31:43 Laban replied 7 to Jacob, “These women 8 are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, 9 and these flocks are my flocks. All that you see belongs to me. But how can I harm these daughters of mine today 10 or the children to whom they have given birth?
34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin 15 on me by making me a foul odor 16 among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I 17 am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”
36:6 Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, all the people in his household, his livestock, his animals, and all his possessions which he had acquired in the land of Canaan and went to a land some distance away from 18 Jacob his brother
37:2 This is the account of Jacob.
Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, 19 was taking care of 20 the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster 21 working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. 22 Joseph brought back a bad report about them 23 to their father.
1 tn Heb “Is he not rightly named Jacob?” The rhetorical question, since it expects a positive reply, has been translated as a declarative statement.
2 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.”
3 tn Heb “must come in to me.” The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. She has acquired him for the night and feels he is obligated to have sexual relations with her.
4 tn Heb “I have surely hired.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verbal form for emphasis. The name Issachar (see v. 18) seems to be related to this expression.
5 tn This is the same Hebrew verb (שָׁכַב, shakhav) translated “sleep with” in v. 15. In direct discourse the more euphemistic “sleep with” was used, but here in the narrative “marital relations” reflects more clearly the emphasis on sexual intercourse.
6 tn Heb “and he set the faces of.”
7 tn Heb “answered and said.”
8 tn Heb “daughters.”
9 tn Heb “children.”
10 tn Heb “but to my daughters what can I do to these today?”
11 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.
12 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.
13 tn The verbal form is the preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive, indicating result here.
14 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.
15 tn The traditional translation is “troubled me” (KJV, ASV), but the verb refers to personal or national disaster and suggests complete ruin (see Josh 7:25, Judg 11:35, Prov 11:17). The remainder of the verse describes the “trouble” Simeon and Levi had caused.
16 tn In the causative stem the Hebrew verb בָּאַשׁ (ba’ash) means “to cause to stink, to have a foul smell.” In the contexts in which it is used it describes foul smells, stenches, or things that are odious. Jacob senses that the people in the land will find this act terribly repulsive. See P. R. Ackroyd, “The Hebrew Root באשׁ,” JTS 2 (1951): 31-36.
17 tn Jacob speaks in the first person as the head and representative of the entire family.
18 tn Heb “from before.”
19 tn Heb “a son of seventeen years.” The word “son” is in apposition to the name “Joseph.”
20 tn Or “tending”; Heb “shepherding” or “feeding.”
21 tn Or perhaps “a helper.” The significance of this statement is unclear. It may mean “now the lad was with,” or it may suggest Joseph was like a servant to them.
22 tn Heb “and he [was] a young man with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, the wives of his father.”
23 tn Heb “their bad report.” The pronoun is an objective genitive, specifying that the bad or damaging report was about the brothers.
sn Some interpreters portray Joseph as a tattletale for bringing back a bad report about them [i.e., his brothers], but the entire Joseph story has some of the characteristics of wisdom literature. Joseph is presented in a good light – not because he was perfect, but because the narrative is showing how wisdom rules. In light of that, this section portrays Joseph as faithful to his father in little things, even though unpopular – and so he will eventually be given authority over greater things.
24 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
25 sn The expression he alone is left meant that (so far as Jacob knew) Benjamin was the only surviving child of his mother Rachel.
26 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.
27 tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.