Genesis 3:2

3:2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat ¹  of the fruit from the trees of the orchard;

Genesis 17:2

17:2 Then I will confirm my covenant ²  between me and you, and I will give you a multitude of descendants.” ³ 

Genesis 17:4

17:4 “As for me, ⁴  this ⁵  is my covenant with you: You will be the father of a multitude of nations.

Genesis 17:15

17:15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; ⁶  Sarah ⁷  will be her name.

Genesis 19:18

19:18 But Lot said to them, “No, please, Lord! ⁸ 

Genesis 26:15

26:15 So the Philistines took dirt and filled up ⁹  all the wells that his father’s servants had dug back in the days of his father Abraham.

Genesis 27:8

27:8 Now then, my son, do ¹⁰  exactly what I tell you! ¹¹ 

Genesis 29:23

29:23 In the evening he brought his daughter Leah ¹²  to Jacob, ¹³  and Jacob ¹⁴  had marital relations with her. ¹⁵ 

Genesis 30:2

30:2 Jacob became furious ¹⁶  with Rachel and exclaimed, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” ¹⁷ 

Genesis 31:14

31:14 Then Rachel and Leah replied to him, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance ¹⁸  in our father’s house?

Genesis 41:38

41:38 So Pharaoh asked his officials, “Can we find a man like Joseph, ¹⁹  one in whom the Spirit of God is present?” ²⁰ 

¹ tn There is a notable change between what the Lord God had said and what the woman says. God said “you may freely eat” (the imperfect with the infinitive absolute, see 2:16), but the woman omits the emphatic infinitive, saying simply “we may eat.” Her words do not reflect the sense of eating to her heart’s content.

² tn Following the imperative, the cohortative indicates consequence. If Abram is blameless, then the Lord will ratify the covenant. Earlier the Lord ratified part of his promise to Abram (see Gen 15:18-21), guaranteeing him that his descendants would live in the land. But the expanded form of the promise, which includes numerous descendants and eternal possession of the land, remains to be ratified. This expanded form of the promise is in view here (see vv. 2b, 4-8). See the note at Gen 15:18 and R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 35-54.

³ tn Heb “I will multiply you exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.

³ tn Heb “I.”

⁴ tn Heb “is” (הִנֵּה, hinneh).

⁴ tn Heb “[As for] Sarai your wife, you must not call her name Sarai, for Sarah [will be] her name.”

⁵ sn Sarah. The name change seems to be a dialectical variation, both spellings meaning “princess” or “queen.” Like the name Abram, the name Sarai symbolized the past. The new name Sarah, like the name Abraham, would be a reminder of what God intended to do for Sarah in the future.

⁵ tn Or “my lords.” See the following note on the problem of identifying the addressee here. The Hebrew term is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

⁶ tn Heb “and the Philistines stopped them up and filled them with dirt.”

⁷ tn Heb “listen to my voice.” The Hebrew idiom means “to comply; to obey.”

⁸ tn Heb “to that which I am commanding you.”

⁸ tn Heb “and it happened in the evening that he took Leah his daughter and brought her.”

⁹ tn Heb “to him”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ tn Heb “went in to her.” The expression “went in to” in this context refers to sexual intercourse, i.e., the consummation of the marriage.

⁹ tn Heb “and the anger of Jacob was hot.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb.”

¹⁰ tn The two nouns may form a hendiadys, meaning “a share in the inheritance” or “a portion to inherit.”

¹¹ tn Heb “like this,” but the referent could be misunderstood to be a man like that described by Joseph in v. 33, rather than Joseph himself. For this reason the proper name “Joseph” has been supplied in the translation.

¹² tn The rhetorical question expects the answer “No, of course not!”