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 4:15
Context4:15 But the Lord said to him, “All right then, 6 if anyone kills Cain, Cain will be avenged seven times as much.” 7 Then the Lord put a special mark 8 on Cain so that no one who found him would strike him down. 9
Genesis 13:9
Context13:9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself now from me. If you go 10 to the left, then I’ll go to the right, but if you go to the right, then I’ll go to the left.”
Genesis 16:5
Context16:5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You have brought this wrong on me! 11 I allowed my servant to have sexual relations with you, 12 but when she realized 13 that she was pregnant, she despised me. 14 May the Lord judge between you and me!” 15
Genesis 19:14
Context19:14 Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. 16 He said, “Quick, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy 17 the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them. 18
Genesis 21:17
Context21:17 But God heard the boy’s voice. 19 The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, 20 Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard 21 the boy’s voice right where he is crying.
Genesis 30:15
Context30:15 But Leah replied, 22 “Wasn’t it enough that you’ve taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes too?” “All right,” 23 Rachel said, “he may sleep 24 with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”
Genesis 30:40
Context30:40 Jacob removed these lambs, but he made the rest of the flock face 25 the streaked and completely dark-colored animals in Laban’s flock. So he made separate flocks for himself and did not mix them with Laban’s flocks.
Genesis 31:42-43
Context31:42 If the God of my father – the God of Abraham, the one whom Isaac fears 26 – had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked, 27 and he rebuked you last night.”
31:43 Laban replied 28 to Jacob, “These women 29 are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, 30 and these flocks are my flocks. All that you see belongs to me. But how can I harm these daughters of mine today 31 or the children to whom they have given birth?
Genesis 37:22
Context37:22 Reuben continued, 32 “Don’t shed blood! Throw him into this cistern that is here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” 33 (Reuben said this 34 so he could rescue Joseph 35 from them 36 and take him back to his father.)
Genesis 42:7
Context42:7 When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger 37 to them and spoke to them harshly. He asked, “Where do you come from?” They answered, 38 “From the land of Canaan, to buy grain for food.” 39
Genesis 42:21
Context42:21 They said to one other, 40 “Surely we’re being punished 41 because of our brother, because we saw how distressed he was 42 when he cried to us for mercy, but we refused to listen. That is why this distress 43 has come on us!”
Genesis 42:38
Context42:38 But Jacob 44 replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. 45 If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair 46 in sorrow to the grave.” 47
Genesis 43:18
Context43:18 But the men were afraid when they were brought to Joseph’s house. They said, “We are being brought in because of 48 the money that was returned in our sacks last time. 49 He wants to capture us, 50 make us slaves, and take 51 our donkeys!”
Genesis 44:26
Context44:26 But we replied, ‘We cannot go down there. 52 If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go, 53 for we won’t be permitted to see the man’s face if our youngest brother is not with us.’
Genesis 48:7
Context48:7 But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died – to my sorrow 54 – in the land of Canaan. It happened along the way, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there on the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem). 55
Genesis 48:19
Context48:19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a nation and he too will become great. In spite of this, his younger brother will be even greater and his descendants will become a multitude 56 of nations.”
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 The Hebrew term לָכֵן (lakhen, “therefore”) in this context carries the sense of “Okay,” or “in that case then I will do this.”
7 sn The symbolic number seven is used here to emphasize that the offender will receive severe punishment. For other rhetorical and hyperbolic uses of the expression “seven times over,” see Pss 12:6; 79:12; Prov 6:31; Isa 30:26.
8 tn Heb “sign”; “reminder.” The term “sign” is not used in the translation because it might imply to an English reader that God hung a sign on Cain. The text does not identify what the “sign” was. It must have been some outward, visual reminder of Cain’s special protected status.
9 sn God becomes Cain’s protector. Here is common grace – Cain and his community will live on under God’s care, but without salvation.
10 tn The words “you go” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons both times in this verse.
