Discovery BoxGenesis 11:9 
Context11:9 That is why its name was called 1 Babel 2 – because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.
Genesis 24:31
Context24:31 Laban said to him, 3 “Come, you who are blessed by the Lord! 4 Why are you standing out here when I have prepared 5 the house and a place for the camels?”
Genesis 25:30
Context25:30 So Esau said to Jacob, “Feed 6 me some of the red stuff – yes, this red stuff – because I’m starving!” (That is why he was also called 7 Edom.) 8
Genesis 26:9
Context26:9 So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, “She is really 9 your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac replied, “Because I thought someone might kill me to get her.” 10
Genesis 29:25
Context29:25 In the morning Jacob discovered it was Leah! 11 So Jacob 12 said to Laban, “What in the world have you done to me! 13 Didn’t I work for you in exchange for Rachel? Why have you tricked 14 me?”
Genesis 29:34-35
Context29:34 She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “Now this time my husband will show me affection, 15 because I have given birth to three sons for him.” That is why he was named Levi. 16
29:35 She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” That is why she named him Judah. 17 Then she stopped having children.
Genesis 32:32
Context32:32 That is why to this day 18 the Israelites do not eat the sinew which is attached to the socket of the hip, because he struck 19 the socket of Jacob’s hip near the attached sinew.
Genesis 44:4
Context44:4 They had not gone very far from the city 20 when Joseph said 21 to the servant who was over his household, “Pursue the men at once! 22 When you overtake 23 them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid good with evil?
Genesis 44:8
Context44:8 Look, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. Why then would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house?
Genesis 47:15
Context47:15 When the money from the lands of Egypt and Canaan was used up, all the Egyptians 24 came to Joseph and said, “Give us food! Why should we die 25 before your very eyes because our money has run out?”
Genesis 47:22
Context47:22 But he did not purchase the land of the priests because the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh and they ate from their allotment that Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.
1 tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.
2 sn Babel. Here is the climax of the account, a parody on the pride of Babylon. In the Babylonian literature the name bab-ili meant “the gate of God,” but in Hebrew it sounds like the word for “confusion,” and so retained that connotation. The name “Babel” (בָּבֶל, bavel) and the verb translated “confused” (בָּלַל, balal) form a paronomasia (sound play). For the many wordplays and other rhetorical devices in Genesis, see J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis (SSN).
3 tn Heb “and he said.” The referent (Laban) has been specified and the words “to him” supplied in the translation for clarity.
4 sn Laban’s obsession with wealth is apparent; to him it represents how one is blessed by the
5 tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial.
6 tn The rare term לָעַט (la’at), translated “feed,” is used in later Hebrew for feeding animals (see Jastrow, 714). If this nuance was attached to the word in the biblical period, then it may depict Esau in a negative light, comparing him to a hungry animal. Famished Esau comes in from the hunt, only to enter the trap. He can only point at the red stew and ask Jacob to feed him.
7 tn The verb has no expressed subject and so is given a passive translation.
8 sn Esau’s descendants would eventually be called Edom. Edom was the place where they lived, so-named probably because of the reddish nature of the hills. The writer can use the word “red” to describe the stew that Esau gasped for to convey the nature of Esau and his descendants. They were a lusty, passionate, and profane people who lived for the moment. Again, the wordplay is meant to capture the “omen in the nomen.”
9 tn Heb “Surely, look!” See N. H. Snaith, “The meaning of Hebrew ‘ak,” VT 14 (1964): 221-25.
10 tn Heb “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’” Since the verb “said” probably means “said to myself” (i.e., “thought”) here, the direct discourse in the Hebrew statement has been converted to indirect discourse in the translation. In addition the simple prepositional phrase “on account of her” has been clarified in the translation as “to get her” (cf. v. 7).
11 tn Heb “and it happened in the morning that look, it was Leah.” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator invites the reader to view the scene through Jacob’s eyes.
12 tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
13 tn Heb What is this you have done to me?” The use of the pronoun “this” is enclitic, adding emphasis to the question: “What in the world have you done to me?”
14 sn The Hebrew verb translated tricked here (רָמָה, ramah) is cognate to the noun used in Gen 27:35 to describe Jacob’s deception of Esau. Jacob is discovering that what goes around, comes around. See J. A. Diamond, “The Deception of Jacob: A New Perspective on an Ancient Solution to the Problem,” VT 34 (1984): 211-13.
15 tn Heb “will be joined to me.”
16 sn The name Levi (לֵוִי, levi), the precise meaning of which is debated, was appropriate because it sounds like the verb לָוָה (lavah, “to join”), used in the statement recorded earlier in the verse.
17 sn The name Judah (יְהוּדָה, yÿhudah) means “he will be praised” and reflects the sentiment Leah expresses in the statement recorded earlier in the verse. For further discussion see W. F. Albright, “The Names ‘Israel’ and ‘Judah’ with an Excursus on the Etymology of Todah and Torah,” JBL 46 (1927): 151-85; and A. R. Millard, “The Meaning of the Name Judah,” ZAW 86 (1974): 216-18.
18 sn On the use of the expression to this day, see B. S. Childs, “A Study of the Formula ‘Until This Day’,” JBL 82 (1963): 279-92.
19 tn Or “because the socket of Jacob’s hip was struck.” Some translations render this as an impersonal passive. On the translation of the word “struck” see the note on this term in v. 25.
20 tn Heb “they left the city, they were not far,” meaning “they had not gone very far.”
21 tn Heb “and Joseph said.” This clause, like the first one in the verse, has the subject before the verb, indicating synchronic action.
22 tn Heb “arise, chase after the men.” The first imperative gives the command a sense of urgency.
23 tn After the imperative this perfect verbal form with vav consecutive has the same nuance of instruction. In the translation it is subordinated to the verbal form that follows (also a perfect with vav consecutive): “and overtake them and say,” becomes “when you overtake them, say.”
24 tn Heb “all Egypt.” The expression is a metonymy and refers to all the people of Egypt.
25 tn The imperfect verbal form has a deliberative force here.
