Kejadian 6:5

6:5 But the Lord saw ¹  that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination ²  of the thoughts ³  of their minds ⁴  was only evil ⁵  all the time. ⁶ 

Kejadian 11:10

The Genealogy of Shem

11:10 This is the account of Shem.

Shem was 100 old when he became the father of Arphaxad, two years after the flood.

Kejadian 12:2

12:2 Then I will make you ⁷  into a great nation, and I will bless you, ⁸ 

and I will make your name great, ⁹ 

so that you will exemplify divine blessing. ¹⁰ 

Kejadian 13:1

Abram’s Solution to the Strife

13:1 So Abram went up from Egypt into the Negev. ¹¹  He took his wife and all his possessions with him, as well as Lot. ¹² 

Kejadian 18:20

18:20 So the Lord said, “The outcry against ¹³  Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so blatant ¹⁴ 

Kejadian 19:13

19:13 because we are about to destroy ¹⁵  it. The outcry against this place ¹⁶  is so great before the Lord that he ¹⁷  has sent us to destroy it.”

Kejadian 26:12

26:12 When Isaac planted in that land, he reaped in the same year a hundred times what he had sown, ¹⁸  because the Lord blessed him. ¹⁹ 

Kejadian 30:29

30:29 “You know how I have worked for you,” Jacob replied, ²⁰  “and how well your livestock have fared under my care. ²¹ 

Kejadian 40:9

40:9 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph: ²²  “In my dream, there was a vine in front of me.

Kejadian 42:1

Joseph’s Brothers in Egypt

42:1 When Jacob heard ²³  there was grain in Egypt, he ²⁴  said to his sons, “Why are you looking at each other?” ²⁵ 

[6:5]  ¹ sn The Hebrew verb translated “saw” (רָאָה, ra’ah), used here of God’s evaluation of humankind’s evil deeds, contrasts with God’s evaluation of creative work in Gen 1, when he observed that everything was good.

[6:5]  ² tn The noun יֵצֶר (yetser) is related to the verb יָצָר (yatsar, “to form, to fashion [with a design]”). Here it refers to human plans or intentions (see Gen 8:21; 1 Chr 28:9; 29:18). People had taken their God-given capacities and used them to devise evil. The word יֵצֶר (yetser) became a significant theological term in Rabbinic literature for what might be called the sin nature – the evil inclination (see also R. E. Murphy, “Yeser in the Qumran Literature,” Bib 39 [1958]: 334-44).

[6:5]  ³ tn The related verb הָשָׁב (hashav) means “to think, to devise, to reckon.” The noun (here) refers to thoughts or considerations.

[6:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “his heart” (referring to collective “humankind”). The Hebrew term לֵב (lev, “heart”) frequently refers to the seat of one’s thoughts (see BDB 524 s.v. לֵב). In contemporary English this is typically referred to as the “mind.”

[6:5]  ⁵ sn Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil. There is hardly a stronger statement of the wickedness of the human race than this. Here is the result of falling into the “knowledge of good and evil”: Evil becomes dominant, and the good is ruined by the evil.

[6:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “all the day.”

[6:5]  sn The author of Genesis goes out of his way to emphasize the depth of human evil at this time. Note the expressions “every inclination,” “only evil,” and “all the time.”

[12:2]  ⁷ tn The three first person verbs in v. 2a should be classified as cohortatives. The first two have pronominal suffixes, so the form itself does not indicate a cohortative. The third verb form is clearly cohortative.

[12:2]  ⁸ sn I will bless you. The blessing of creation is now carried forward to the patriarch. In the garden God blessed Adam and Eve; in that blessing he gave them (1) a fruitful place, (2) endowed them with fertility to multiply, and (3) made them rulers over creation. That was all ruined at the fall. Now God begins to build his covenant people; in Gen 12-22 he promises to give Abram (1) a land flowing with milk and honey, (2) a great nation without number, and (3) kingship.

[12:2]  ⁹ tn Or “I will make you famous.”

[12:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and be a blessing.” The verb form הְיֵה (hÿyeh) is the Qal imperative of the verb הָיָה (hayah). The vav (ו) with the imperative after the cohortatives indicates purpose or consequence. What does it mean for Abram to “be a blessing”? Will he be a channel or source of blessing for others, or a prime example of divine blessing? A similar statement occurs in Zech 8:13, where God assures his people, “You will be a blessing,” in contrast to the past when they “were a curse.” Certainly “curse” here does not refer to Israel being a source of a curse, but rather to the fact that they became a curse-word or byword among the nations, who regarded them as the epitome of an accursed people (see 2 Kgs 22:19; Jer 42:18; 44:8, 12, 22). Therefore the statement “be a blessing” seems to refer to Israel being transformed into a prime example of a blessed people, whose name will be used in blessing formulae, rather than in curses. If the statement “be a blessing” is understood in the same way in Gen 12:2, then it means that God would so bless Abram that other nations would hear of his fame and hold him up as a paradigm of divine blessing in their blessing formulae.

[13:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “the South [country]” (also in v. 3).

[13:1]  sn Negev is the name for the southern desert region in the land of Canaan.

[13:1]  ¹² tn Heb “And Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all which was his, and Lot with him, to the Negev.”

[18:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “the outcry of Sodom,” which apparently refers to the outcry for divine justice from those (unidentified persons) who observe its sinful ways.

[18:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “heavy.”

[19:13]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew participle expresses an imminent action here.

[19:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for their outcry.” The words “about this place” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[19:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord.” The repetition of the divine name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun “he” for stylistic reasons.

[26:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a hundredfold.”

[26:12]  ¹⁹ tn This final clause explains why Isaac had such a bountiful harvest.

[30:29]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and he said to him, ‘You know how I have served you.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons, and the referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[30:29]  ²¹ tn Heb “and how your cattle were with me.”

[40:9]  ²² tn The Hebrew text adds “and he said to him.” This has not been translated because it is redundant in English.

[42:1]  ²³ tn Heb “saw.”

[42:1]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Jacob.” Here the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[42:1]  ²⁵ sn Why are you looking at each other? The point of Jacob’s question is that his sons should be going to get grain rather than sitting around doing nothing. Jacob, as the patriarch, still makes the decisions for the whole clan.