Discovery BoxGenesis 1:14 
Context1:14 God said, “Let there be lights 1 in the expanse 2 of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs 3 to indicate seasons and days and years,
Genesis 8:11
Context8:11 When 4 the dove returned to him in the evening, there was 5 a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak! Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.
Genesis 12:7
Context12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants 6 I will give this land.” So Abram 7 built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
Genesis 18:24
Context18:24 What if there are fifty godly people in the city? Will you really wipe it out and not spare 8 the place for the sake of the fifty godly people who are in it?
Genesis 18:31-32
Context18:31 Abraham 9 said, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”
18:32 Finally Abraham 10 said, “May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”
Genesis 19:20
Context19:20 Look, this town 11 over here is close enough to escape to, and it’s just a little one. 12 Let me go there. 13 It’s just a little place, isn’t it? 14 Then I’ll survive.” 15
Genesis 19:31
Context19:31 Later the older daughter said 16 to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man anywhere nearby 17 to have sexual relations with us, 18 according to the way of all the world.
Genesis 22:2
Context22:2 God 19 said, “Take your son – your only son, whom you love, Isaac 20 – and go to the land of Moriah! 21 Offer him up there as a burnt offering 22 on one of the mountains which I will indicate to 23 you.”
Genesis 22:5
Context22:5 So he 24 said to his servants, “You two stay 25 here with the donkey while 26 the boy and I go up there. We will worship 27 and then return to you.” 28
Genesis 22:9
Context22:9 When they came to the place God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there 29 and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up 30 his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.
Genesis 23:13
Context23:13 and said to Ephron in their hearing, “Hear me, if you will. I pay 31 to you the price 32 of the field. Take it from me so that I may 33 bury my dead there.”
Genesis 24:8
Context24:8 But if the woman is not willing to come back with you, 34 you will be free 35 from this oath of mine. But you must not take my son back there!”
Genesis 24:15
Context24:15 Before he had finished praying, there came Rebekah 36 with her water jug on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah (Milcah was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor). 37
Genesis 24:54
Context24:54 After this, he and the men who were with him ate a meal and stayed there overnight. 38
When they got up in the morning, he said, “Let me leave now so I can return to my master.” 39
Genesis 26:1
Context26:1 There was a famine in the land, subsequent to the earlier famine that occurred 40 in the days of Abraham. 41 Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.
Genesis 26:22
Context26:22 Then he moved away from there and dug another well. They did not quarrel over it, so Isaac 42 named it 43 Rehoboth, 44 saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will prosper in the land.”
Genesis 26:28
Context26:28 They replied, “We could plainly see 45 that the Lord is with you. So we decided there should be 46 a pact between us 47 – between us 48 and you. Allow us to make 49 a treaty with you
Genesis 28:2
Context28:2 Leave immediately 50 for Paddan Aram! Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and find yourself a wife there, among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.
Genesis 28:6
Context28:6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him off to Paddan Aram to find a wife there. 51 As he blessed him, 52 Isaac commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman.” 53
Genesis 29:3
Context29:3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds 54 would roll the stone off the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place over the well’s mouth.
Genesis 35:3
Context35:3 Let us go up at once 55 to Bethel. Then I will make 56 an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress 57 and has been with me wherever I went.” 58
Genesis 37:7
Context37:7 There we were, 59 binding sheaves of grain in the middle of the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose up and stood upright and your sheaves surrounded my sheaf and bowed down 60 to it!”
Genesis 39:1
Context39:1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. 61 An Egyptian named Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard, 62 purchased him from 63 the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.
Genesis 39:9
Context39:9 There is no one greater in this household than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. So how could I do 64 such a great evil and sin against God?”
Genesis 39:20
Context39:20 Joseph’s master took him and threw him into the prison, 65 the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. So he was there in the prison. 66
Genesis 40:16
Context40:16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation of the first dream was favorable, 67 he said to Joseph, “I also appeared in my dream and there were three baskets of white bread 68 on my head.
Genesis 41:12
Context41:12 Now a young man, a Hebrew, a servant 69 of the captain of the guards, 70 was with us there. We told him our dreams, 71 and he interpreted the meaning of each of our respective dreams for us. 72
Genesis 42:35
Context42:35 When they were emptying their sacks, there was each man’s bag of money in his sack! When they and their father saw the bags of money, they were afraid.
Genesis 43:5
Context43:5 But if you will not send him, we won’t go down there because the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.’”
