Discovery BoxGenesis 7:1 
Context7:1 The Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, for I consider you godly among this generation. 1
Genesis 11:3
Context11:3 Then they said to one another, 2 “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” 3 (They had brick instead of stone and tar 4 instead of mortar.) 5
Genesis 11:7
Context11:7 Come, let’s go down and confuse 6 their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.” 7
Genesis 16:8
Context16:8 He said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from 8 my mistress, Sarai.”
Genesis 19:32
Context19:32 Come, let’s make our father drunk with wine 9 so we can have sexual relations 10 with him and preserve 11 our family line through our father.” 12
Genesis 26:5
Context26:5 All this will come to pass 13 because Abraham obeyed me 14 and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” 15
Genesis 27:21
Context27:21 Then Isaac said to Jacob, “Come closer so I can touch you, 16 my son, and know for certain if you really are my son Esau.” 17
Genesis 31:44
Context31:44 So now, come, let’s make a formal agreement, 18 you and I, and it will be 19 proof that we have made peace.” 20
Genesis 37:13
Context37:13 Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers 21 are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I will send you to them.” “I’m ready,” 22 Joseph replied. 23
Genesis 42:9
Context42:9 Then Joseph remembered 24 the dreams he had dreamed about them, and he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see if our land is vulnerable!” 25
Genesis 44:23
Context44:23 But you said to your servants, ‘If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not see my face again.’
Genesis 45:4
Context45:4 Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me,” so they came near. Then he said, “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.
Genesis 48:2
Context48:2 When Jacob was told, 26 “Your son Joseph has just 27 come to you,” Israel regained strength and sat up on his bed.
Genesis 50:25
Context50:25 Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He said, “God will surely come to you. Then you must carry my bones up from this place.”
1 tn Heb “for you I see [as] godly before me in this generation.” The direct object (“you”) is placed first in the clause to give it prominence. The verb “to see” here signifies God’s evaluative discernment.
2 tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.” The Hebrew idiom may be translated “to each other” or “one to another.”
3 tn The speech contains two cohortatives of exhortation followed by their respective cognate accusatives: “let us brick bricks” (נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים, nilbbÿnah lÿvenim) and “burn for burning” (נִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה, nisrÿfah lisrefah). This stresses the intensity of the undertaking; it also reflects the Akkadian text which uses similar constructions (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 75-76).
4 tn Or “bitumen” (cf. NEB, NRSV).
5 tn The disjunctive clause gives information parenthetical to the narrative.
6 tn The cohortatives mirror the cohortatives of the people. They build to ascend the heavens; God comes down to destroy their language. God speaks here to his angelic assembly. See the notes on the word “make” in 1:26 and “know” in 3:5, as well as Jub. 10:22-23, where an angel recounts this incident and says “And the
7 tn Heb “they will not hear, a man the lip of his neighbor.”
8 tn Heb “from the presence of.”
9 tn Heb “drink wine.”
10 tn Heb “and we will lie down.” The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive is subordinated to the preceding cohortative and indicates purpose/result.
11 tn Or “that we may preserve.” Here the cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates their ultimate goal.
12 tn Heb “and we will keep alive from our father descendants.”
sn For a discussion of the cultural background of the daughters’ desire to preserve our family line see F. C. Fensham, “The Obliteration of the Family as Motif in the Near Eastern Literature,” AION 10 (1969): 191-99.
13 tn The words “All this will come to pass” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for stylistic reasons.
14 tn Heb “listened to my voice.”
15 sn My charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. The language of this verse is clearly interpretive, for Abraham did not have all these laws. The terms are legal designations for sections of the Mosaic law and presuppose the existence of the law. Some Rabbinic views actually conclude that Abraham had fulfilled the whole law before it was given (see m. Qiddushin 4:14). Some scholars argue that this story could only have been written after the law was given (C. Westermann, Genesis, 2:424-25). But the simplest explanation is that the narrator (traditionally taken to be Moses the Lawgiver) elaborated on the simple report of Abraham’s obedience by using terms with which the Israelites were familiar. In this way he depicts Abraham as the model of obedience to God’s commands, whose example Israel should follow.
16 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative (with prefixed conjunction) indicates purpose or result.
17 tn Heb “Are you this one, Esau, my son, or not?” On the use of the interrogative particle here, see BDB 210 s.v. הֲ.
18 tn Heb “cut a covenant.”
19 tn The verb הָיָה (hayah) followed by the preposition לְ (lÿ) means “become.”
20 tn Heb “and it will become a witness between me and you.”
21 tn The text uses an interrogative clause: “Are not your brothers,” which means “your brothers are.”
22 sn With these words Joseph is depicted here as an obedient son who is ready to do what his father commands.
23 tn Heb “and he said, ‘Here I am.’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged for stylistic reasons.
24 sn You are spies. Joseph wanted to see how his brothers would react if they were accused of spying.
25 tn Heb “to see the nakedness of the land you have come.”
26 tn Heb “and one told and said.” The verbs have no expressed subject and can be translated with the passive voice.
27 tn Heb “Look, your son Joseph.”
