Genesis 6:20

6:20 Of the birds after their kinds, and of the cattle after their kinds, and of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you so you can keep them alive. ¹ 

Genesis 13:16

13:16 And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone is able to count the dust of the earth, then your descendants also can be counted. ² 

Genesis 14:23

14:23 that I will take nothing ³  belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal. That way you can never say, ‘It is I ⁴  who made Abram rich.’

Genesis 16:2

16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since ⁵  the Lord has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with ⁶  my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.” ⁷  Abram did what ⁸  Sarai told him.

Genesis 20:13

20:13 When God made me wander ⁹  from my father’s house, I told her, ‘This is what you can do to show your loyalty to me: ¹⁰  Every place we go, say about me, “He is my brother.”’”

Genesis 24:54

24:54 After this, he and the men who were with him ate a meal and stayed there overnight. ¹¹ 

When they got up in the morning, he said, “Let me leave now so I can return to my master.” ¹² 

Genesis 27:19

27:19 Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau, your firstborn. I’ve done as you told me. Now sit up ¹³  and eat some of my wild game so that you can bless me.” ¹⁴ 

Genesis 27:31

27:31 He also prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Esau ¹⁵  said to him, “My father, get up ¹⁶  and eat some of your son’s wild game. Then you can bless me.” ¹⁷ 

Genesis 27:37

27:37 Isaac replied to Esau, “Look! I have made him lord over you. I have made all his relatives his servants and provided him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?”

Genesis 34:12

34:12 You can make the bride price and the gift I must bring very expensive, ¹⁸  and I’ll give ¹⁹  whatever you ask ²⁰  of me. Just give me the young woman as my wife!”

Genesis 44:1

The Final Test

44:1 He instructed the servant who was over his household, “Fill the sacks of the men with as much food as they can carry and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack.

Genesis 44:15

44:15 Joseph said to them, “What did you think you were doing? ²¹  Don’t you know that a man like me can find out things like this by divination?” ²² 

Genesis 50:20

50:20 As for you, you meant to harm me, ²³  but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day. ²⁴ 

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¹ tn Heb “to keep alive.”

² tn The translation “can be counted” (potential imperfect) is suggested by the use of יוּכַל (yukhal, “is able”) in the preceding clause.

³ tn The oath formula is elliptical, reading simply: “…if I take.” It is as if Abram says, “[May the Lord deal with me] if I take,” meaning, “I will surely not take.” The positive oath would add the negative adverb and be the reverse: “[God will deal with me] if I do not take,” meaning, “I certainly will.”

⁴ tn The Hebrew text adds the independent pronoun (“I”) to the verb form for emphasis.

⁵ tn Heb “look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) introduces the foundational clause for the imperative to follow.

⁶ tn Heb “enter to.” The expression is a euphemism for sexual relations (also in v. 4).

sn The Hebrew expression translated have sexual relations with does not convey the intimacy of other expressions, such as “so and so knew his wife.” Sarai simply sees this as the social custom of having a child through a surrogate. For further discussion see C. F. Fensham, “The Son of a Handmaid in Northwest Semitic,” VT 19 (1969): 312-21.

⁷ tn Heb “perhaps I will be built from her.” Sarai hopes to have a family established through this surrogate mother.

⁸ tn Heb “listened to the voice of,” which is an idiom meaning “obeyed.”

sn Abram did what Sarai told him. This expression was first used in Gen 3:17 of Adam’s obeying his wife. In both cases the text highlights weak faith and how it jeopardized the plan of God.

⁹ tn The Hebrew verb is plural. This may be a case of grammatical agreement with the name for God, which is plural in form. However, when this plural name refers to the one true God, accompanying predicates are usually singular in form. Perhaps Abraham is accommodating his speech to Abimelech’s polytheistic perspective. (See GKC 463 §145.i.) If so, one should translate, “when the gods made me wander.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “This is your loyal deed which you can do for me.”

¹¹ tn Heb “And they ate and drank, he and the men who [were] with him and they spent the night.”

¹² tn Heb “Send me away to my master.”

¹³ tn Heb “get up and sit.” This may mean simply “sit up,” or it may indicate that he was to get up from his couch and sit at a table.

¹⁴ tn Heb “so that your soul may bless me.” These words, though not reported by Rebekah to Jacob (see v. 7) accurately reflect what Isaac actually said to Esau (see v. 4). Perhaps Jacob knew more than Rebekah realized, but it is more likely that this was an idiom for sincere blessing with which Jacob was familiar. At any rate, his use of the precise wording was a nice, convincing touch.

¹⁵ tn Heb “and he said to his father”; the referent of “he” (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity, while the words “his father” have been replaced by the pronoun “him” for stylistic reasons.

¹⁶ tn Or “arise” (i.e., sit up).

¹⁷ tn Heb “so that your soul may bless me.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “Make very great upon me the bride price and gift.” The imperatives are used in a rhetorical manner. Shechem’s point is that he will pay the price, no matter how expensive it might be.

¹⁹ tn The cohortative expresses Shechem’s resolve to have Dinah as his wife.

²⁰ tn Heb “say.”

²¹ tn Heb “What is this deed you have done?” The demonstrative pronoun (“this”) adds emphasis to the question. A literal translation seems to contradict the following statement, in which Joseph affirms that he is able to divine such matters. Thus here the emotive force of the question has been reflected in the translation, “What did you think you were doing?”

²² tn Heb “[is] fully able to divine,” meaning that he can find things out by divination. The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis, stressing his ability to do this.

²³ tn Heb “you devised against me evil.”

²⁴ tn Heb “God devised it for good in order to do, like this day, to preserve alive a great nation.”