Genesis 3:6

3:6 When ¹  the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, ²  was attractive ³  to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, ⁴  she took some of its fruit and ate it. ⁵  She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. ⁶ 

Genesis 8:13

8:13 In Noah’s six hundred and first year, ⁷  in the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that ⁸  the surface of the ground was dry.

Genesis 13:10

13:10 Lot looked up and saw ⁹  the whole region ¹⁰  of the Jordan. He noticed ¹¹  that all of it was well-watered (before the Lord obliterated ¹²  Sodom and Gomorrah) ¹³  like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, ¹⁴  all the way to Zoar.

Genesis 24:30

24:30 When he saw the bracelets on his sister’s wrists and the nose ring ¹⁵  and heard his sister Rebekah say, ¹⁶  “This is what the man said to me,” he went out to meet the man. There he was, standing ¹⁷  by the camels near the spring.

Genesis 31:42

31:42 If the God of my father – the God of Abraham, the one whom Isaac fears ¹⁸  – had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked, ¹⁹  and he rebuked you last night.”

Genesis 38:14

38:14 So she removed her widow’s clothes and covered herself with a veil. She wrapped herself and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the way to Timnah. (She did this because ²⁰  she saw that she had not been given to Shelah as a wife, even though he had now grown up.) ²¹ 

Genesis 42:7

42:7 When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger ²²  to them and spoke to them harshly. He asked, “Where do you come from?” They answered, ²³  “From the land of Canaan, to buy grain for food.” ²⁴ 

Genesis 42:21

42:21 They said to one other, ²⁵  “Surely we’re being punished ²⁶  because of our brother, because we saw how distressed he was ²⁷  when he cried to us for mercy, but we refused to listen. That is why this distress ²⁸  has come on us!”

Genesis 50:11

50:11 When the Canaanites who lived in the land saw them mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a very sad occasion ²⁹  for the Egyptians.” That is why its name was called ³⁰  Abel Mizraim, ³¹  which is beyond the Jordan.

---

¹ tn Heb “And the woman saw.” The clause can be rendered as a temporal clause subordinate to the following verb in the sequence.

² tn Heb “that the tree was good for food.” The words “produced fruit that was” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

³ tn The Hebrew word תַּאֲוָה (ta’avah, translated “attractive” here) actually means “desirable.” This term and the later term נֶחְמָד (nekhmad, “desirable”) are synonyms.

sn Attractive (Heb “desirable”)…desirable. These are different words in Hebrew. The verbal roots for both of these forms appear in Deut 5:21 in the prohibition against coveting. Strong desires usually lead to taking.

⁴ tn Heb “that good was the tree for food, and that desirable it was to the eyes, and desirable was the tree to make one wise.” On the connection between moral wisdom and the “knowledge of good and evil,” see the note on the word “evil” in 2:9.

sn Desirable for making one wise. The quest for wisdom can follow the wrong course, as indeed it does here. No one can become like God by disobeying God. It is that simple. The Book of Proverbs stresses that obtaining wisdom begins with the fear of God that is evidenced through obedience to his word. Here, in seeking wisdom, Eve disobeys God and ends up afraid of God.

⁵ tn The pronoun “it” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied (here and also after “ate” at the end of this verse) for stylistic reasons.

sn She took…and ate it. The critical word now discloses the disobedience: “[she] ate.” Since the Lord God had said, “You shall not eat,” the main point of the divine inquisition will be, “Did you eat,” meaning, “did you disobey the command?” The woman ate, being deceived by the serpent (1 Tim 2:14), but then the man ate, apparently willingly when the woman gave him the fruit (see Rom 5:12, 17-19).

⁶ sn This pericope (3:1-7) is a fine example of Hebrew narrative structure. After an introductory disjunctive clause that introduces a new character and sets the stage (3:1), the narrative tension develops through dialogue, culminating in the action of the story. Once the dialogue is over, the action is told in a rapid sequence of verbs – she took, she ate, she gave, and he ate.

⁷ tn Heb In the six hundred and first year.” Since this refers to the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, the word “Noah’s” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Heb “and saw and look.” As in v. 11, the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) invites readers to enter into the story, as it were, and look at the dry ground with their own eyes.

⁹ tn Heb “lifted up his eyes and saw.” The expression draws attention to the act of looking, indicating that Lot took a good look. It also calls attention to the importance of what was seen.

¹⁰ tn Or “plain”; Heb “circle.”

¹¹ tn The words “he noticed” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹² sn Obliterated. The use of the term “destroy” (שַׁחֵת, shakhet) is reminiscent of the Noahic flood (Gen 6:13). Both at the flood and in Sodom the place was obliterated by catastrophe and only one family survived (see C. Westermann, Genesis, 2:178).

¹³ tn This short temporal clause (preposition + Piel infinitive construct + subjective genitive + direct object) is strategically placed in the middle of the lavish descriptions to sound an ominous note. The entire clause is parenthetical in nature. Most English translations place the clause at the end of v. 10 for stylistic reasons.

¹⁴ sn The narrative places emphasis on what Lot saw so that the reader can appreciate how it aroused his desire for the best land. It makes allusion to the garden of the Lord and to the land of Egypt for comparison. Just as the tree in the garden of Eden had awakened Eve’s desire, so the fertile valley attracted Lot. And just as certain memories of Egypt would cause the Israelites to want to turn back and abandon the trek to the promised land, so Lot headed for the good life.

¹⁵ tn Heb “And it was when he saw the nose ring and the bracelets on the arms of his sister.” The word order is altered in the translation for the sake of clarity.

¹⁶ tn Heb “and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “and look, he was standing.” The disjunctive clause with the participle following the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) invites the audience to view the scene through Laban’s eyes.

¹⁸ tn Heb “the fear of Isaac,” that is, the one whom Isaac feared and respected. For further discussion of this title see M. Malul, “More on pahad yitschaq (Gen. 31:42,53) and the Oath by the Thigh,” VT 35 (1985): 192-200.

¹⁹ tn Heb “My oppression and the work of my hands God saw.”

²⁰ tn The Hebrew text simply has “because,” connecting this sentence to what precedes. For stylistic reasons the words “she did this” are supplied in the translation and a new sentence begun.

²¹ tn Heb “she saw that Shelah had grown up, but she was not given to him as a wife.”

²² sn But pretended to be a stranger. Joseph intends to test his brothers to see if they have changed and have the integrity to be patriarchs of the tribes of Israel. He will do this by putting them in the same situations that they and he were in before. The first test will be to awaken their conscience.

²³ tn Heb “said.”

²⁴ tn The verb is denominative, meaning “to buy grain”; the word “food” could simply be the direct object, but may also be an adverbial accusative.

²⁵ tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.”

²⁶ tn Or “we are guilty”; the Hebrew word can also refer to the effect of being guilty, i.e., “we are being punished for guilt.”

²⁷ tn Heb “the distress of his soul.”

²⁸ sn The repetition of the Hebrew noun translated distress draws attention to the fact that they regard their present distress as appropriate punishment for their refusal to ignore their brother when he was in distress.

²⁹ tn Heb “this is heavy mourning for Egypt.”

³⁰ tn The verb has no expressed subject and so it may be translated as passive.

³¹ sn The name Abel Mizraim means “the mourning of Egypt.”