8:22 “While the earth continues to exist, 3
planting time 4 and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
and day and night will not cease.”
12:6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree 5 of Moreh 6 at Shechem. 7 (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) 8
18:1 The Lord appeared to Abraham 12 by the oaks 13 of Mamre while 14 he was sitting at the entrance 15 to his tent during the hottest time of the day.
21:22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you 17 in all that you do.
26:8 After Isaac 20 had been there a long time, 21 Abimelech king of the Philistines happened to look out a window and observed 22 Isaac caressing 23 his wife Rebekah.
They spent some time in custody. 25
1 tn The word “people” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation. The construction uses a passive verb without an expressed subject. “To call was begun” can be interpreted to mean that people began to call.
2 tn Heb “call in the name.” The expression refers to worshiping the
3 tn Heb “yet all the days of the earth.” The idea is “[while there are] yet all the days of the earth,” meaning, “as long as the earth exists.”
4 tn Heb “seed,” which stands here by metonymy for the time when seed is planted.
5 tn Or “terebinth.”
6 sn The Hebrew word Moreh (מוֹרֶה, moreh) means “teacher.” It may well be that the place of this great oak tree was a Canaanite shrine where instruction took place.
7 tn Heb “as far as the place of Shechem, as far as the oak of Moreh.”
8 tn The disjunctive clause gives important information parenthetical in nature – the promised land was occupied by Canaanites.
9 tn The Hebrew term רִיב (riv) means “strife, conflict, quarreling.” In later texts it has the meaning of “legal controversy, dispute.” See B. Gemser, “The rîb – or Controversy – Pattern in Hebrew Mentality,” Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient Near East [VTSup], 120-37.
10 sn Since the quarreling was between the herdsmen, the dispute was no doubt over water and vegetation for the animals.
11 tn This parenthetical clause, introduced with the vav (ו) disjunctive (translated “now”), again provides critical information. It tells in part why the land cannot sustain these two bedouins, and it also hints of the danger of weakening the family by inner strife.
12 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 tn Or “terebinths.”
14 tn The disjunctive clause here is circumstantial to the main clause.
15 tn The Hebrew noun translated “entrance” is an adverbial accusative of place.
16 tn Or “she conceived.”
17 sn God is with you. Abimelech and Phicol recognized that Abraham enjoyed special divine provision and protection.
18 tn Heb “well of water.”
19 tn Heb “at the time of evening.”
20 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
21 tn Heb “and it happened when the days were long to him there.”
22 tn Heb “look, Isaac.” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator invites the audience to view the scene through Abimelech’s eyes.
23 tn Or “fondling.”
sn The Hebrew word מְצַחֵק (mÿtsakheq), from the root צָחַק (tsakhaq, “laugh”), forms a sound play with the name “Isaac” right before it. Here it depicts an action, probably caressing or fondling, that indicated immediately that Rebekah was Isaac’s wife, not his sister. Isaac’s deception made a mockery of God’s covenantal promise. Ignoring God’s promise to protect and bless him, Isaac lied to protect himself and acted in bad faith to the men of Gerar.
24 sn He served them. This is the same Hebrew verb, meaning “to serve as a personal attendant,” that was translated “became [his] servant” in 39:4.
25 tn Heb “they were days in custody.”