Discovery BoxGenesis 3:17 
Context“Because you obeyed 2 your wife
and ate from the tree about which I commanded you,
‘You must not eat from it,’
cursed is the ground 3 thanks to you; 4
in painful toil you will eat 5 of it all the days of your life.
Genesis 11:31
Context11:31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and with them he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there.
Genesis 20:7
Context20:7 But now give back the man’s wife. Indeed 6 he is a prophet 7 and he will pray for you; thus you will live. 8 But if you don’t give her back, 9 know that you will surely die 10 along with all who belong to you.”
Genesis 24:3
Context24:3 so that I may make you solemnly promise 11 by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth: You must not acquire 12 a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living.
Genesis 24:7
Context24:7 “The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and the land of my relatives, 13 promised me with a solemn oath, 14 ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ He will send his angel 15 before you so that you may find 16 a wife for my son from there.
Genesis 24:40
Context24:40 He answered, ‘The Lord, before whom I have walked, 17 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 38:14
Context38:14 So she removed her widow’s clothes and covered herself with a veil. She wrapped herself and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the way to Timnah. (She did this because 18 she saw that she had not been given to Shelah as a wife, even though he had now grown up.) 19
1 tn Since there is no article on the word, the personal name is used, rather than the generic “the man” (cf. NRSV).
2 tn The idiom “listen to the voice of” often means “obey.” The man “obeyed” his wife and in the process disobeyed God.
3 sn For the ground to be cursed means that it will no longer yield its bounty as the blessing from God had promised. The whole creation, Paul writes in Rom 8:22, is still groaning under this curse, waiting for the day of redemption.
4 tn The Hebrew phrase בַּעֲבוּרֶךָ (ba’avurekha) is more literally translated “on your account” or “because of you.” The idiomatic “thanks to you” in the translation tries to capture the point of this expression.
5 sn In painful toil you will eat. The theme of eating is prominent throughout Gen 3. The prohibition was against eating from the tree of knowledge. The sin was in eating. The interrogation concerned the eating from the tree of knowledge. The serpent is condemned to eat the dust of the ground. The curse focuses on eating in a “measure for measure” justice. Because the man and the woman sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, God will forbid the ground to cooperate, and so it will be through painful toil that they will eat.
6 tn Or “for,” if the particle is understood as causal (as many English translations do) rather than asseverative.
7 sn For a discussion of the term prophet see N. Walker, “What is a Nabhi?” ZAW 73 (1961): 99-100.
8 tn After the preceding jussive (or imperfect), the imperative with vav conjunctive here indicates result.
sn He will pray for you that you may live. Abraham was known as a man of God whose prayer would be effectual. Ironically and sadly, he was also known as a liar.
9 tn Heb “if there is not you returning.” The suffix on the particle becomes the subject of the negated clause.
10 tn The imperfect is preceded by the infinitive absolute to make the warning emphatic.
11 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose.
12 tn Heb “because you must not take.”
13 tn Or “the land of my birth.”
14 tn Heb “and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying.”
15 tn Or “his messenger.”
16 tn Heb “before you and you will take.”
17 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
18 tn The Hebrew text simply has “because,” connecting this sentence to what precedes. For stylistic reasons the words “she did this” are supplied in the translation and a new sentence begun.
19 tn Heb “she saw that Shelah had grown up, but she was not given to him as a wife.”