Genesis 46:3
Context46:3 He said, “I am God, 73 the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.
Genesis 47:13
Context47:13 But there was no food in all the land because the famine was very severe; the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan wasted away 74 because of the famine.
1 sn Let there be lights. Light itself was created before the light-bearers. The order would not seem strange to the ancient Hebrew mind that did not automatically link daylight with the sun (note that dawn and dusk appear to have light without the sun).
2 tn The language describing the cosmos, which reflects a prescientific view of the world, must be interpreted as phenomenal, describing what appears to be the case. The sun and the moon are not in the sky (below the clouds), but from the viewpoint of a person standing on the earth, they appear that way. Even today we use similar phenomenological expressions, such as “the sun is rising” or “the stars in the sky.”
3 tn The text has “for signs and for seasons and for days and years.” It seems likely from the meanings of the words involved that “signs” is the main idea, followed by two categories, “seasons” and “days and years.” This is the simplest explanation, and one that matches vv. 11-13. It could even be rendered “signs for the fixed seasons, that is [explicative vav (ו)] days and years.”
sn Let them be for signs. The point is that the sun and the moon were important to fix the days for the seasonal celebrations for the worshiping community.
4 tn The clause introduced by vav (ו) consecutive is translated as a temporal clause subordinated to the following clause.
5 tn The deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to the olive leaf. It invites readers to enter into the story, as it were, and look at the olive leaf with their own eyes.
6 tn The same Hebrew term זֶרַע (zera’) may mean “seed” (for planting), “offspring” (occasionally of animals, but usually of people), or “descendants” depending on the context.
7 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been supplied in the translation for clarification.
8 tn Heb “lift up,” perhaps in the sense of “bear with” (cf. NRSV “forgive”).
9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tn The Hebrew word עִיר (’ir) can refer to either a city or a town, depending on the size of the place. Given that this place was described by Lot later in this verse as a “little place,” the translation uses “town.”
12 tn Heb “Look, this town is near to flee to there. And it is little.”
13 tn Heb “Let me escape to there.” The cohortative here expresses Lot’s request.
14 tn Heb “Is it not little?”
15 tn Heb “my soul will live.” After the cohortative the jussive with vav conjunctive here indicates purpose/result.
16 tn Heb “and the firstborn said.”
17 tn Or perhaps “on earth,” in which case the statement would be hyperbolic; presumably there had been some men living in the town of Zoar to which Lot and his daughters had initially fled.
18 tn Heb “to enter upon us.” This is a euphemism for sexual relations.
19 tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
20 sn Take your son…Isaac. The instructions are very clear, but the details are deliberate. With every additional description the commandment becomes more challenging.
21 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.
22 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.
23 tn Heb “which I will say to.”
24 tn Heb “And Abraham.” The proper name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“he”) for stylistic reasons.
25 tn The Hebrew verb is masculine plural, referring to the two young servants who accompanied Abraham and Isaac on the journey.
26 tn The disjunctive clause (with the compound subject preceding the verb) may be circumstantial and temporal.
27 tn This Hebrew word literally means “to bow oneself close to the ground.” It often means “to worship.”
28 sn It is impossible to know what Abraham was thinking when he said, “we will…return to you.” When he went he knew (1) that he was to sacrifice Isaac, and (2) that God intended to fulfill his earlier promises through Isaac. How he reconciled those facts is not clear in the text. Heb 11:17-19 suggests that Abraham believed God could restore Isaac to him through resurrection.
29 sn Abraham built an altar there. The theme of Abraham’s altar building culminates here. He has been a faithful worshiper. Will he continue to worship when called upon to make such a radical sacrifice?
30 sn Then he tied up. This text has given rise to an important theme in Judaism known as the Aqedah, from the Hebrew word for “binding.” When sacrifices were made in the sanctuary, God remembered the binding of Isaac, for which a substitute was offered. See D. Polish, “The Binding of Isaac,” Jud 6 (1957): 17-21.
31 tn Heb “give.”
32 tn Heb “silver.”
33 tn After the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction expresses purpose or result.
34 tn Heb “ to go after you.”
35 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.
36 tn Heb “Look, Rebekah was coming out!” Using the participle introduced with הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator dramatically transports the audience back into the event and invites them to see Rebekah through the servant’s eyes.
37 tn Heb “Look, Rebekah was coming out – [she] who was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, the brother of Abraham – and her jug [was] on her shoulder.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
38 tn Heb “And they ate and drank, he and the men who [were] with him and they spent the night.”
