3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about 1 in the orchard at the breezy time 2 of the day, and they hid 3 from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard.
6:5 But the Lord saw 4 that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination 5 of the thoughts 6 of their minds 7 was only evil 8 all the time. 9
23:16 So Abraham agreed to Ephron’s price 10 and weighed 11 out for him 12 the price 13 that Ephron had quoted 14 in the hearing of the sons of Heth – 400 pieces of silver, according to the standard measurement at the time. 15
27:41 So Esau hated 16 Jacob because of the blessing his father had given to his brother. 17 Esau said privately, 18 “The time 19 of mourning for my father is near; then I will kill 20 my brother Jacob!”
29:34 She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “Now this time my husband will show me affection, 24 because I have given birth to three sons for him.” That is why he was named Levi. 25
29:35 She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” That is why she named him Judah. 26 Then she stopped having children.
30:14 At the time 27 of the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found some mandrake plants 28 in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
38:12 After some time 33 Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. After Judah was consoled, he left for Timnah to visit his sheepshearers, along with 34 his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
1 tn The Hitpael participle of הָלָךְ (halakh, “to walk, to go”) here has an iterative sense, “moving” or “going about.” While a translation of “walking about” is possible, it assumes a theophany, the presence of the
2 tn The expression is traditionally rendered “cool of the day,” because the Hebrew word רוּחַ (ruakh) can mean “wind.” U. Cassuto (Genesis: From Adam to Noah, 152-54) concludes after lengthy discussion that the expression refers to afternoon when it became hot and the sun was beginning to decline. J. J. Niehaus (God at Sinai [SOTBT], 155-57) offers a different interpretation of the phrase, relating יוֹם (yom, usually understood as “day”) to an Akkadian cognate umu (“storm”) and translates the phrase “in the wind of the storm.” If Niehaus is correct, then God is not pictured as taking an afternoon stroll through the orchard, but as coming in a powerful windstorm to confront the man and woman with their rebellion. In this case קוֹל יְהוָה (qol yÿhvah, “sound of the
3 tn The verb used here is the Hitpael, giving the reflexive idea (“they hid themselves”). In v. 10, when Adam answers the
4 sn The Hebrew verb translated “saw” (רָאָה, ra’ah), used here of God’s evaluation of humankind’s evil deeds, contrasts with God’s evaluation of creative work in Gen 1, when he observed that everything was good.
5 tn The noun יֵצֶר (yetser) is related to the verb יָצָר (yatsar, “to form, to fashion [with a design]”). Here it refers to human plans or intentions (see Gen 8:21; 1 Chr 28:9; 29:18). People had taken their God-given capacities and used them to devise evil. The word יֵצֶר (yetser) became a significant theological term in Rabbinic literature for what might be called the sin nature – the evil inclination (see also R. E. Murphy, “Yeser in the Qumran Literature,” Bib 39 [1958]: 334-44).
6 tn The related verb הָשָׁב (hashav) means “to think, to devise, to reckon.” The noun (here) refers to thoughts or considerations.
7 tn Heb “his heart” (referring to collective “humankind”). The Hebrew term לֵב (lev, “heart”) frequently refers to the seat of one’s thoughts (see BDB 524 s.v. לֵב). In contemporary English this is typically referred to as the “mind.”
8 sn Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil. There is hardly a stronger statement of the wickedness of the human race than this. Here is the result of falling into the “knowledge of good and evil”: Evil becomes dominant, and the good is ruined by the evil.
9 tn Heb “all the day.”
sn The author of Genesis goes out of his way to emphasize the depth of human evil at this time. Note the expressions “every inclination,” “only evil,” and “all the time.”
10 tn Heb “listened to Ephron.”
11 tn Heb “and Abraham weighed out.”
12 tn Heb “to Ephron.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
13 tn Heb “silver.”
14 tn Heb “that he had spoken.” The referent (Ephron) has been specified here in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.
15 tn Heb “passing for the merchant.” The final clause affirms that the measurement of silver was according to the standards used by the merchants of the time.
16 tn Or “bore a grudge against” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV). The Hebrew verb שָׂטַם (satam) describes persistent hatred.
17 tn Heb “because of the blessing which his father blessed him.”
18 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.
19 tn Heb “days.”
20 tn The cohortative here expresses Esau’s determined resolve to kill Jacob.
21 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
22 tn Heb “the day is great.”
23 tn Heb “water the sheep and go and pasture [them].” The verbal forms are imperatives, but Jacob would hardly be giving direct orders to someone else’s shepherds. The nuance here is probably one of advice.
24 tn Heb “will be joined to me.”
25 sn The name Levi (לֵוִי, levi), the precise meaning of which is debated, was appropriate because it sounds like the verb לָוָה (lavah, “to join”), used in the statement recorded earlier in the verse.
26 sn The name Judah (יְהוּדָה, yÿhudah) means “he will be praised” and reflects the sentiment Leah expresses in the statement recorded earlier in the verse. For further discussion see W. F. Albright, “The Names ‘Israel’ and ‘Judah’ with an Excursus on the Etymology of Todah and Torah,” JBL 46 (1927): 151-85; and A. R. Millard, “The Meaning of the Name Judah,” ZAW 86 (1974): 216-18.
27 tn Heb “during the days.”
28 sn Mandrake plants were popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac in the culture of the time.
29 tn Heb “let us arise and let us go up.” The first cohortative gives the statement a sense of urgency.
30 tn The cohortative with the prefixed conjunction here indicates purpose or consequence.
31 tn Heb “day of distress.” See Ps 20:1 which utilizes similar language.
32 tn Heb “in the way in which I went.” Jacob alludes here to God’s promise to be with him (see Gen 28:20).
33 sn After some time. There is not enough information in the narrative to know how long this was. The text says “the days increased.” It was long enough for Shelah to mature and for Tamar to realize she would not have him.
34 tn Heb “and he went up to the shearers of his sheep, he and.”
35 tn Heb “twelve [were] your servants, brothers [are] we.”
36 tn Heb “today.”
37 tn Heb “and the one is not.”
38 tn Heb “twelve [were] we, brothers, sons of our father [are] we.”
39 tn Heb “the one is not.”
40 tn Heb “today.”
41 tn Heb “and he appeared to him.”