Genesis 4:8

4:8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” ¹  While they were in the field, Cain attacked ²  his brother ³  Abel and killed him.

Genesis 12:12

12:12 When the Egyptians see you they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will keep you alive. ⁴ 

Genesis 24:57

24:57 Then they said, “We’ll call the girl and find out what she wants to do.” ⁵ 

Genesis 35:3

35:3 Let us go up at once ⁶  to Bethel. Then I will make ⁷  an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress ⁸  and has been with me wherever I went.” ⁹ 

Genesis 42:19

42:19 If you are honest men, leave one of your brothers confined here in prison ¹⁰  while the rest of you go ¹¹  and take grain back for your hungry families. ¹² 

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¹ tc The MT has simply “and Cain said to Abel his brother,” omitting Cain’s words to Abel. It is possible that the elliptical text is original. Perhaps the author uses the technique of aposiopesis, “a sudden silence” to create tension. In the midst of the story the narrator suddenly rushes ahead to what happened in the field. It is more likely that the ancient versions (Samaritan Pentateuch, LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac), which include Cain’s words, “Let’s go out to the field,” preserve the original reading here. After writing אָחִיו (’akhiyv, “his brother”), a scribe’s eye may have jumped to the end of the form בַּשָּׂדֶה (basadeh, “to the field”) and accidentally omitted the quotation. This would be an error of virtual homoioteleuton. In older phases of the Hebrew script the sequence יו (yod-vav) on אָחִיו is graphically similar to the final ה (he) on בַּשָּׂדֶה.

² tn Heb “arose against” (in a hostile sense).

³ sn The word “brother” appears six times in vv. 8-11, stressing the shocking nature of Cain’s fratricide (see 1 John 3:12).

⁴ tn The Piel of the verb חָיָה (khayah, “to live”) means “to keep alive, to preserve alive,” and in some places “to make alive.” See D. Marcus, “The Verb ‘to Live’ in Ugaritic,” JSS 17 (1972): 76-82.

⁵ tn Heb “and we will ask her mouth.”

⁶ tn Heb “let us arise and let us go up.” The first cohortative gives the statement a sense of urgency.

⁷ tn The cohortative with the prefixed conjunction here indicates purpose or consequence.

⁸ tn Heb “day of distress.” See Ps 20:1 which utilizes similar language.

⁹ tn Heb “in the way in which I went.” Jacob alludes here to God’s promise to be with him (see Gen 28:20).

¹⁰ tn Heb “bound in the house of your prison.”

¹¹ tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial-temporal.

¹² tn Heb “[for] the hunger of your households.”