Discovery BoxGenesis 26:10 
Context26:10 Then Abimelech exclaimed, “What in the world have you done to us? 1 One of the men 2 might easily have had sexual relations with 3 your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!”
Genesis 38:9
Context38:9 But Onan knew that the child 4 would not be considered his. 5 So whenever 6 he had sexual relations with 7 his brother’s wife, he withdrew prematurely 8 so as not to give his brother a descendant.
Genesis 41:21
Context41:21 When they had eaten them, 9 no one would have known 10 that they had done so, for they were just as bad-looking as before. Then I woke up.
Genesis 44:8
Context44:8 Look, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. Why then would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house?
Genesis 45:11
Context45:11 I will provide you with food 11 there because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise you would become poor – you, your household, and everyone who belongs to you.”’
1 tn Heb “What is this you have done to us?” The Hebrew demonstrative pronoun “this” adds emphasis: “What in the world have you done to us?” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).
2 tn Heb “people.”
3 tn The Hebrew verb means “to lie down.” Here the expression “lie with” or “sleep with” is euphemistic for “have sexual relations with.”
4 tn Heb “offspring.”
5 tn Heb “would not be his,” that is, legally speaking. Under the levirate system the child would be legally considered the child of his deceased brother.
6 tn The construction shows that this was a repeated practice and not merely one action.
sn The text makes it clear that the purpose of the custom was to produce an heir for the deceased brother. Onan had no intention of doing that. But he would have sex with the girl as much as he wished. He was willing to use the law to gratify his desires, but was not willing to do the responsible thing.
7 tn Heb “he went to.” This expression is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
8 tn Heb “he spoiled [his semen] to the ground.” Onan withdrew prematurely and ejaculated on the ground to prevent his brother’s widow from becoming pregnant.
9 tn Heb “when they went inside them.”
10 tn Heb “it was not known.”
11 tn The verb כּוּל (kul) in the Pilpel stem means “to nourish, to support, to sustain.” As in 1 Kgs 20:27, it here means “to supply with food.”