39 tn Heb “Send me away to my master.”
40 tn Heb “in addition to the first famine which was.”
41 sn This account is parallel to two similar stories about Abraham (see Gen 12:10-20; 20:1-18). Many scholars do not believe there were three similar incidents, only one that got borrowed and duplicated. Many regard the account about Isaac as the original, which then was attached to the more important person, Abraham, with supernatural elements being added. For a critique of such an approach, see R. Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative, 47-62. It is more likely that the story illustrates the proverb “like father, like son” (see T. W. Mann, The Book of the Torah, 53). In typical human fashion the son follows his father’s example of lying to avoid problems. The appearance of similar events reported in a similar way underscores the fact that the blessing has now passed to Isaac, even if he fails as his father did.
42 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
43 tn Heb “and he called its name.”
44 sn The name Rehoboth (רְהֹבוֹת, rehovot) is derived from a verbal root meaning “to make room.” The name was a reminder that God had made room for them. The story shows Isaac’s patience with the opposition; it also shows how God’s blessing outdistanced the men of Gerar. They could not stop it or seize it any longer.
45 tn The infinitive absolute before the verb emphasizes the clarity of their perception.
46 tn Heb “And we said, ‘Let there be.’” The direct discourse in the Hebrew text has been rendered as indirect discourse in the translation for stylistic reasons.
47 tn The pronoun “us” here is inclusive – it refers to the Philistine contingent on the one hand and Isaac on the other.
48 tn The pronoun “us” here is exclusive – it refers to just the Philistine contingent (the following “you” refers to Isaac).
49 tn The translation assumes that the cohortative expresses their request. Another option is to understand the cohortative as indicating resolve: “We want to make.’”
50 tn Heb “Arise! Go!” The first of the two imperatives is adverbial and stresses the immediacy of the departure.
51 tn Heb “to take for himself from there a wife.”
52 tn The infinitive construct with the preposition and the suffix form a temporal clause.
53 tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”
54 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the shepherds) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
55 tn Heb “let us arise and let us go up.” The first cohortative gives the statement a sense of urgency.
56 tn The cohortative with the prefixed conjunction here indicates purpose or consequence.
57 tn Heb “day of distress.” See Ps 20:1 which utilizes similar language.
58 tn Heb “in the way in which I went.” Jacob alludes here to God’s promise to be with him (see Gen 28:20).
59 tn All three clauses in this dream report begin with וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, “and look”), which lends vividness to the report. This is represented in the translation by the expression “there we were.”
60 tn The verb means “to bow down to the ground.” It is used to describe worship and obeisance to masters.
61 tn The disjunctive clause resumes the earlier narrative pertaining to Joseph by recapitulating the event described in 37:36. The perfect verbal form is given a past perfect translation to restore the sequence of the narrative for the reader.
62 sn Captain of the guard. See the note on this phrase in Gen 37:36.
63 tn Heb “from the hand of.”
64 tn The nuance of potential imperfect fits this context.
65 tn Heb “the house of roundness,” suggesting that the prison might have been a fortress or citadel.
66 sn The story of Joseph is filled with cycles and repetition: He has two dreams (chap. 37), he interprets two dreams in prison (chap. 40) and the two dreams of Pharaoh (chap. 41), his brothers make two trips to see him (chaps. 42-43), and here, for the second time (see 37:24), he is imprisoned for no good reason, with only his coat being used as evidence. For further discussion see H. Jacobsen, “A Legal Note on Potiphar’s Wife,” HTR 69 (1976): 177.
67 tn Heb “that [the] interpretation [was] good.” The words “the first dream” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
68 tn Or “three wicker baskets.” The meaning of the Hebrew noun חֹרִי (khori, “white bread, cake”) is uncertain; some have suggested the meaning “wicker” instead. Comparison with texts from Ebla suggests the meaning “pastries made with white flour” (M. Dahood, “Eblaite h¬a-rí and Genesis 40,16 h£o„rî,” BN 13 [1980]: 14-16).
69 tn Or “slave.”
70 tn Heb “a servant to the captain of the guards.” On this construction see GKC 419-20 §129.c.
71 tn The words “our dreams” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
72 tn Heb “and he interpreted for us our dreams, each according to his dream he interpreted.”
73 tn Heb “the God.”
74 tn The verb לַהַה (lahah, = לָאָה, la’ah) means “to faint, to languish”; it figuratively describes the land as wasting away, drooping, being worn out.
