Kejadian 24:50

24:50 Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “This is the Lord’s doing. ¹  Our wishes are of no concern. ² 

Kejadian 24:2

24:2 Abraham said to his servant, the senior one ³  in his household who was in charge of everything he had, “Put your hand under my thigh ⁴ 

1 Samuel 4:9

4:9 Be strong and act like men, you Philistines, or else you will wind up serving the Hebrews the way they have served you! Act like men and fight!”

Mazmur 71:4

71:4 My God, rescue me from the power ⁵  of the wicked,

from the hand of the cruel oppressor!

Yeremia 15:21

15:21 “I will deliver you from the power of the wicked.

I will free you from the clutches of violent people.”

Daniel 3:17

3:17 If ⁶  our God whom we are serving exists, ⁷  he is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he will rescue us, O king, from your power as well.

[24:50]  ¹ tn Heb “From the Lord the matter has gone out.”

[24:50]  ² tn Heb “We are not able to speak to you bad or good.” This means that Laban and Bethuel could not say one way or the other what they wanted, for they viewed it as God’s will.

[24:2]  ³ tn The Hebrew term זָקֵן (zaqen) may refer to the servant who is oldest in age or senior in authority (or both).

[24:2]  ⁴ sn Put your hand under my thigh. The taking of this oath had to do with the sanctity of the family and the continuation of the family line. See D. R. Freedman, “Put Your Hand Under My Thigh – the Patriarchal Oath,” BAR 2 (1976): 2-4, 42.

[71:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “hand.”

[3:17]  ⁶ tc The ancient versions typically avoid the conditional element of v. 17.

[3:17]  ⁷ tn The Aramaic expression used here is very difficult to interpret. The question concerns the meaning and syntax of אִיתַי (’itay, “is” or “exist”). There are several possibilities. (1) Some interpreters take this word closely with the participle later in the verse יָכִל (yakhil, “able”), understanding the two words to form a periphrastic construction (“if our God is…able”; cf. H. Bauer and P. Leander, Grammatik des Biblisch-Aramäischen, 365, §111b). But the separation of the two elements from one another is not an argument in favor of this understanding. (2) Other interpreters take the first part of v. 17 to mean “If it is so, then our God will deliver us” (cf. KJV, ASV, RSV, NASB). However, the normal sense of ’itay is existence; on this point see F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 45, §95. The present translation maintains the sense of existence for the verb (“If our God…exists”), even though the statement is admittedly difficult to understand in this light. The statement may be an implicit reference back to Nebuchadnezzar’s comment in v. 15, which denies the existence of a god capable of delivering from the king’s power.