11 tn Heb “my wrong is because of you.”
12 tn Heb “I placed my female servant in your bosom.”
13 tn Heb “saw.”
14 tn Heb “I was despised in her eyes.” The passive verb has been translated as active for stylistic reasons. Sarai was made to feel supplanted and worthless by Hagar the servant girl.
15 tn Heb “me and you.”
sn May the
16 sn The language has to be interpreted in the light of the context and the social customs. The men are called “sons-in-law” (literally “the takers of his daughters”), but the daughters had not yet had sex with a man. It is better to translate the phrase “who were going to marry his daughters.” Since formal marriage contracts were binding, the husbands-to-be could already be called sons-in-law.
17 tn The Hebrew active participle expresses an imminent action.
18 tn Heb “and he was like one taunting in the eyes of his sons-in-law.” These men mistakenly thought Lot was ridiculing them and their lifestyle. Their response illustrates how morally insensitive they had become.
19 sn God heard the boy’s voice. The text has not to this point indicated that Ishmael was crying out, either in pain or in prayer. But the text here makes it clear that God heard him. Ishmael is clearly central to the story. Both the mother and the
20 tn Heb “What to you?”
21 sn Here the verb heard picks up the main motif of the name Ishmael (“God hears”), introduced back in chap. 16.
22 tn Heb “and she said to her”; the referent of the pronoun “she” (Leah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
23 tn Heb “therefore.”
24 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.
25 tn Heb “and he set the faces of.”
26 tn Heb “the fear of Isaac,” that is, the one whom Isaac feared and respected. For further discussion of this title see M. Malul, “More on pahad yitschaq (Gen. 31:42,53) and the Oath by the Thigh,” VT 35 (1985): 192-200.
27 tn Heb “My oppression and the work of my hands God saw.”
28 tn Heb “answered and said.”
29 tn Heb “daughters.”
30 tn Heb “children.”
31 tn Heb “but to my daughters what can I do to these today?”
32 tn Heb “and Reuben said to them.”
33 sn The verbs translated shed, throw, and lay sound alike in Hebrew; the repetition of similar sounds draws attention to Reuben’s words.
34 tn The words “Reuben said this” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
35 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
36 tn Heb “from their hands” (cf. v. 21). This expression has been translated as “them” here for stylistic reasons.
37 sn But pretended to be a stranger. Joseph intends to test his brothers to see if they have changed and have the integrity to be patriarchs of the tribes of Israel. He will do this by putting them in the same situations that they and he were in before. The first test will be to awaken their conscience.
38 tn Heb “said.”
39 tn The verb is denominative, meaning “to buy grain”; the word “food” could simply be the direct object, but may also be an adverbial accusative.
40 tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.”
41 tn Or “we are guilty”; the Hebrew word can also refer to the effect of being guilty, i.e., “we are being punished for guilt.”
42 tn Heb “the distress of his soul.”
43 sn The repetition of the Hebrew noun translated distress draws attention to the fact that they regard their present distress as appropriate punishment for their refusal to ignore their brother when he was in distress.
44 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
45 sn The expression he alone is left meant that (so far as Jacob knew) Benjamin was the only surviving child of his mother Rachel.
46 sn The expression bring down my gray hair is figurative, using a part for the whole – they would put Jacob in the grave. But the gray head signifies a long life of worry and trouble.
47 tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.
48 tn Heb “over the matter of.”
49 tn Heb “in the beginning,” that is, at the end of their first visit.
50 tn Heb “to roll himself upon us and to cause himself to fall upon us.” The infinitives here indicate the purpose (as viewed by the brothers) for their being brought to Joseph’s house.
51 tn The word “take” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
52 tn The direct object is not specified in the Hebrew text, but is implied; “there” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
53 tn Heb “go down.”
54 tn Heb “upon me, against me,” which might mean something like “to my sorrow.”
55 map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.
56 tn Heb “fullness.”
