Genesis 4:15

4:15 But the Lord said to him, “All right then, ¹  if anyone kills Cain, Cain will be avenged seven times as much.” ²  Then the Lord put a special mark ³  on Cain so that no one who found him would strike him down. ⁴ 

Genesis 33:10

33:10 “No, please take them,” Jacob said. ⁵  “If I have found favor in your sight, accept ⁶  my gift from my hand. Now that I have seen your face and you have accepted me, ⁷  it is as if I have seen the face of God. ⁸ 

Genesis 44:16

44:16 Judah replied, “What can we say ⁹  to my lord? What can we speak? How can we clear ourselves? ¹⁰  God has exposed the sin of your servants! ¹¹  We are now my lord’s slaves, we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.”

Genesis 47:29

47:29 The time ¹²  for Israel to die approached, so he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh ¹³  and show me kindness and faithfulness. ¹⁴  Do not bury me in Egypt,

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¹ tn The Hebrew term לָכֵן (lakhen, “therefore”) in this context carries the sense of “Okay,” or “in that case then I will do this.”

² sn The symbolic number seven is used here to emphasize that the offender will receive severe punishment. For other rhetorical and hyperbolic uses of the expression “seven times over,” see Pss 12:6; 79:12; Prov 6:31; Isa 30:26.

³ tn Heb “sign”; “reminder.” The term “sign” is not used in the translation because it might imply to an English reader that God hung a sign on Cain. The text does not identify what the “sign” was. It must have been some outward, visual reminder of Cain’s special protected status.

⁴ sn God becomes Cain’s protector. Here is common grace – Cain and his community will live on under God’s care, but without salvation.

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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.

⁷ tn The verbal form is the preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive, indicating result here.

⁸ 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.

⁹ tn The imperfect verbal form here indicates the subject’s potential.

¹⁰ tn The Hitpael form of the verb צָדֵק (tsadeq) here means “to prove ourselves just, to declare ourselves righteous, to prove our innocence.”

¹¹ sn God has exposed the sin of your servants. The first three questions are rhetorical; Judah is stating that there is nothing they can say to clear themselves. He therefore must conclude that they have been found guilty.

¹² tn Heb “days.”

¹³ sn On the expression put your hand under my thigh see Gen 24:2.

¹⁴ tn Or “deal with me in faithful love.”