27:41 So Esau hated 1 Jacob because of the blessing his father had given to his brother. 2 Esau said privately, 3 “The time 4 of mourning for my father is near; then I will kill 5 my brother Jacob!”
50:10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad 9 on the other side of the Jordan, they mourned there with very great and bitter sorrow. 10 There Joseph observed a seven day period of mourning for his father.
1 tn Or “bore a grudge against” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV). The Hebrew verb שָׂטַם (satam) describes persistent hatred.
2 tn Heb “because of the blessing which his father blessed him.”
3 tn Heb “said in his heart.” The expression may mean “said to himself.” Even if this is the case, v. 42 makes it clear that he must have shared his intentions with someone, because the news reached Rebekah.
4 tn Heb “days.”
5 tn The cohortative here expresses Esau’s determined resolve to kill Jacob.
6 tn Heb “arose, stood”; which here suggests that they stood by him in his time of grief.
7 tn Heb “and he said, ‘Indeed I will go down to my son mourning to Sheol.’” Sheol was viewed as the place where departed spirits went after death.
8 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 sn The location of the threshing floor of Atad is not certain. The expression the other side of the Jordan could refer to the eastern or western bank, depending on one’s perspective. However, it is commonly used in the OT for Transjordan. This would suggest that the entourage came up the Jordan Valley and crossed into the land at Jericho, just as the Israelites would in the time of Joshua.
10 tn Heb “and they mourned there [with] very great and heavy mourning.” The cognate accusative, as well as the two adjectives and the adverb, emphasize the degree of their sorrow.