30:31 So Laban asked, 4 “What should I give you?” “You don’t need to give me a thing,” 5 Jacob replied, 6 “but if you agree to this one condition, 7 I will continue to care for 8 your flocks and protect them:
Now Joseph was well built and good-looking. 14
42:37 Then Reuben said to his father, “You may 21 put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care 22 and I will bring him back to you.”
1 tn Heb “your servants are men of cattle.”
2 sn So that you may live in the land of Goshen. Joseph is apparently trying to stress to Pharaoh that his family is self-sufficient, that they will not be a drain on the economy of Egypt. But they will need land for their animals and so Goshen, located on the edge of Egypt, would be a suitable place for them to live. The settled Egyptians were uneasy with nomadic people, but if Jacob and his family settled in Goshen they would represent no threat.
3 tn Heb “is an abomination.” The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “abomination”) describes something that is loathsome or off-limits. For other practices the Egyptians considered disgusting, see Gen 43:32 and Exod 8:22.
4 tn Heb “and he said.” The referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn The negated imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance.
6 tn The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
7 tn Heb “If you do for me this thing.”
8 tn Heb “I will return, I will tend,” an idiom meaning “I will continue tending.”
9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Potiphar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 sn The Hebrew verb translated left indicates he relinquished the care of it to Joseph. This is stronger than what was said earlier. Apparently Potiphar had come to trust Joseph so much that he knew it was in better care with Joseph than with anyone else.
11 tn Heb “hand.” This is a metonymy for being under the control or care of Joseph.
12 tn Heb “did not know.”
13 sn The expression except the food he ate probably refers to Potiphar’s private affairs and should not be limited literally to what he ate.
14 tn Heb “handsome of form and handsome of appearance.” The same Hebrew expressions were used in Gen 29:17 for Rachel.
15 tn Heb “and he said.”
16 tn Heb “know.”
17 tn The word “here” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
18 tn Heb “hand.” This is a metonymy for being under the control or care of Joseph.
19 tn Heb “was not looking at anything.”
20 tn Heb “his”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
21 tn The nuance of the imperfect verbal form is permissive here.
22 tn Heb “my hand.”