Discovery BoxGenesis 17:9 
Context17:9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep 1 the covenantal requirement 2 I am imposing on you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.
Genesis 41:56
Context41:56 While the famine was over all the earth, 3 Joseph opened the storehouses 4 and sold grain to the Egyptians. The famine was severe throughout the land of Egypt.
1 tn The imperfect tense could be translated “you shall keep” as a binding command; but the obligatory nuance (“must”) captures the binding sense better.
2 tn Heb “my covenant.” The Hebrew word בְּרִית (bÿrit) can refer to (1) the agreement itself between two parties (see v. 7), (2) the promise made by one party to another (see vv. 2-3, 7), (3) an obligation placed by one party on another, or (4) a reminder of the agreement. In vv. 9-10 the word refers to a covenantal obligation which God gives to Abraham and his descendants.
3 tn Or “over the entire land”; Heb “over all the face of the earth.” The disjunctive clause is circumstantial-temporal to the next clause.
4 tc The MT reads “he opened all that was in [or “among”] them.” The translation follows the reading of the LXX and Syriac versions.
