¹ tn Heb “with all my strength.”

² tn Heb “get up and sit.” This may mean simply “sit up,” or it may indicate that he was to get up from his couch and sit at a table.

³ tn Heb “so that your soul may bless me.” These words, though not reported by Rebekah to Jacob (see v. 7) accurately reflect what Isaac actually said to Esau (see v. 4). Perhaps Jacob knew more than Rebekah realized, but it is more likely that this was an idiom for sincere blessing with which Jacob was familiar. At any rate, his use of the precise wording was a nice, convincing touch.

⁴ tn Heb “give my wives and my children, for whom I have served you.” In one sense Laban had already “given” Jacob his two daughters as wives (Gen 29:21, 28). Here Jacob was asking for permission to take his own family along with him on the journey back to Canaan.

⁵ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.

⁶ tn Heb “for you, you know my service [with] which I have served you.”

⁷ tn Heb “will answer on my behalf.”

⁸ tn Heb “on the following day,” or “tomorrow.”

⁹ tn Heb “when you come concerning my wage before you.”

sn Only the wage we agreed on. Jacob would have to be considered completely honest here, for he would have no control over the kind of animals born; and there could be no disagreement over which animals were his wages.

¹⁰ tn Heb “every one which is not speckled and spotted among the lambs and dark among the goats, stolen it is with me.”