Discovery BoxGenesis 16:2 
Context16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since 1 the Lord has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with 2 my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.” 3 Abram did what 4 Sarai told him.
Genesis 19:12
Context19:12 Then the two visitors 5 said to Lot, “Who else do you have here? 6 Do you have 7 any sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or other relatives in the city? 8 Get them out of this 9 place
Genesis 21:7
Context21:7 She went on to say, 10 “Who would 11 have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son for him in his old age!”
Genesis 26:29
Context26:29 so that 12 you will not do us any harm, just as we have not harmed 13 you, but have always treated you well 14 before sending you away 15 in peace. Now you are blessed by the Lord.” 16
Genesis 27:37
Context27:37 Isaac replied to Esau, “Look! I have made him lord over you. I have made all his relatives his servants and provided him with grain and new wine. What is left that I can do for you, my son?”
Genesis 29:25
Context29:25 In the morning Jacob discovered it was Leah! 17 So Jacob 18 said to Laban, “What in the world have you done to me! 19 Didn’t I work for you in exchange for Rachel? Why have you tricked 20 me?”
Genesis 30:27
Context30:27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, please stay here, 21 for I have learned by divination 22 that the Lord has blessed me on account of you.”
Genesis 32:10
Context32:10 I am not worthy of all the faithful love 23 you have shown 24 your servant. With only my walking stick 25 I crossed the Jordan, 26 but now I have become two camps.
Genesis 49:6
Context49:6 O my soul, do not come into their council,
do not be united to their assembly, my heart, 27
for in their anger they have killed men,
and for pleasure they have hamstrung oxen.
1 tn Heb “look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) introduces the foundational clause for the imperative to follow.
2 tn Heb “enter to.” The expression is a euphemism for sexual relations (also in v. 4).
sn The Hebrew expression translated have sexual relations with does not convey the intimacy of other expressions, such as “so and so knew his wife.” Sarai simply sees this as the social custom of having a child through a surrogate. For further discussion see C. F. Fensham, “The Son of a Handmaid in Northwest Semitic,” VT 19 (1969): 312-21.
3 tn Heb “perhaps I will be built from her.” Sarai hopes to have a family established through this surrogate mother.
4 tn Heb “listened to the voice of,” which is an idiom meaning “obeyed.”
sn Abram did what Sarai told him. This expression was first used in Gen 3:17 of Adam’s obeying his wife. In both cases the text highlights weak faith and how it jeopardized the plan of God.
5 tn Heb “the men,” referring to the angels inside Lot’s house. The word “visitors” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Heb “Yet who [is there] to you here?”
7 tn The words “Do you have” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
8 tn Heb “a son-in-law and your sons and your daughters and anyone who (is) to you in the city.”
9 tn Heb “the place.” The Hebrew article serves here as a demonstrative.
10 tn Heb “said.”
11 tn The perfect form of the verb is used here to describe a hypothetical situation.
12 tn The oath formula is used: “if you do us harm” means “so that you will not do.”
13 tn Heb “touched.”
14 tn Heb “and just as we have done only good with you.”
15 tn Heb “and we sent you away.”
16 tn The Philistine leaders are making an observation, not pronouncing a blessing, so the translation reads “you are blessed” rather than “may you be blessed” (cf. NAB).
17 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.
18 tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
19 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?”
20 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.
21 tn The words “please stay here” have been supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
22 tn Or perhaps “I have grown rich and the
23 tn Heb “the loving deeds and faithfulness” (see 24:27, 49).
24 tn Heb “you have done with.”
25 tn Heb “for with my staff.” The Hebrew word מַקֵל (maqel), traditionally translated “staff,” has been rendered as “walking stick” because a “staff” in contemporary English refers typically to the support personnel in an organization.
26 tn Heb “this Jordan.”
27 tn The Hebrew text reads “my glory,” but it is preferable to repoint the form and read “my liver.” The liver was sometimes viewed as the seat of the emotions and will (see HALOT 456 s.v. II כָּבֵד) for which the heart is the modern equivalent.
