Discovery BoxGenesis 25:32 
Context25:32 “Look,” said Esau, “I’m about to die! What use is the birthright to me?” 1
Genesis 27:26
Context27:26 Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come here and kiss me, my son.”
Genesis 30:24
Context30:24 She named him Joseph, 2 saying, “May the Lord give me yet another son.”
Genesis 31:11
Context31:11 In the dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ ‘Here I am!’ I replied.
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 44:21
Context44:21 “Then you told your servants, ‘Bring him down to me so I can see 6 him.’ 7
1 tn Heb “And what is this to me, a birthright?”
2 sn The name Joseph (יוֹסֵף, yoseph) means “may he add.” The name expresses Rachel’s desire to have an additional son. In Hebrew the name sounds like the verb (אָסַף,’asasf) translated “taken away” in the earlier statement made in v. 23. So the name, while reflecting Rachel’s hope, was also a reminder that God had removed her shame.
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 The cohortative after the imperative indicates purpose here.
7 tn Heb “that I may set my eyes upon him.”
