Discovery BoxGenesis 2:21 
Context2:21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, 1 and while he was asleep, 2 he took part of the man’s side 3 and closed up the place with flesh. 4
Genesis 11:29
Context11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, 5 and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; 6 she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.
Genesis 12:5
Context12:5 And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew 7 Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired 8 in Haran, and they left for 9 the land of Canaan. They entered the land of Canaan.
Genesis 15:5
Context15:5 The Lord 10 took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars – if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”
Genesis 15:10
Context15:10 So Abram 11 took all these for him and then cut them in two 12 and placed each half opposite the other, 13 but he did not cut the birds in half.
Genesis 17:23
Context17:23 Abraham took his son Ishmael and every male in his household (whether born in his house or bought with money) 14 and circumcised them 15 on that very same day, just as God had told him to do.
Genesis 18:8
Context18:8 Abraham 16 then took some curds and milk, along with the calf that had been prepared, and placed the food 17 before them. They ate while 18 he was standing near them under a tree.
Genesis 24:10
Context24:10 Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed with all kinds of gifts from his master at his disposal. 19 He journeyed 20 to the region of Aram Naharaim 21 and the city of Nahor.
Genesis 24:22
Context24:22 After the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka 22 and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels 23 and gave them to her. 24
Genesis 24:65
Context24:65 and asked 25 Abraham’s servant, 26 “Who is that man walking in the field toward us?” “That is my master,” the servant replied. 27 So she took her veil and covered herself.
Genesis 24:67
Context24:67 Then Isaac brought Rebekah 28 into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took her 29 as his wife and loved her. 30 So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death. 31
Genesis 28:11
Context28:11 He reached a certain place 32 where he decided to camp because the sun had gone down. 33 He took one of the stones 34 and placed it near his head. 35 Then he fell asleep 36 in that place
Genesis 28:18
Context28:18 Early 37 in the morning Jacob 38 took the stone he had placed near his head 39 and set it up as a sacred stone. 40 Then he poured oil on top of it.
Genesis 30:37
Context30:37 But Jacob took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees. He made white streaks by peeling them, making the white inner wood in the branches visible.
Genesis 31:18
Context31:18 He took 41 away all the livestock he had acquired in Paddan Aram and all his moveable property that he had accumulated. Then he set out toward the land of Canaan to return to his father Isaac. 42
Genesis 31:53
Context31:53 May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor, 43 the gods of their father, judge between us.” Jacob took an oath by the God whom his father Isaac feared. 44
Genesis 33:11
Context33:11 Please take my present 45 that was brought to you, for God has been generous 46 to me and I have all I need.” 47 When Jacob urged him, he took it. 48
Genesis 34:25
Context34:25 In three days, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword 49 and went to the unsuspecting city 50 and slaughtered every male.
Genesis 37:28
Context37:28 So when the Midianite 51 merchants passed by, Joseph’s brothers pulled 52 him 53 out of the cistern and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The Ishmaelites 54 then took Joseph to Egypt.
Genesis 38:28
Context38:28 While she was giving birth, one child 55 put out his hand, and the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.”
Genesis 39:20
Context39:20 Joseph’s master took him and threw him into the prison, 56 the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. So he was there in the prison. 57
Genesis 41:42
Context41:42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his own hand and put it on Joseph’s. He clothed him with fine linen 58 clothes and put a gold chain around his neck.
Genesis 41:45
Context41:45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. 59 He also gave him Asenath 60 daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, 61 to be his wife. So Joseph took charge of 62 all the land of Egypt.
Genesis 48:17
Context48:17 When Joseph saw that his father placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased him. 63 So he took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.
1 tn Heb “And the
2 tn Heb “and he slept.” In the sequence the verb may be subordinated to the following verb to indicate a temporal clause (“while…”).
3 tn Traditionally translated “rib,” the Hebrew word actually means “side.” The Hebrew text reads, “and he took one from his sides,” which could be rendered “part of his sides.” That idea may fit better the explanation by the man that the woman is his flesh and bone.
