Kejadian 19:28

19:28 He looked out toward ¹  Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. ²  As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace. ³ 

Kejadian 41:34

41:34 Pharaoh should do ⁴  this – he should appoint ⁵  officials ⁶  throughout the land to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt ⁷  during the seven years of abundance.

[19:28]  ¹ tn Heb “upon the face of.”

[19:28]  ² tn Or “all the land of the plain”; Heb “and all the face of the land of the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

[19:28]  ³ tn Heb “And he saw, and look, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.”

[19:28]  sn It is hard to imagine what was going on in Abraham’s mind, but this brief section in the narrative enables the reader to think about the human response to the judgment. Abraham had family in that area. He had rescued those people from the invasion. That was why he interceded. Yet he surely knew how wicked they were. That was why he got the number down to ten when he negotiated with God to save the city. But now he must have wondered, “What was the point?”

[41:34]  ⁴ tn The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. The Samaritan Pentateuch has a jussive form here, “and let [Pharaoh] do.”

[41:34]  ⁵ tn Heb “and let him appoint.” The jussive form expresses Joseph’s advice to Pharaoh.

[41:34]  ⁶ tn Heb “appointees.” The noun is a cognate accusative of the preceding verb. Since “appoint appointees” would be redundant in English, the term “officials” was used in the translation instead.

[41:34]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he shall collect a fifth of the land of Egypt.” The language is figurative (metonymy); it means what the land produces, i.e., the harvest.