethnic issue when talking to her servants about what their boss had done.
13 tn Heb “to make fun of us.” The verb translated “to humiliate us” here means to hold something up for ridicule, or to toy with something harmfully. Attempted rape would be such an activity, for it would hold the victim in contempt.
14 tn Heb “he came to me to lie with me.” Here the expression “lie with” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
15 tn Heb “and I cried out with a loud voice.”
16 tn Or “slave.”
17 tn Heb “a servant to the captain of the guards.” On this construction see GKC 419-20 §129.c.
18 tn The words “our dreams” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
19 tn Heb “and he interpreted for us our dreams, each according to his dream he interpreted.”