4 tn Heb “closed up the flesh under it.”
5 sn The name Sarai (a variant spelling of “Sarah”) means “princess” (or “lady”). Sharratu was the name of the wife of the moon god Sin. The original name may reflect the culture out of which the patriarch was called, for the family did worship other gods in Mesopotamia.
6 sn The name Milcah means “Queen.” But more to the point here is the fact that Malkatu was a title for Ishtar, the daughter of the moon god. If the women were named after such titles (and there is no evidence that this was the motivation for naming the girls “Princess” or “Queen”), that would not necessarily imply anything about the faith of the two women themselves.
7 tn Heb “the son of his brother.”
8 tn For the semantic nuance “acquire [property]” for the verb עָשָׂה (’asah), see BDB 795 s.v. עָשָׂה.
9 tn Heb “went out to go.”
10 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tn Heb “in the middle.”
13 tn Heb “to meet its neighbor.”
sn For discussion of this ritual see G. F. Hasel, “The Meaning of the Animal Rite in Genesis 15,” JSOT 19 (1981): 61-78.
14 tn Heb “Ishmael his son and all born in his house and all bought with money, every male among the men of the house of Abraham.”
15 tn Heb “circumcised the flesh of their foreskin.” The Hebrew expression is somewhat pleonastic and has been simplified in the translation.
16 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
17 tn The words “the food” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text the verb has no stated object.
18 tn The disjunctive clause is a temporal circumstantial clause subordinate to the main verb.
19 tn Heb “and every good thing of his master was in his hand.” The disjunctive clause is circumstantial, explaining that he took all kinds of gifts to be used at his discretion.
20 tn Heb “and he arose and went.”
21 tn The words “the region of” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.
sn Aram Naharaim means in Hebrew “Aram of the Two Rivers,” a region in northern Mesopotamia.
22 sn A beka weighed about 5-6 grams (0.2 ounce).
23 sn A shekel weighed about 11.5 grams (0.4 ounce) although weights varied locally, so these bracelets weighed about 4 ounces (115 grams).
24 tn The words “and gave them to her” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.
25 tn Heb “and she said to.”
26 tn Heb “the servant.” The word “Abraham’s” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
27 tn Heb “and the servant said.” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
28 tn Heb “her”; the referent has been specified here in the translation for clarity.
29 tn Heb “Rebekah”; here the proper name was replaced by the pronoun (“her”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
30 tn Heb “and he took Rebekah and she became his wife and he loved her.”
31 tn Heb “after his mother.” This must refer to Sarah’s death.
32 tn Heb “the place.” The article may indicate simply that the place is definite in the mind of the narrator. However, as the story unfolds the place is transformed into a holy place. See A. P. Ross, “Jacob’s Vision: The Founding of Bethel,” BSac 142 (1985): 224-37.
33 tn Heb “and he spent the night there because the sun had gone down.”
34 tn Heb “he took from the stones of the place,” which here means Jacob took one of the stones (see v. 18).
35 tn Heb “and he put [it at] the place of his head.” The text does not actually say the stone was placed under his head to serve as a pillow, although most interpreters and translators assume this. It is possible the stone served some other purpose. Jacob does not seem to have been a committed monotheist yet (see v. 20-21) so he may have believed it contained some spiritual power. Note that later in the story he anticipates the stone becoming the residence of God (see v. 22). Many cultures throughout the world view certain types of stones as magical and/or sacred. See J. G. Fraser, Folklore in the Old Testament, 231-37.
36 tn Heb “lay down.”
37 tn Heb “and he got up early…and he took.”
38 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
39 tn See the note on this phrase in v. 11.
40 tn Heb “standing stone.”
sn Sacred stone. Such a stone could be used as a boundary marker, a burial stone, or as a shrine. Here the stone is intended to be a reminder of the stairway that was “erected” and on which the
41 tn Heb “drove,” but this is subject to misunderstanding in contemporary English.
