Discovery BoxGenesis 1:16 
Context1:16 God made two great lights 1 – the greater light to rule over the day and the lesser light to rule over the night. He made the stars also. 2
Genesis 4:19
Context4:19 Lamech took two wives for himself; the name of the first was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah.
Genesis 6:19
Context6:19 You must bring into the ark two of every kind of living creature from all flesh, 3 male and female, to keep them alive 4 with you.
Genesis 10:25
Context10:25 Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg because in his days the earth was divided, 5 and his brother’s name was Joktan.
Genesis 11:10
Context11:10 This is the account of Shem.
Shem was 100 old when he became the father of Arphaxad, two years after the flood.
Genesis 22:8
Context22:8 “God will provide 6 for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham replied. The two of them continued on together.
Genesis 32:7
Context32:7 Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels.
Genesis 33:1
Context33:1 Jacob looked up 7 and saw that Esau was coming 8 along with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants.
Genesis 45:6
Context45:6 For these past two years there has been famine in 9 the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.
Genesis 46:27
Context46:27 Counting the two sons 10 of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt, all the people of the household of Jacob who were in Egypt numbered seventy. 11
Genesis 48:1
Context48:1 After these things Joseph was told, 12 “Your father is weakening.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim with him.
1 sn Two great lights. The text goes to great length to discuss the creation of these lights, suggesting that the subject was very important to the ancients. Since these “lights” were considered deities in the ancient world, the section serves as a strong polemic (see G. Hasel, “The Polemical Nature of the Genesis Cosmology,” EvQ 46 [1974]: 81-102). The Book of Genesis is affirming they are created entities, not deities. To underscore this the text does not even give them names. If used here, the usual names for the sun and moon [Shemesh and Yarih, respectively] might have carried pagan connotations, so they are simply described as greater and lesser lights. Moreover, they serve in the capacity that God gives them, which would not be the normal function the pagans ascribed to them. They merely divide, govern, and give light in God’s creation.
2 tn Heb “and the stars.” Now the term “stars” is added as a third object of the verb “made.” Perhaps the language is phenomenological, meaning that the stars appeared in the sky from this time forward.
3 tn Heb “from all life, from all flesh, two from all you must bring.” The disjunctive clause at the beginning of the verse (note the conjunction with prepositional phrase, followed by two more prepositional phrases in apposition and then the imperfect verb form) signals a change in mood from announcement (vv. 17-18) to instruction.
4 tn The Piel infinitive construct לְהַחֲיוֹת (lÿhakhayot, here translated as “to keep them alive”) shows the purpose of bringing the animals into the ark – saving life. The Piel of this verb means here “to preserve alive.”
5 tn The expression “the earth was divided” may refer to dividing the land with canals, but more likely it anticipates the division of languages at Babel (Gen 11). The verb פָּלָג (palag, “separate, divide”) is used in Ps 55:9 for a division of languages.
6 tn Heb “will see for himself.” The construction means “to look out for; to see to it; to provide.”
sn God will provide is the central theme of the passage and the turning point in the story. Note Paul’s allusion to the story in Rom 8:32 (“how shall he not freely give us all things?”) as well as H. J. Schoeps, “The Sacrifice of Isaac in Paul’s Theology,” JBL 65 (1946): 385-92.
7 tn Heb “and Jacob lifted up his eyes.”
8 tn Or “and look, Esau was coming.” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator invites the reader to view the scene through Jacob’s eyes.
9 tn Heb “the famine [has been] in the midst of.”
10 tn The LXX reads “nine sons,” probably counting the grandsons of Joseph born to Ephraim and Manasseh (cf. 1 Chr 7:14-20).
11 tn Heb “And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two people; all the people belonging to the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were seventy.”
sn The number seventy includes Jacob himself and the seventy-one descendants (including Dinah, Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim) listed in vv. 8-25, minus Er and Onan (deceased). The LXX gives the number as “seventy-five” (cf. Acts 7:14).
12 tn Heb “and one said.” With no expressed subject in the Hebrew text, the verb can be translated with the passive voice.
