Genesis 2:5

2:5 Now ¹  no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field ²  had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. ³ 

Genesis 35:16

35:16 They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, ⁴  Rachel went into labor ⁵  – and her labor was hard.

Genesis 41:19

41:19 Then ⁶  seven other cows came up after them; they were scrawny, very bad-looking, and lean. I had never seen such bad-looking cows ⁷  as these in all the land of Egypt!

[2:5]  ¹ tn Heb “Now every sprig of the field before it was.” The verb forms, although appearing to be imperfects, are technically preterites coming after the adverb טֶּרֶם (terem). The word order (conjunction + subject + predicate) indicates a disjunctive clause, which provides background information for the following narrative (as in 1:2). Two negative clauses are given (“before any sprig…”, and “before any cultivated grain” existed), followed by two causal clauses explaining them, and then a positive circumstantial clause is given – again dealing with water as in 1:2 (water would well up).

[2:5]  ² tn The first term, שִׂיחַ (siakh), probably refers to the wild, uncultivated plants (see Gen 21:15; Job 30:4,7); whereas the second, עֵשֶׂב (’esev), refers to cultivated grains. It is a way of saying: “back before anything was growing.”

[2:5]  ³ tn The two causal clauses explain the first two disjunctive clauses: There was no uncultivated, general growth because there was no rain, and there were no grains because there was no man to cultivate the soil.

[35:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “and there was still a stretch of the land to go to Ephrath.”

[35:16]  ⁵ tn Normally the verb would be translated “she gave birth,” but because that obviously had not happened yet, it is better to translate the verb as ingressive, “began to give birth” (cf. NIV) or “went into labor.”

[41:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “And look.”

[41:19]  ⁷ tn The word “cows” is supplied here in the translation for stylistic reasons.