9:12 And God said, “This is the guarantee 4 of the covenant I am making 5 with you 6 and every living creature with you, a covenant 7 for all subsequent 8 generations:
41:46 Now Joseph was 30 years old 22 when he began serving 23 Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph was commissioned by 24 Pharaoh and was in charge of 25 all the land of Egypt.
46:25 These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, seven in all.
49:28 These 31 are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He gave each of them an appropriate blessing. 32
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 verbal repetition is apparently for emphasis.
4 tn Heb “sign.”
5 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.
6 tn Heb “between me and between you.”
7 tn The words “a covenant” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
8 tn The Hebrew term עוֹלָם (’olam) means “ever, forever, lasting, perpetual.” The covenant would extend to subsequent generations.
9 tn Heb “they returned and came to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh).” The two verbs together form a verbal hendiadys, the first serving as the adverb: “they returned and came” means “they came again.” Most English translations do not treat this as a hendiadys, but translate “they turned back” or something similar. Since in the context, however, “came again to” does not simply refer to travel but an assault against the place, the present translation expresses this as “attacked…again.”
10 tn The verbal root is גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to reside temporarily,” i.e., as a resident alien). It is the land in which Abram resides, but does not yet possess as his very own.
11 tn Or “as an eternal.”
12 tn In the Hebrew text the clause begins with “because.”
13 tn Heb had completely closed up every womb.” In the Hebrew text infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.
sn The
14 tn Heb “because of.” The words “he took” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
15 tn The Hebrew term זָקֵן (zaqen) may refer to the servant who is oldest in age or senior in authority (or both).
16 sn Put your hand under my thigh. The taking of this oath had to do with the sanctity of the family and the continuation of the family line. See D. R. Freedman, “Put Your Hand Under My Thigh – the Patriarchal Oath,” BAR 2 (1976): 2-4, 42.
17 tn Heb “strikes.” Here the verb has the nuance “to harm in any way.” It would include assaulting the woman or killing the man.
18 tn The use of the infinitive absolute before the imperfect makes the construction emphatic.
19 tn The disjunctive clause structure (conjunction + noun/subject) is used to highlight the statement.
20 tn The infinitive absolute is used before the finite verb for emphasis.
21 tn Heb “and all which you give to me I will surely give a tenth of it to you.” The disjunctive clause structure (conjunction + noun/object) highlights this statement as well.
22 tn Heb “a son of thirty years.”
23 tn Heb “when he stood before.”
24 tn Heb “went out from before.”
25 tn Heb “and he passed through all the land of Egypt”; this phrase is interpreted by JPS to mean that Joseph “emerged in charge of the whole land.”
26 tn The verb כּוּל (kul) in the Pilpel stem means “to nourish, to support, to sustain.” As in 1 Kgs 20:27, it here means “to supply with food.”
27 tn The LXX reads “nine sons,” probably counting the grandsons of Joseph born to Ephraim and Manasseh (cf. 1 Chr 7:14-20).
28 tn Heb “And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two people; all the people belonging to the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were seventy.”
sn The number seventy includes Jacob himself and the seventy-one descendants (including Dinah, Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim) listed in vv. 8-25, minus Er and Onan (deceased). The LXX gives the number as “seventy-five” (cf. Acts 7:14).
29 tn Heb “feeders of sheep.”
30 tn Heb “for men of livestock they are.”
31 tn Heb “All these.”
32 tn Heb “and he blessed them, each of whom according to his blessing, he blessed them.”