Discovery BoxGenesis 38:16 
Context38:16 He turned aside to her along the road and said, “Come on! I want to have sex with you.” 1 (He did not realize 2 it was his daughter-in-law.) She asked, “What will you give me in exchange for having sex with you?” 3
Genesis 38:18
Context38:18 He said, “What pledge should I give you?” She replied, “Your seal, your cord, and the staff that’s in your hand.” So he gave them to her and had sex with her. 4 She became pregnant by him.
Genesis 39:14
Context39:14 she called for her household servants and said to them, “See, my husband brought 5 in a Hebrew man 6 to us to humiliate us. 7 He tried to have sex with me, 8 but I screamed loudly. 9
1 tn Heb “I will go to you.” The imperfect verbal form probably indicates his desire here. The expression “go to” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
2 tn Heb “for he did not know that.”
3 tn Heb “when you come to me.” This expression is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
4 tn Heb “and he went to her.” This expression is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
5 tn The verb has no expressed subject, and so it could be treated as a passive (“a Hebrew man was brought in”; cf. NIV). But it is clear from the context that her husband brought Joseph into the household, so Potiphar is the apparent referent here. Thus the translation supplies “my husband” as the referent of the unspecified pronominal subject of the verb (cf. NEB, NRSV).
6 sn A Hebrew man. Potiphar’s wife raises the ethnic issue when talking to her servants about what their boss had done.
7 tn Heb “to make fun of us.” The verb translated “to humiliate us” here means to hold something up for ridicule, or to toy with something harmfully. Attempted rape would be such an activity, for it would hold the victim in contempt.
8 tn Heb “he came to me to lie with me.” Here the expression “lie with” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
9 tn Heb “and I cried out with a loud voice.”
