Discovery BoxGenesis 13:7 
Context13:7 So there were quarrels 1 between Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen. 2 (Now the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at that time.) 3
Genesis 34:30
Context34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin 4 on me by making me a foul odor 5 among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I 6 am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”
1 tn The Hebrew term רִיב (riv) means “strife, conflict, quarreling.” In later texts it has the meaning of “legal controversy, dispute.” See B. Gemser, “The rîb – or Controversy – Pattern in Hebrew Mentality,” Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient Near East [VTSup], 120-37.
2 sn Since the quarreling was between the herdsmen, the dispute was no doubt over water and vegetation for the animals.
3 tn This parenthetical clause, introduced with the vav (ו) disjunctive (translated “now”), again provides critical information. It tells in part why the land cannot sustain these two bedouins, and it also hints of the danger of weakening the family by inner strife.
4 tn The traditional translation is “troubled me” (KJV, ASV), but the verb refers to personal or national disaster and suggests complete ruin (see Josh 7:25, Judg 11:35, Prov 11:17). The remainder of the verse describes the “trouble” Simeon and Levi had caused.
5 tn In the causative stem the Hebrew verb בָּאַשׁ (ba’ash) means “to cause to stink, to have a foul smell.” In the contexts in which it is used it describes foul smells, stenches, or things that are odious. Jacob senses that the people in the land will find this act terribly repulsive. See P. R. Ackroyd, “The Hebrew Root באשׁ,” JTS 2 (1951): 31-36.
6 tn Jacob speaks in the first person as the head and representative of the entire family.
