Discovery BoxGenesis 9:2 
Context9:2 Every living creature of the earth and every bird of the sky will be terrified of you. 1 Everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea are under your authority. 2
Genesis 9:5
Context9:5 For your lifeblood 3 I will surely exact punishment, 4 from 5 every living creature I will exact punishment. From each person 6 I will exact punishment for the life of the individual 7 since the man was his relative. 8
Genesis 17:9
Context17:9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep 9 the covenantal requirement 10 I am imposing on you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.
Genesis 35:1
Context35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up at once 11 to Bethel 12 and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” 13
Genesis 43:5
Context43:5 But if you will not send him, we won’t go down there because the man said to us, ‘You will not see my face unless your brother is with you.’”
Genesis 47:23
Context47:23 Joseph said to the people, “Since I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you. Cultivate 14 the land.
1 tn Heb “and fear of you and dread of you will be upon every living creature of the earth and upon every bird of the sky.” The suffixes on the nouns “fear” and “dread” are objective genitives. The animals will fear humans from this time forward.
2 tn Heb “into your hand are given.” The “hand” signifies power. To say the animals have been given into the hands of humans means humans have been given authority over them.
3 tn Again the text uses apposition to clarify what kind of blood is being discussed: “your blood, [that is] for your life.” See C. L. Dewar, “The Biblical Use of the Term ‘Blood,’” JTS 4 (1953): 204-8.
4 tn The word “punishment” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification. The verb דָּרָשׁ (darash) means “to require, to seek, to ask for, to exact.” Here it means that God will exact punishment for the taking of a life. See R. Mawdsley, “Capital Punishment in Gen. 9:6,” CentBib 18 (1975): 20-25.
5 tn Heb “from the hand of,” which means “out of the hand of” or “out of the power of” and is nearly identical in sense to the preposition מִן (min) alone.
6 tn Heb “and from the hand of the man.” The article has a generic function, indicating the class, i.e., humankind.
7 tn Heb “of the man.”
8 tn Heb “from the hand of a man, his brother.” The point is that God will require the blood of someone who kills, since the person killed is a relative (“brother”) of the killer. The language reflects Noah’s situation (after the flood everyone would be part of Noah’s extended family), but also supports the concept of the brotherhood of humankind. According to the Genesis account the entire human race descended from Noah.
9 tn The imperfect tense could be translated “you shall keep” as a binding command; but the obligatory nuance (“must”) captures the binding sense better.
10 tn Heb “my covenant.” The Hebrew word בְּרִית (bÿrit) can refer to (1) the agreement itself between two parties (see v. 7), (2) the promise made by one party to another (see vv. 2-3, 7), (3) an obligation placed by one party on another, or (4) a reminder of the agreement. In vv. 9-10 the word refers to a covenantal obligation which God gives to Abraham and his descendants.
11 tn Heb “arise, go up.” The first imperative gives the command a sense of urgency.
12 map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.
13 sn God is calling on Jacob to fulfill his vow he made when he fled from…Esau (see Gen 28:20-22).
14 tn The perfect verbal form with the vav consecutive is equivalent to a command here.
