Genesis 4:14

4:14 Look! You are driving me off the land¹ today, and I must hide from your presence.² I will be a homeless wanderer on the earth; whoever finds me will kill me.”

Genesis 26:9

26:9 So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, “She is really³ your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac replied, “Because I thought someone might kill me to get her.”⁴

Genesis 27:41

27:41 So Esau hated⁵ Jacob because of the blessing his father had given to his brother.⁶ Esau said privately,⁷ “The time⁸ of mourning for my father is near; then I will kill⁹ my brother Jacob!”

Genesis 37:20

37:20 Come now, let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and then say that a wild¹⁰ animal ate him. Then we’ll see how his dreams turn out!”¹¹

¹tn Heb “from upon the surface of the ground.”

²sn I must hide from your presence. The motif of hiding from the Lord as a result of sin also appears in Gen 3:8-10.

³tn Heb “Surely, look!” See N. H. Snaith, “The meaning of Hebrew ‘ak,” VT 14 (1964): 221-25.

⁴tn Heb “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’” Since the verb “said” probably means “said to myself” (i.e., “thought”) here, the direct discourse in the Hebrew statement has been converted to indirect discourse in the translation. In addition the simple prepositional phrase “on account of her” has been clarified in the translation as “to get her” (cf. v. 7).

⁵tn Or “bore a grudge against” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV). The Hebrew verb שָׂטַם (satam) describes persistent hatred.

⁶tn Heb “because of the blessing which his father blessed him.”

⁷tn 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.

⁸tn Heb “days.”

⁹tn The cohortative here expresses Esau’s determined resolve to kill Jacob.

¹⁰tn The Hebrew word can sometimes carry the nuance “evil,” but when used of an animal it refers to a dangerous wild animal.

¹¹tn Heb “what his dreams will be.”