26:7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he replied, “She is my sister.” 1 He was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” for he thought to himself, 2 “The men of this place will kill me to get 3 Rebekah because she is very beautiful.”
44:16 Judah replied, “What can we say 21 to my lord? What can we speak? How can we clear ourselves? 22 God has exposed the sin of your servants! 23 We are now my lord’s slaves, we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.”
1 sn Rebekah, unlike Sarah, was not actually her husband’s sister.
2 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.
3 tn Heb “kill me on account of.”
4 tn Heb “Is he not rightly named Jacob?” The rhetorical question, since it expects a positive reply, has been translated as a declarative statement.
5 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.”
6 tn Heb “and she said to her”; the referent of the pronoun “she” (Leah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
7 tn Heb “therefore.”
8 tn Heb “lie down.” The expression “lie down with” in this context (here and in the following verse) refers to sexual intercourse. The imperfect verbal form has a permissive nuance here.
9 tn Heb “will answer on my behalf.”
10 tn Heb “on the following day,” or “tomorrow.”
11 tn Heb “when you come concerning my wage before you.”
sn Only the wage we agreed on. Jacob would have to be considered completely honest here, for he would have no control over the kind of animals born; and there could be no disagreement over which animals were his wages.
12 tn Heb “every one which is not speckled and spotted among the lambs and dark among the goats, stolen it is with me.”
13 tn Heb “and Jacob said, ‘No, please.’” The words “take them” have been supplied in the translation for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse rearranged for stylistic reasons.
14 tn The form is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, expressing a contingent future nuance in the “then” section of the conditional sentence.
15 tn The verbal form is the preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive, indicating result here.
16 tn Heb “for therefore I have seen your face like seeing the face of God and you have accepted me.”
sn This is an allusion to the preceding episode (32:22-31) in which Jacob saw the face of God and realized his prayer was answered.
17 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 sn The expression he alone is left meant that (so far as Jacob knew) Benjamin was the only surviving child of his mother Rachel.
19 sn The expression bring down my gray hair is figurative, using a part for the whole – they would put Jacob in the grave. But the gray head signifies a long life of worry and trouble.
20 tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.
21 tn The imperfect verbal form here indicates the subject’s potential.
22 tn The Hitpael form of the verb צָדֵק (tsadeq) here means “to prove ourselves just, to declare ourselves righteous, to prove our innocence.”
23 sn God has exposed the sin of your servants. The first three questions are rhetorical; Judah is stating that there is nothing they can say to clear themselves. He therefore must conclude that they have been found guilty.