8:20 Noah built an altar to the Lord. He then took some of every kind of clean animal and clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 10
9:12 And God said, “This is the guarantee 11 of the covenant I am making 12 with you 13 and every living creature with you, a covenant 14 for all subsequent 15 generations:
34:24 All the men who assembled at the city gate 21 agreed with 22 Hamor and his son Shechem. Every male who assembled at the city gate 23 was circumcised.
1 tn Heb “from all life, from all flesh, two from all you must bring.” The disjunctive clause at the beginning of the verse (note the conjunction with prepositional phrase, followed by two more prepositional phrases in apposition and then the imperfect verb form) signals a change in mood from announcement (vv. 17-18) to instruction.
2 tn The Piel infinitive construct לְהַחֲיוֹת (lÿhakhayot, here translated as “to keep them alive”) shows the purpose of bringing the animals into the ark – saving life. The Piel of this verb means here “to preserve alive.”
3 tn The verb is a direct imperative: “And you, take for yourself.” The form stresses the immediate nature of the instruction; the pronoun underscores the directness.
4 tn Heb “from all food,” meaning “some of every kind of food.”
5 tn Or “will be eaten.”
6 tn Heb “and gather it to you.”
7 tn Or “seven pairs” (cf. NRSV).
8 tn Here (and in v. 9) the Hebrew text uses the normal generic terms for “male and female” (זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה, zakhar unÿqevah).
9 tn Heb “to keep alive offspring.”
10 sn Offered burnt offerings on the altar. F. D. Maurice includes a chapter on the sacrifice of Noah in The Doctrine of Sacrifice. The whole burnt offering, according to Leviticus 1, represented the worshiper’s complete surrender and dedication to the
11 tn Heb “sign.”
12 sn On the making of covenants in Genesis, see W. F. Albright, “The Hebrew Expression for ‘Making a Covenant’ in Pre-Israelite Documents,” BASOR 121 (1951): 21-22.
13 tn Heb “between me and between you.”
14 tn The words “a covenant” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
15 tn The Hebrew term עוֹלָם (’olam) means “ever, forever, lasting, perpetual.” The covenant would extend to subsequent generations.
16 tn The verb שָׁכַב (shakhav) means “to lie down, to recline,” that is, “to go to bed.” Here what appears to be an imperfect is a preterite after the adverb טֶרֶם (terem). The nuance of potential (perfect) fits well.
17 tn Heb “and the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from the young to the old, all the people from the end [of the city].” The repetition of the phrase “men of” stresses all kinds of men.
18 tn In the Hebrew text the clause begins with “because.”
19 tn Heb had completely closed up every womb.” In the Hebrew text infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
sn The
20 tn Heb “because of.” The words “he took” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
21 tn Heb “all those going out the gate of his city.”
22 tn Heb “listened to.”
23 tn Heb “all those going out the gate of his city.”