7:1 The Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, for I consider you godly among this generation. 1
1 tn Heb “for you I see [as] godly before me in this generation.” The direct object (“you”) is placed first in the clause to give it prominence. The verb “to see” here signifies God’s evaluative discernment.
2 tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.” The Hebrew idiom may be translated “to each other” or “one to another.”
3 tn The speech contains two cohortatives of exhortation followed by their respective cognate accusatives: “let us brick bricks” (נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים, nilbbÿnah lÿvenim) and “burn for burning” (נִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה, nisrÿfah lisrefah). This stresses the intensity of the undertaking; it also reflects the Akkadian text which uses similar constructions (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 75-76).
4 tn Or “bitumen” (cf. NEB, NRSV).
5 tn The disjunctive clause gives information parenthetical to the narrative.
6 tn The cohortatives mirror the cohortatives of the people. They build to ascend the heavens; God comes down to destroy their language. God speaks here to his angelic assembly. See the notes on the word “make” in 1:26 and “know” in 3:5, as well as Jub. 10:22-23, where an angel recounts this incident and says “And the
7 tn Heb “they will not hear, a man the lip of his neighbor.”
8 tn Heb “from the presence of.”
9 tn Heb “drink wine.”
10 tn Heb “and we will lie down.” The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive is subordinated to the preceding cohortative and indicates purpose/result.
11 tn Or “that we may preserve.” Here the cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates their ultimate goal.
12 tn Heb “and we will keep alive from our father descendants.”
sn For a discussion of the cultural background of the daughters’ desire to preserve our family line see F. C. Fensham, “The Obliteration of the Family as Motif in the Near Eastern Literature,” AION 10 (1969): 191-99.
13 tn The words “All this will come to pass” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for stylistic reasons.
14 tn Heb “listened to my voice.”
15 sn My charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. The language of this verse is clearly interpretive, for Abraham did not have all these laws. The terms are legal designations for sections of the Mosaic law and presuppose the existence of the law. Some Rabbinic views actually conclude that Abraham had fulfilled the whole law before it was given (see m. Qiddushin 4:14). Some scholars argue that this story could only have been written after the law was given (C. Westermann, Genesis, 2:424-25). But the simplest explanation is that the narrator (traditionally taken to be Moses the Lawgiver) elaborated on the simple report of Abraham’s obedience by using terms with which the Israelites were familiar. In this way he depicts Abraham as the model of obedience to God’s commands, whose example Israel should follow.
16 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative (with prefixed conjunction) indicates purpose or result.
17 tn Heb “Are you this one, Esau, my son, or not?” On the use of the interrogative particle here, see BDB 210 s.v. הֲ.
18 tn Heb “cut a covenant.”
19 tn The verb הָיָה (hayah) followed by the preposition לְ (lÿ) means “become.”
20 tn Heb “and it will become a witness between me and you.”
21 tn The text uses an interrogative clause: “Are not your brothers,” which means “your brothers are.”
22 sn With these words Joseph is depicted here as an obedient son who is ready to do what his father commands.
23 tn Heb “and he said, ‘Here I am.’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged for stylistic reasons.
24 sn You are spies. Joseph wanted to see how his brothers would react if they were accused of spying.
25 tn Heb “to see the nakedness of the land you have come.”
26 tn Heb “and one told and said.” The verbs have no expressed subject and can be translated with the passive voice.
27 tn Heb “Look, your son Joseph.”