Kejadian 1:9

1:9 God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place ¹  and let dry ground appear.” ²  It was so.

Kejadian 1:11

1:11 God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: ³  plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, ⁴  and ⁵  trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” It was so.

Kejadian 1:14

1:14 God said, “Let there be lights ⁶  in the expanse ⁷  of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs ⁸  to indicate seasons and days and years,

Kejadian 1:24

1:24 God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” ⁹  It was so.

Kejadian 3:16

3:16 To the woman he said,

“I will greatly increase ¹⁰  your labor pains; ¹¹ 

with pain you will give birth to children.

You will want to control your husband, ¹² 

but he will dominate ¹³  you.”

Kejadian 6:3

6:3 So the Lord said, “My spirit will not remain in ¹⁴  humankind indefinitely, ¹⁵  since ¹⁶  they ¹⁷  are mortal. ¹⁸  They ¹⁹  will remain for 120 more years.” ²⁰ 

Kejadian 6:7

6:7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – everything from humankind to animals, ²¹  including creatures that move on the ground and birds of the air, for I regret that I have made them.”

Kejadian 6:13

6:13 So God said ²²  to Noah, “I have decided that all living creatures must die, ²³  for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am about to destroy ²⁴  them and the earth.

Kejadian 9:12

9:12 And God said, “This is the guarantee ²⁵  of the covenant I am making ²⁶  with you ²⁷  and every living creature with you, a covenant ²⁸  for all subsequent ²⁹  generations:

Kejadian 12:4

12:4 So Abram left, ³⁰  just as the Lord had told him to do, ³¹  and Lot went with him. (Now ³²  Abram was 75 years old ³³  when he departed from Haran.)

Kejadian 15:5

15:5 The Lord ³⁴  took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars – if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”

Kejadian 15:13

15:13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain ³⁵  that your descendants will be strangers ³⁶  in a foreign country. ³⁷  They will be enslaved and oppressed ³⁸  for four hundred years.

Kejadian 18:29-31

18:29 Abraham ³⁹  spoke to him again, ⁴⁰  “What if forty are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty.”

18:30 Then Abraham ⁴¹  said, “May the Lord not be angry ⁴²  so that I may speak! ⁴³  What if thirty are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

18:31 Abraham ⁴⁴  said, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”

Kejadian 21:12

21:12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be upset ⁴⁵  about the boy or your slave wife. Do ⁴⁶  all that Sarah is telling ⁴⁷  you because through Isaac your descendants will be counted. ⁴⁸ 

Kejadian 31:16

31:16 Surely all the wealth that God snatched away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So now do everything God has told you.”

[1:9]  ¹ sn Let the water…be gathered to one place. In the beginning the water covered the whole earth; now the water was to be restricted to an area to form the ocean. The picture is one of the dry land as an island with the sea surrounding it. Again the sovereignty of God is revealed. Whereas the pagans saw the sea as a force to be reckoned with, God controls the boundaries of the sea. And in the judgment at the flood he will blur the boundaries so that chaos returns.

[1:9]  ² tn When the waters are collected to one place, dry land emerges above the surface of the receding water.

[1:11]  ³ tn The Hebrew construction employs a cognate accusative, where the nominal object (“vegetation”) derives from the verbal root employed. It stresses the abundant productivity that God created.

[1:11]  sn Vegetation. The Hebrew word translated “vegetation” (דֶּשֶׁא, deshe’) normally means “grass,” but here it probably refers more generally to vegetation that includes many of the plants and trees. In the verse the plants and the trees are qualified as self-perpetuating with seeds, but not the word “vegetation,” indicating it is the general term and the other two terms are sub-categories of it. Moreover, in vv. 29 and 30 the word vegetation/grass does not appear. The Samaritan Pentateuch adds an “and” before the fruit trees, indicating it saw the arrangement as bipartite (The Samaritan Pentateuch tends to eliminate asyndetic constructions).

