Discovery BoxGenesis 8:3 
Context8:3 The waters kept receding steadily 1 from the earth, so that they 2 had gone down 3 by the end of the 150 days.
Genesis 11:7
Context11:7 Come, let’s go down and confuse 4 their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.” 5
Genesis 12:10
Context12:10 There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt 6 to stay for a while 7 because the famine was severe. 8
Genesis 15:17
Context15:17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch 9 passed between the animal parts. 10
Genesis 18:21
Context18:21 that I must go down 11 and see if they are as wicked as the outcry suggests. 12 If not, 13 I want to know.”
Genesis 19:4
Context19:4 Before they could lie down to sleep, 14 all the men – both young and old, from every part of the city of Sodom – surrounded the house. 15
Genesis 24:11
Context24:11 He made the camels kneel down by the well 16 outside the city. It was evening, 17 the time when the women would go out to draw water.
Genesis 27:3
Context27:3 Therefore, take your weapons – your quiver and your bow – and go out into the open fields and hunt down some wild game 18 for me.
Genesis 42:2
Context42:2 He then said, “Look, I hear that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy grain for us 19 so that we may live 20 and not die.” 21
Genesis 43:15
Context43:15 So the men took these gifts, and they took double the money with them, along with Benjamin. Then they hurried down to Egypt 22 and stood before Joseph.
Genesis 43:26
Context43:26 When Joseph came home, they presented him with the gifts they had brought inside, 23 and they bowed down to the ground before him.
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 44:29
Context44:29 If you take 24 this one from me too and an accident happens to him, then you will bring down my gray hair 25 in tragedy 26 to the grave.’ 27
Genesis 45:13
Context45:13 So tell 28 my father about all my honor in Egypt and about everything you have seen. But bring my father down here quickly!” 29
Genesis 46:4
Context46:4 I will go down with you to Egypt and I myself will certainly bring you back from there. 30 Joseph will close your eyes.” 31
Genesis 47:31
Context47:31 Jacob 32 said, “Swear to me that you will do so.” 33 So Joseph 34 gave him his word. 35 Then Israel bowed down 36 at the head of his bed. 37
Genesis 49:8
Context49:8 Judah, 38 your brothers will praise you.
Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies,
your father’s sons will bow down before you.
1 tn The construction combines a Qal preterite from שׁוּב (shuv) with its infinitive absolute to indicate continuous action. The infinitive absolute from הָלָךְ (halakh) is included for emphasis: “the waters returned…going and returning.”
2 tn Heb “the waters.” The pronoun (“they”) has been employed in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3 tn The vav (ו) consecutive with the preterite here describes the consequence of the preceding action.
4 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
5 tn Heb “they will not hear, a man the lip of his neighbor.”
6 sn Abram went down to Egypt. The Abrahamic narrative foreshadows some of the events in the life of the nation of Israel. This sojourn in Egypt is typological of Israel’s bondage there. In both stories there is a famine that forces the family to Egypt, death is a danger to the males while the females are preserved alive, great plagues bring about their departure, there is a summons to stand before Pharaoh, and there is a return to the land of Canaan with great wealth.
7 tn The Hebrew verb גּוּר (gur), traditionally rendered “to sojourn,” means “to stay for a while.” The “stranger” (traditionally “sojourner”) is one who is a temporary resident, a visitor, one who is passing through. Abram had no intention of settling down in Egypt or owning property. He was only there to wait out the famine.
8 tn Heb “heavy in the land.” The words “in the land,” which also occur at the beginning of the verse in the Hebrew text, have not been repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.
9 sn A smoking pot with a flaming torch. These same implements were used in Mesopotamian rituals designed to ward off evil (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 113-14).
10 tn Heb “these pieces.”
11 tn The cohortative indicates the
sn I must go down. The descent to “see” Sodom is a bold anthropomorphism, stressing the careful judgment of God. The language is reminiscent of the
12 tn Heb “[if] according to the outcry that has come to me they have done completely.” Even the
13 sn The short phrase if not provides a ray of hope and inspires Abraham’s intercession.
14 tn The verb שָׁכַב (shakhav) means “to lie down, to recline,” that is, “to go to bed.” Here what appears to be an imperfect is a preterite after the adverb טֶרֶם (terem). The nuance of potential (perfect) fits well.
15 tn Heb “and the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from the young to the old, all the people from the end [of the city].” The repetition of the phrase “men of” stresses all kinds of men.
16 tn Heb “well of water.”
17 tn Heb “at the time of evening.”
18 tn The Hebrew word is to be spelled either צַיִד (tsayid) following the marginal reading (Qere), or צֵידָה (tsedah) following the consonantal text (Kethib). Either way it is from the same root as the imperative צוּדָה (tsudah, “hunt down”).
19 tn Heb “and buy for us from there.” The word “grain,” the direct object of “buy,” has been supplied for clarity, and the words “from there” have been omitted in the translation for stylistic reasons.
20 tn Following the imperatives, the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav expresses purpose of result.
21 tn The imperfect tense continues the nuance of the verb before it.
22 tn Heb “they arose and went down to Egypt.” The first verb has an adverbial function and emphasizes that they departed right away.
23 tn Heb “into the house.”
24 tn The construction uses a perfect verbal form with the vav consecutive to introduce the conditional clause and then another perfect verbal form with a vav consecutive to complete the sentence: “if you take…then you will bring down.”
25 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. See Gen 42:38.
26 tn Heb “evil/calamity.” The term is different than the one used in the otherwise identical statement recorded in v. 31 (see also 42:38).
27 tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.
28 tn The perfect verbal form with the vav consecutive here expresses instruction.
29 tn Heb “and hurry and bring down my father to here.”
30 tn Heb “and I, I will bring you up, also bringing up.” The independent personal pronoun before the first person imperfect verbal form draws attention to the speaker/subject, while the infinitive absolute after the imperfect strongly emphasizes the statement: “I myself will certainly bring you up.”
31 tn Heb “and Joseph will put his hand upon your eyes.” This is a promise of peaceful death in Egypt with Joseph present to close his eyes.
32 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
33 tn Heb “swear on oath to me.” The words “that you will do so” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
34 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
35 tn Heb “swore on oath to him.”
36 sn The Hebrew verb normally means “bow down,” especially in worship or prayer. Here it might simply mean “bend low,” perhaps from weakness or approaching death. The narrative is ambiguous at this point and remains open to all these interpretations.
37 tc The MT reads מִטָּה (mittah, “bed, couch”). The LXX reads the word as מַטֶּה (matteh, “staff, rod”) and interprets this to mean that Jacob bowed down in worship while leaning on the top of his staff. The LXX reading was used in turn by the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 11:21).
38 sn There is a wordplay here; the name Judah (יְהוּדָה, yÿhudah) sounds in Hebrew like the verb translated praise (יוֹדוּךָ, yodukha). The wordplay serves to draw attention to the statement as having special significance.
