Kejadian 24:67

24:67 Then Isaac brought Rebekah ¹  into his mother Sarah’s tent. He took her ²  as his wife and loved her. ³  So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death. ⁴ 

Kejadian 26:8-10

26:8 After Isaac ⁵  had been there a long time, ⁶  Abimelech king of the Philistines happened to look out a window and observed ⁷  Isaac caressing ⁸  his wife Rebekah. 26:9 So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, “She is really ⁹  your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac replied, “Because I thought someone might kill me to get her.” ¹⁰ 

26:10 Then Abimelech exclaimed, “What in the world have you done to us? ¹¹  One of the men ¹²  might easily have had sexual relations with ¹³  your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!”

[24:67]  ¹ tn Heb “her”; the referent has been specified here in the translation for clarity.

[24:67]  ² tn Heb “Rebekah”; here the proper name was replaced by the pronoun (“her”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[24:67]  ³ tn Heb “and he took Rebekah and she became his wife and he loved her.”

[24:67]  ⁴ tn Heb “after his mother.” This must refer to Sarah’s death.

[26:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[26:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “and it happened when the days were long to him there.”

[26:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “look, Isaac.” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator invites the audience to view the scene through Abimelech’s eyes.

[26:8]  ⁸ tn Or “fondling.”

[26:8]  sn The Hebrew word מְצַחֵק (mÿtsakheq), from the root צָחַק (tsakhaq, “laugh”), forms a sound play with the name “Isaac” right before it. Here it depicts an action, probably caressing or fondling, that indicated immediately that Rebekah was Isaac’s wife, not his sister. Isaac’s deception made a mockery of God’s covenantal promise. Ignoring God’s promise to protect and bless him, Isaac lied to protect himself and acted in bad faith to the men of Gerar.

[26:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “Surely, look!” See N. H. Snaith, “The meaning of Hebrew ‘ak,” VT 14 (1964): 221-25.

[26:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’” Since the verb “said” probably means “said to myself” (i.e., “thought”) here, the direct discourse in the Hebrew statement has been converted to indirect discourse in the translation. In addition the simple prepositional phrase “on account of her” has been clarified in the translation as “to get her” (cf. v. 7).

[26:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “What is this you have done to us?” The Hebrew demonstrative pronoun “this” adds emphasis: “What in the world have you done to us?” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).

[26:10]  ¹² tn Heb “people.”

[26:10]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew verb means “to lie down.” Here the expression “lie with” or “sleep with” is euphemistic for “have sexual relations with.”