[1:11]  ⁴ sn After their kinds. The Hebrew word translated “kind” (מִין, min) indicates again that God was concerned with defining and dividing time, space, and species. The point is that creation was with order, as opposed to chaos. And what God created and distinguished with boundaries was not to be confused (see Lev 19:19 and Deut 22:9-11).

[1:11]  ⁵ tn The conjunction “and” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation to clarify the relationship of the clauses.

[1:14]  ⁶ sn Let there be lights. Light itself was created before the light-bearers. The order would not seem strange to the ancient Hebrew mind that did not automatically link daylight with the sun (note that dawn and dusk appear to have light without the sun).

[1:14]  ⁷ tn The language describing the cosmos, which reflects a prescientific view of the world, must be interpreted as phenomenal, describing what appears to be the case. The sun and the moon are not in the sky (below the clouds), but from the viewpoint of a person standing on the earth, they appear that way. Even today we use similar phenomenological expressions, such as “the sun is rising” or “the stars in the sky.”

[1:14]  ⁸ tn The text has “for signs and for seasons and for days and years.” It seems likely from the meanings of the words involved that “signs” is the main idea, followed by two categories, “seasons” and “days and years.” This is the simplest explanation, and one that matches vv. 11-13. It could even be rendered “signs for the fixed seasons, that is [explicative vav (ו)] days and years.”

[1:14]  sn Let them be for signs. The point is that the sun and the moon were important to fix the days for the seasonal celebrations for the worshiping community.

[1:24]  ⁹ tn There are three groups of land animals here: the cattle or livestock (mostly domesticated), things that creep or move close to the ground (such as reptiles or rodents), and the wild animals (all animals of the field). The three terms are general classifications without specific details.

[3:16]  ¹⁰ tn The imperfect verb form is emphasized and intensified by the infinitive absolute from the same verb.

[3:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “your pain and your conception,” suggesting to some interpreters that having a lot of children was a result of the judgment (probably to make up for the loss through death). But the next clause shows that the pain is associated with conception and childbirth. The two words form a hendiadys (where two words are joined to express one idea, like “good and angry” in English), the second explaining the first. “Conception,” if the correct meaning of the noun, must be figurative here since there is no pain in conception; it is a synecdoche, representing the entire process of childbirth and child rearing from the very start. However, recent etymological research suggests the noun is derived from a root הרר (hrr), not הרה (hrh), and means “trembling, pain” (see D. Tsumura, “A Note on הרוֹן (Gen 3,16),” Bib 75 [1994]: 398-400). In this case “pain and trembling” refers to the physical effects of childbirth. The word עִצְּבוֹן (’itsÿvon, “pain”), an abstract noun related to the verb (עָצַב, ’atsav), includes more than physical pain. It is emotional distress as well as physical pain. The same word is used in v. 17 for the man’s painful toil in the field.

[3:16]  ¹² tn Heb “and toward your husband [will be] your desire.” The nominal sentence does not have a verb; a future verb must be supplied, because the focus of the oracle is on the future struggle. The precise meaning of the noun תְּשׁוּקָה (tÿshuqah, “desire”) is debated. Many interpreters conclude that it refers to sexual desire here, because the subject of the passage is the relationship between a wife and her husband, and because the word is used in a romantic sense in Song 7:11 HT (7:10 ET). However, this interpretation makes little sense in Gen 3:16. First, it does not fit well with the assertion “he will dominate you.” Second, it implies that sexual desire was not part of the original creation, even though the man and the woman were told to multiply. And third, it ignores the usage of the word in Gen 4:7 where it refers to sin’s desire to control and dominate Cain. (Even in Song of Songs it carries the basic idea of “control,” for it describes the young man’s desire to “have his way sexually” with the young woman.) In Gen 3:16 the Lord announces a struggle, a conflict between the man and the woman. She will desire to control him, but he will dominate her instead. This interpretation also fits the tone of the passage, which is a judgment oracle. See further Susan T. Foh, “What is the Woman’s Desire?” WTJ 37 (1975): 376-83.

