Discovery BoxGenesis 15:13 
Context15:13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain 1 that your descendants will be strangers 2 in a foreign country. 3 They will be enslaved and oppressed 4 for four hundred years.
Genesis 35:4
Context35:4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their possession 5 and the rings that were in their ears. 6 Jacob buried them 7 under the oak 8 near Shechem
1 tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, with the Qal infinitive absolute followed by the imperfect from יָדַע (yada’, “know”). The imperfect here has an obligatory or imperatival force.
2 tn The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger, “sojourner, stranger”) is related to the verb גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to stay for awhile”). Abram’s descendants will stay in a land as resident aliens without rights of citizenship.
3 tn Heb “in a land not theirs.”
4 tn Heb “and they will serve them and they will oppress them.” The verb עִנּוּ, (’innu, a Piel form from עָנָה, ’anah, “to afflict, to oppress, to treat harshly”), is used in Exod 1:11 to describe the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt.
5 tn Heb “in their hand.”
6 sn On the basis of a comparison with Gen 34 and Num 31, G. J. Wenham argues that the foreign gods and the rings could have been part of the plunder that came from the destruction of Shechem (Genesis [WBC], 2:324).
7 sn Jacob buried them. On the burial of the gods, see E. Nielson, “The Burial of the Foreign Gods,” ST 8 (1954/55): 102-22.
8 tn Or “terebinth.”
