Discovery BoxGenesis 24:7 
Context24:7 “The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and the land of my relatives, 1 promised me with a solemn oath, 2 ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ He will send his angel 3 before you so that you may find 4 a wife for my son from there.
Genesis 24:40
Context24:40 He answered, ‘The Lord, before whom I have walked, 5 will send his angel with you. He will make your journey a success and you will find a wife for my son from among my relatives, from my father’s family.
Genesis 27:45
Context27:45 Stay there 6 until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I’ll send someone to bring you back from there. 7 Why should I lose both of you in one day?” 8
Genesis 30:15-16
Context30:15 But Leah replied, 9 “Wasn’t it enough that you’ve taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes too?” “All right,” 10 Rachel said, “he may sleep 11 with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 30:16 When Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must sleep 12 with me because I have paid for your services 13 with my son’s mandrakes.” So he had marital relations 14 with her that night.
Genesis 38:11
Context38:11 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up.” For he thought, 15 “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.” 16 So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.
Genesis 43:11
Context43:11 Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Take some of the best products of the land in your bags, and take a gift down to the man – a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachios and almonds.
Genesis 44:16
Context44:16 Judah replied, “What can we say 17 to my lord? What can we speak? How can we clear ourselves? 18 God has exposed the sin of your servants! 19 We are now my lord’s slaves, we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.”
Genesis 46:34
Context46:34 Tell him, ‘Your servants have taken care of cattle 20 from our youth until now, both we and our fathers,’ so that you may live in the land of Goshen, 21 for everyone who takes care of sheep is disgusting 22 to the Egyptians.”
Genesis 47:19
Context47:19 Why should we die before your very eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we, with our land, will become 23 Pharaoh’s slaves. 24 Give us seed that we may live 25 and not die. Then the land will not become desolate.” 26
Genesis 49:26
Context49:26 The blessings of your father are greater
than 27 the blessings of the eternal mountains 28
or the desirable things of the age-old hills.
They will be on the head of Joseph
and on the brow of the prince of his brothers. 29
1 tn Or “the land of my birth.”
2 tn Heb “and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying.”
3 tn Or “his messenger.”
4 tn Heb “before you and you will take.”
5 tn The verb is the Hitpael of הָלַךְ (halakh), meaning “live one’s life” (see Gen 17:1). The statement may simply refer to serving the
6 tn The words “stay there” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
7 tn Heb “and I will send and I will take you from there.” The verb “send” has no object in the Hebrew text; one must be supplied in the translation. Either “someone” or “a message” could be supplied, but since in those times a message would require a messenger, “someone” has been used.
8 tn If Jacob stayed, he would be killed and Esau would be forced to run away.
9 tn Heb “and she said to her”; the referent of the pronoun “she” (Leah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tn Heb “therefore.”
11 tn Heb “lie down.” The expression “lie down with” in this context (here and in the following verse) refers to sexual intercourse. The imperfect verbal form has a permissive nuance here.
12 tn Heb “must come in to me.” The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. She has acquired him for the night and feels he is obligated to have sexual relations with her.
13 tn Heb “I have surely hired.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verbal form for emphasis. The name Issachar (see v. 18) seems to be related to this expression.
14 tn This is the same Hebrew verb (שָׁכַב, shakhav) translated “sleep with” in v. 15. In direct discourse the more euphemistic “sleep with” was used, but here in the narrative “marital relations” reflects more clearly the emphasis on sexual intercourse.
15 tn Heb “said.”
16 tn Heb “Otherwise he will die, also he, like his brothers.”
sn I don’t want him to die like his brothers. This clause explains that Judah had no intention of giving Shelah to Tamar for the purpose of the levirate marriage. Judah apparently knew the nature of his sons, and feared that God would be angry with the third son and kill him as well.
17 tn The imperfect verbal form here indicates the subject’s potential.
18 tn The Hitpael form of the verb צָדֵק (tsadeq) here means “to prove ourselves just, to declare ourselves righteous, to prove our innocence.”
19 sn God has exposed the sin of your servants. The first three questions are rhetorical; Judah is stating that there is nothing they can say to clear themselves. He therefore must conclude that they have been found guilty.
20 tn Heb “your servants are men of cattle.”
21 sn So that you may live in the land of Goshen. Joseph is apparently trying to stress to Pharaoh that his family is self-sufficient, that they will not be a drain on the economy of Egypt. But they will need land for their animals and so Goshen, located on the edge of Egypt, would be a suitable place for them to live. The settled Egyptians were uneasy with nomadic people, but if Jacob and his family settled in Goshen they would represent no threat.
22 tn Heb “is an abomination.” The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “abomination”) describes something that is loathsome or off-limits. For other practices the Egyptians considered disgusting, see Gen 43:32 and Exod 8:22.
23 tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with vav here indicates consequence.
24 sn Pharaoh’s slaves. The idea of slavery is not attractive to the modern mind, but in the ancient world it was the primary way of dealing with the poor and destitute. If the people became slaves of Pharaoh, it was Pharaoh’s responsibility to feed them and care for them. It was the best way for them to survive the famine.
25 tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with vav here indicates purpose or result.
26 tn The disjunctive clause structure (vav [ו] + subject + negated verb) highlights the statement and brings their argument to a conclusion.
27 tn Heb “have prevailed over.”
28 tn One could interpret the phrase הוֹרַי (horay) to mean “my progenitors” (literally, “the ones who conceived me”), but the masculine form argues against this. It is better to emend the text to הַרֲרֵי (harare, “mountains of”) because it forms a better parallel with the next clause. In this case the final yod (י) on the form is a construct plural marker, not a pronominal suffix.
29 tn For further discussion of this passage, see I. Sonne, “Genesis 49:24-26,” JBL 65 (1946): 303-6.
