19:15 At dawn 6 the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, 7 or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!” 8
24:5 The servant asked him, “What if the woman is not willing to come back with me 17 to this land? Must I then 18 take your son back to the land from which you came?”
38:20 Then Judah had his friend Hirah 34 the Adullamite take a young goat to get back from the woman the items he had given in pledge, 35 but Hirah 36 could not find her.
42:33 “Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘This is how I will find out if you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain 37 for your hungry households and go.
1 tn Or “seven pairs” (cf. NRSV).
2 sn For a study of the Levitical terminology of “clean” and “unclean,” see L. E. Toombs, IDB 1:643.
3 tn Heb “a male and his female” (also a second time at the end of this verse). The terms used here for male and female animals (אִישׁ, ’ish) and אִשָּׁה, ’ishah) normally refer to humans.
4 tn The oath formula is elliptical, reading simply: “…if I take.” It is as if Abram says, “[May the
5 tn The Hebrew text adds the independent pronoun (“I”) to the verb form for emphasis.
6 tn Heb “When dawn came up.”
7 tn Heb “who are found.” The wording might imply he had other daughters living in the city, but the text does not explicitly state this.
8 tn Or “with the iniquity [i.e., punishment] of the city” (cf. NASB, NRSV).
9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 sn Take your son…Isaac. The instructions are very clear, but the details are deliberate. With every additional description the commandment becomes more challenging.
11 sn There has been much debate over the location of Moriah; 2 Chr 3:1 suggests it may be the site where the temple was later built in Jerusalem.
12 sn A whole burnt offering signified the complete surrender of the worshiper and complete acceptance by God. The demand for a human sacrifice was certainly radical and may have seemed to Abraham out of character for God. Abraham would have to obey without fully understanding what God was about.
13 tn Heb “which I will say to.”
14 tn Heb “give.”
15 tn Heb “silver.”
16 tn After the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction expresses purpose or result.
17 tn Heb “to go after me.”
18 tn In the Hebrew text the construction is emphatic; the infinitive absolute precedes the imperfect. However, it is difficult to reflect this emphasis in an English translation.
19 tn Heb “ to go after you.”
20 sn You will be free. If the prospective bride was not willing to accompany the servant back to Canaan, the servant would be released from his oath to Abraham.
21 tn Heb “give my wives and my children, for whom I have served you.” In one sense Laban had already “given” Jacob his two daughters as wives (Gen 29:21, 28). Here Jacob was asking for permission to take his own family along with him on the journey back to Canaan.
22 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
23 tn Heb “for you, you know my service [with] which I have served you.”
24 tn Heb “With whomever you find your gods, he will not live.”
25 tn Heb “brothers.”
26 tn Heb “recognize for yourself what is with me and take for yourself.”
27 tn The disjunctive clause (introduced here by a vav [ו] conjunction) provides supplemental material that is important to the story. Since this material is parenthetical in nature, it has been placed in parentheses in the translation.
28 tn Heb “blessing.” It is as if Jacob is trying to repay what he stole from his brother twenty years earlier.
29 tn Or “gracious,” but in the specific sense of prosperity.
30 tn Heb “all.”
31 tn Heb “and he urged him and he took.” The referent of the first pronoun in the sequence (“he”) has been specified as “Jacob” in the translation for clarity.
32 tn The perfect verbal form with the vav (ו) consecutive introduces the apodosis of the conditional sentence.
33 tn The words “to marry” (and the words “as wives” in the following clause) are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
34 tn Heb “sent by the hand of his friend.” Here the name of the friend (“Hirah”) has been included in the translation for clarity.
35 tn Heb “to receive the pledge from the woman’s hand.”
36 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Judah’s friend Hirah the Adullamite) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
37 tn The word “grain” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
38 tn The words “to say” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.