Discovery BoxGenesis 24:3 
Context24:3 so that I may make you solemnly promise 1 by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth: You must not acquire 2 a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living.
Genesis 34:30
Context34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin 3 on me by making me a foul odor 4 among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I 5 am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”
Genesis 50:5
Context50:5 ‘My father made me swear an oath. He said, 6 “I am about to die. Bury me 7 in my tomb that I dug for myself there in the land of Canaan.” Now let me go and bury my father; then I will return.’”
1 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose.
2 tn Heb “because you must not take.”
3 tn The traditional translation is “troubled me” (KJV, ASV), but the verb refers to personal or national disaster and suggests complete ruin (see Josh 7:25, Judg 11:35, Prov 11:17). The remainder of the verse describes the “trouble” Simeon and Levi had caused.
4 tn In the causative stem the Hebrew verb בָּאַשׁ (ba’ash) means “to cause to stink, to have a foul smell.” In the contexts in which it is used it describes foul smells, stenches, or things that are odious. Jacob senses that the people in the land will find this act terribly repulsive. See P. R. Ackroyd, “The Hebrew Root באשׁ,” JTS 2 (1951): 31-36.
5 tn Jacob speaks in the first person as the head and representative of the entire family.
6 tn Heb “saying.”
7 tn The imperfect verbal form here has the force of a command.
