Kejadian 16:5

16:5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You have brought this wrong on me! ¹  I allowed my servant to have sexual relations with you, ²  but when she realized ³  that she was pregnant, she despised me. ⁴  May the Lord judge between you and me!” ⁵ 

Kejadian 21:14

21:14 Early in the morning Abraham took ⁶  some food ⁷  and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He put them on her shoulders, gave her the child, ⁸  and sent her away. So she went wandering ⁹  aimlessly through the wilderness ¹⁰  of Beer Sheba.

Kejadian 29:34

29:34 She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “Now this time my husband will show me affection, ¹¹  because I have given birth to three sons for him.” That is why he was named Levi. ¹² 

Kejadian 31:8

31:8 If he said, ¹³  ‘The speckled animals ¹⁴  will be your wage,’ then the entire flock gave birth to speckled offspring. But if he said, ‘The streaked animals will be your wage,’ then the entire flock gave birth to streaked offspring.

Kejadian 37:2

37:2 This is the account of Jacob.

Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, ¹⁵  was taking care of ¹⁶  the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster ¹⁷  working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. ¹⁸  Joseph brought back a bad report about them ¹⁹  to their father.

[16:5]  ¹ tn Heb “my wrong is because of you.”

[16:5]  ² tn Heb “I placed my female servant in your bosom.”

[16:5]  ³ tn Heb “saw.”

[16:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “I was despised in her eyes.” The passive verb has been translated as active for stylistic reasons. Sarai was made to feel supplanted and worthless by Hagar the servant girl.

[16:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “me and you.”

[16:5]  sn May the Lord judge between you and me. Sarai blamed Abram for Hagar’s attitude, not the pregnancy. Here she expects to be vindicated by the Lord who will prove Abram responsible. A colloquial rendering might be, “God will get you for this.” It may mean that she thought Abram had encouraged the servant girl in her elevated status.

[21:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “and Abraham rose up early in the morning and he took.”

[21:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “bread,” although the term can be used for food in general.

[21:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “He put upon her shoulder, and the boy [or perhaps, “and with the boy”], and he sent her away.” It is unclear how “and the boy” relates syntactically to what precedes. Perhaps the words should be rearranged and the text read, “and he put [them] on her shoulder and he gave to Hagar the boy.”

[21:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “she went and wandered.”

[21:14]  ¹⁰ tn Or “desert,” although for English readers this usually connotes a sandy desert like the Sahara rather than the arid wasteland of this region with its sparse vegetation.

[29:34]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will be joined to me.”

[29:34]  ¹² sn The name Levi (לֵוִי, levi), the precise meaning of which is debated, was appropriate because it sounds like the verb לָוָה (lavah, “to join”), used in the statement recorded earlier in the verse.

[31:8]  ¹³ tn In the protasis (“if” section) of this conditional clause, the imperfect verbal form has a customary nuance – whatever he would say worked to Jacob’s benefit.

[31:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “speckled” (twice this verse). The word “animals” (after the first occurrence of “speckled”) and “offspring” (after the second) have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. The same two terms (“animals” and “offspring”) have been supplied after the two occurrences of “streaked” later in this verse.

[37:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a son of seventeen years.” The word “son” is in apposition to the name “Joseph.”

[37:2]  ¹⁶ tn Or “tending”; Heb “shepherding” or “feeding.”

[37:2]  ¹⁷ tn Or perhaps “a helper.” The significance of this statement is unclear. It may mean “now the lad was with,” or it may suggest Joseph was like a servant to them.

[37:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and he [was] a young man with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, the wives of his father.”

[37:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “their bad report.” The pronoun is an objective genitive, specifying that the bad or damaging report was about the brothers.

[37:2]  sn Some interpreters portray Joseph as a tattletale for bringing back a bad report about them [i.e., his brothers], but the entire Joseph story has some of the characteristics of wisdom literature. Joseph is presented in a good light – not because he was perfect, but because the narrative is showing how wisdom rules. In light of that, this section portrays Joseph as faithful to his father in little things, even though unpopular – and so he will eventually be given authority over greater things.