42 tn Heb “and he led away all his cattle and all his moveable property which he acquired, the cattle he obtained, which he acquired in Paddan Aram to go to Isaac his father to the land of Canaan.”
43 tn The God of Abraham and the god of Nahor. The Hebrew verb translated “judge” is plural, suggesting that Laban has more than one “god” in mind. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the LXX, apparently in an effort to make the statement monotheistic, have a singular verb. In this case one could translate, “May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.” However, Laban had a polytheistic world view, as evidenced by his possession of household idols (cf. 31:19). The translation uses “God” when referring to Abraham’s God, for Genesis makes it clear that Abraham worshiped the one true God. It employs “god” when referring to Nahor’s god, for in the Hebrew text Laban refers to a different god here, probably one of the local deities.
44 tn Heb “by the fear of his father Isaac.” See the note on the word “fears” in v. 42.
45 tn Heb “blessing.” It is as if Jacob is trying to repay what he stole from his brother twenty years earlier.
46 tn Or “gracious,” but in the specific sense of prosperity.
47 tn Heb “all.”
48 tn Heb “and he urged him and he took.” The referent of the first pronoun in the sequence (“he”) has been specified as “Jacob” in the translation for clarity.
49 tn Heb “a man his sword.”
50 tn Heb “and they came upon the city, [which was] secure.” In this case “secure” means the city was caught unprepared and at peace, not expecting an attack.
51 sn On the close relationship between Ishmaelites (v. 25) and Midianites, see Judg 8:24.
52 tn Heb “they drew and they lifted up.” The referent (Joseph’s brothers) has been specified in the translation for clarity; otherwise the reader might assume the Midianites had pulled Joseph from the cistern (but cf. NAB).
53 tn Heb “Joseph” (both here and in the following clause); the proper name has been replaced both times by the pronoun “him” in the translation for stylistic reasons.
54 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Ishmaelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
55 tn The word “child” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
56 tn Heb “the house of roundness,” suggesting that the prison might have been a fortress or citadel.
57 sn The story of Joseph is filled with cycles and repetition: He has two dreams (chap. 37), he interprets two dreams in prison (chap. 40) and the two dreams of Pharaoh (chap. 41), his brothers make two trips to see him (chaps. 42-43), and here, for the second time (see 37:24), he is imprisoned for no good reason, with only his coat being used as evidence. For further discussion see H. Jacobsen, “A Legal Note on Potiphar’s Wife,” HTR 69 (1976): 177.
58 tn The Hebrew word שֵׁשׁ (shesh) is an Egyptian loanword that describes the fine linen robes that Egyptian royalty wore. The clothing signified Joseph’s rank.
59 sn The meaning of Joseph’s Egyptian name, Zaphenath-Paneah, is uncertain. Many recent commentators have followed the proposal of G. Steindorff that it means “the god has said, ‘he will live’” (“Der Name Josephs Saphenat-Pa‘neach,” ZÄS 31 [1889]: 41-42); others have suggested “the god speaks and lives” (see BDB 861 s.v. צָפְנָת פַּעְנֵחַ); “the man he knows” (J. Vergote, Joseph en Égypte, 145); or “Joseph [who is called] áIp-àankh” (K. A. Kitchen, NBD3 1262).
60 sn The name Asenath may mean “she belongs to the goddess Neit” (see HALOT 74 s.v. אָֽסְנַת). A novel was written at the beginning of the first century entitled Joseph and Asenath, which included a legendary account of the conversion of Asenath to Joseph’s faith in Yahweh. However, all that can be determined from this chapter is that their children received Hebrew names. See also V. Aptowitzer, “Asenath, the Wife of Joseph – a Haggadic Literary-Historical Study,” HUCA 1 (1924): 239-306.
61 sn On (also in v. 50) is another name for the city of Heliopolis.
62 tn Heb “and he passed through.”
63 tn Heb “it was bad in his eyes.”
