20:6 Then in the dream God replied to him, “Yes, I know that you have done this with a clear conscience. 5 That is why I have kept you 6 from sinning against me and why 7 I did not allow you to touch her.
26:7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he replied, “She is my sister.” 10 He was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” for he thought to himself, 11 “The men of this place will kill me to get 12 Rebekah because she is very beautiful.”
38:11 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up.” For he thought, 21 “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.” 22 So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.
43:7 They replied, “The man questioned us 32 thoroughly 33 about ourselves and our family, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ 34 So we answered him in this way. 35 How could we possibly know 36 that he would say, 37 ‘Bring your brother down’?”
1 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the
2 tn Heb “wiped away” (cf. NRSV “blotted out”).
3 tn Heb “from man to animal to creeping thing and to the bird of the sky.”
4 tn The Hebrew verb שָׁאָר (sha’ar) means “to be left over; to survive” in the Niphal verb stem. It is the word used in later biblical texts for the remnant that escapes judgment. See G. F. Hasel, “Semantic Values of Derivatives of the Hebrew Root só’r,” AUSS 11 (1973): 152-69.
5 tn Heb “with the integrity of your heart.”
6 tn Heb “and I, even I, kept you.”
7 tn Heb “therefore.”
8 tn Heb “How did I sin against you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin?” The expression “great sin” refers to adultery. For discussion of the cultural background of the passage, see J. J. Rabinowitz, “The Great Sin in Ancient Egyptian Marriage Contracts,” JNES 18 (1959): 73, and W. L. Moran, “The Scandal of the ‘Great Sin’ at Ugarit,” JNES 18 (1959): 280-81.
9 tn Heb “Deeds which should not be done you have done to me.” The imperfect has an obligatory nuance here.
10 sn Rebekah, unlike Sarah, was not actually her husband’s sister.
11 tn Heb “lest.” The words “for he thought to himself” are supplied because the next clause is written with a first person pronoun, showing that Isaac was saying or thinking this.
12 tn Heb “kill me on account of.”
13 tn Heb “Is he not rightly named Jacob?” The rhetorical question, since it expects a positive reply, has been translated as a declarative statement.
14 sn He has tripped me up. When originally given, the name Jacob was a play on the word “heel” (see Gen 25:26). The name (since it is a verb) probably means something like “may he protect,” that is, as a rearguard, dogging the heels. This name was probably chosen because of the immediate association with the incident of grabbing the heel. Esau gives the name “Jacob” a negative connotation here, the meaning “to trip up; to supplant.”
15 tn The words “stay there” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
16 tn Heb “and I will send and I will take you from there.” The verb “send” has no object in the Hebrew text; one must be supplied in the translation. Either “someone” or “a message” could be supplied, but since in those times a message would require a messenger, “someone” has been used.
17 tn If Jacob stayed, he would be killed and Esau would be forced to run away.
18 tn Heb “must come in to me.” The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. She has acquired him for the night and feels he is obligated to have sexual relations with her.
19 tn Heb “I have surely hired.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verbal form for emphasis. The name Issachar (see v. 18) seems to be related to this expression.
20 tn This is the same Hebrew verb (שָׁכַב, shakhav) translated “sleep with” in v. 15. In direct discourse the more euphemistic “sleep with” was used, but here in the narrative “marital relations” reflects more clearly the emphasis on sexual intercourse.
21 tn Heb “said.”
22 tn Heb “Otherwise he will die, also he, like his brothers.”
sn I don’t want him to die like his brothers. This clause explains that Judah had no intention of giving Shelah to Tamar for the purpose of the levirate marriage. Judah apparently knew the nature of his sons, and feared that God would be angry with the third son and kill him as well.
23 tn Heb “and it was from then.”
24 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Potiphar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
25 sn The Hebrew word translated blessed carries the idea of enrichment, prosperity, success. It is the way believers describe success at the hand of God. The text illustrates the promise made to Abraham that whoever blesses his descendants will be blessed (Gen 12:1-3).
26 tn Heb “in the house and in the field.” The word “both” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
27 sn The passage gives us a good picture of Joseph as a young man who was responsible and faithful, both to his master and to his God. This happened within a very short time of his being sold into Egypt. It undermines the view that Joseph was a liar, a tattletale, and an arrogant adolescent.
28 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
29 sn The expression he alone is left meant that (so far as Jacob knew) Benjamin was the only surviving child of his mother Rachel.
30 sn The expression bring down my gray hair is figurative, using a part for the whole – they would put Jacob in the grave. But the gray head signifies a long life of worry and trouble.
31 tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.
32 tn The word “us” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
33 tn The infinitive absolute with the perfect verbal form emphasizes that Joseph questioned them thoroughly.
34 sn The report given here concerning Joseph’s interrogation does not exactly match the previous account where they supplied the information to clear themselves (see 42:13). This section may reflect how they remembered the impact of his interrogation, whether he asked the specific questions or not. That may be twisting the truth to protect themselves, not wanting to admit that they volunteered the information. (They admitted as much in 42:31, but now they seem to be qualifying that comment.) On the other hand, when speaking to Joseph later (see 44:19), Judah claims that Joseph asked for the information about their family, making it possible that 42:13 leaves out some of the details of their first encounter.
35 tn Heb “and we told to him according to these words.”
36 tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the imperfect verbal form, which here is a historic future (that is, future from the perspective of a past time).
37 tn Once again the imperfect verbal form is used as a historic future (that is, future from the perspective of past time).
38 tn Heb “and a small boy of old age,” meaning that he was born when his father was elderly.
39 tn Heb “his”; the referent (the boy just mentioned) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
40 tn Heb “he, only he, to his mother is left.”
41 tn Heb “your servants are men of cattle.”
42 sn So that you may live in the land of Goshen. Joseph is apparently trying to stress to Pharaoh that his family is self-sufficient, that they will not be a drain on the economy of Egypt. But they will need land for their animals and so Goshen, located on the edge of Egypt, would be a suitable place for them to live. The settled Egyptians were uneasy with nomadic people, but if Jacob and his family settled in Goshen they would represent no threat.
43 tn Heb “is an abomination.” The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “abomination”) describes something that is loathsome or off-limits. For other practices the Egyptians considered disgusting, see Gen 43:32 and Exod 8:22.
44 tn Heb “days.”
45 sn On the expression put your hand under my thigh see Gen 24:2.
46 tn Or “deal with me in faithful love.”
47 tn Heb “and Joseph wept when they spoke to him.”