Discovery BoxGenesis 22:16 
Context22:16 and said, “‘I solemnly swear by my own name,’ 1 decrees the Lord, 2 ‘that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,
Genesis 30:3
Context30:3 She replied, “Here is my servant Bilhah! Have sexual relations with 3 her so that she can bear 4 children 5 for me 6 and I can have a family through her.” 7
Genesis 30:8
Context30:8 Then Rachel said, “I have fought a desperate struggle with my sister, but I have won.” 8 So she named him Naphtali. 9
Genesis 32:5
Context32:5 I have oxen, donkeys, sheep, and male and female servants. I have sent 10 this message 11 to inform my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”
Genesis 32:28
Context32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, 12 “but Israel, 13 because you have fought 14 with God and with men and have prevailed.”
Genesis 46:32
Context46:32 The men are shepherds; 15 they take care of livestock. 16 They have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.’
1 tn Heb “By myself I swear.”
2 tn Heb “the oracle of the
3 tn Heb “go in to.” The expression “go in to” in this context refers to sexual intercourse.
4 tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with the conjunction indicates the immediate purpose of the proposed activity.
5 tn The word “children” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
6 tn Heb “upon my knees.” This is an idiomatic way of saying that Bilhah will be simply a surrogate mother. Rachel will adopt the child as her own.
7 tn Heb “and I will be built up, even I, from her.” The prefixed verbal form with the conjunction is subordinated to the preceding prefixed verbal form and gives the ultimate purpose for the proposed action. The idiom of “built up” here refers to having a family (see Gen 16:2, as well as Ruth 4:11 and BDB 125 s.v. בָנָה).
8 tn Heb “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister, also I have prevailed.” The phrase “mighty struggle” reads literally “struggles of God.” The plural participle “struggles” reflects the ongoing nature of the struggle, while the divine name is used here idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the struggle. See J. Skinner, Genesis (ICC), 387.
9 sn The name Naphtali (נַפְתָּלִי, naftali) must mean something like “my struggle” in view of the statement Rachel made in the preceding clause. The name plays on this earlier statement, “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister.”
10 tn Or “I am sending.” The form is a preterite with the vav consecutive; it could be rendered as an English present tense – as the Hebrew perfect/preterite allows – much like an epistolary aorist in Greek. The form assumes the temporal perspective of the one who reads the message.
11 tn The words “this message” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
12 tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
13 sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the
14 sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).
15 tn Heb “feeders of sheep.”
16 tn Heb “for men of livestock they are.”