[3:16]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew verb מָשַׁל (mashal) means “to rule over,” but in a way that emphasizes powerful control, domination, or mastery. This also is part of the baser human nature. The translation assumes the imperfect verb form has an objective/indicative sense here. Another option is to understand it as having a modal, desiderative nuance, “but he will want to dominate you.” In this case, the Lord simply announces the struggle without indicating who will emerge victorious.

[3:16]  sn This passage is a judgment oracle. It announces that conflict between man and woman will become the norm in human society. It does not depict the NT ideal, where the husband sacrificially loves his wife, as Christ loved the church, and where the wife recognizes the husband’s loving leadership in the family and voluntarily submits to it. Sin produces a conflict or power struggle between the man and the woman, but in Christ man and woman call a truce and live harmoniously (Eph 5:18-32).

[6:3]  ¹⁴ tn The verb form יָדוֹן (yadon) only occurs here. Some derive it from the verbal root דִּין (din, “to judge”) and translate “strive” or “contend with” (so NIV), but in this case one expects the form to be יָדִין (yadin). The Old Greek has “remain with,” a rendering which may find support from an Arabic cognate (see C. Westermann, Genesis, 1:375). If one interprets the verb in this way, then it is possible to understand רוּחַ (ruakh) as a reference to the divine life-giving spirit or breath, rather than the Lord’s personal Spirit. E. A. Speiser argues that the term is cognate with an Akkadian word meaning “protect” or “shield.” In this case, the Lord’s Spirit will not always protect humankind, for the race will suddenly be destroyed (E. A. Speiser, “YDWN, Gen. 6:3,” JBL 75 [1956]: 126-29).

[6:3]  ¹⁵ tn Or “forever.”

[6:3]  ¹⁶ tn The form בְּשַׁגַּם (bÿshagam) appears to be a compound of the preposition בְּ (beth, “in”), the relative שֶׁ (she, “who” or “which”), and the particle גַּם (gam, “also, even”). It apparently means “because even” (see BDB 980 s.v. שֶׁ).

[6:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he”; the plural pronoun has been used in the translation since “man” earlier in the verse has been understood as a collective (“humankind”).

[6:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “flesh.”

[6:3]  ¹⁹ tn See the note on “they” earlier in this verse.

[6:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his days will be 120 years.” Some interpret this to mean that the age expectancy of people from this point on would be 120, but neither the subsequent narrative nor reality favors this. It is more likely that this refers to the time remaining between this announcement of judgment and the coming of the flood.

[6:7]  ²¹ tn The text simply has “from man to beast, to creatures, and to birds of the air.” The use of the prepositions עַד…מִן (min...’ad) stresses the extent of the judgment in creation.

[6:13]  ²² sn On the divine style utilized here, see R. Lapointe, “The Divine Monologue as a Channel of Revelation,” CBQ 32 (1970): 161-81.

[6:13]  ²³ tn Heb “the end of all flesh is coming [or “has come”] before me.” (The verb form is either a perfect or a participle.) The phrase “end of all flesh” occurs only here. The term “end” refers here to the end of “life,” as v. 3 and the following context (which describes how God destroys all flesh) make clear. The statement “the end has come” occurs in Ezek 7:2, 6, where it is used of divine judgment. The phrase “come before” occurs in Exod 28:30, 35; 34:34; Lev 15:14; Num 27:17; 1 Sam 18:13, 16; 2 Sam 19:8; 20:8; 1 Kgs 1:23, 28, 32; Ezek 46:9; Pss 79:11 (groans come before God); 88:3 (a prayer comes before God); 100:2; 119:170 (prayer comes before God); Lam 1:22 (evil doing comes before God); Esth 1:19; 8:1; 9:25; 1 Chr 16:29. The expression often means “have an audience with” or “appear before.” But when used metaphorically, it can mean “get the attention of” or “prompt a response.” This is probably the sense in Gen 6:13. The necessity of ending the life of all flesh on earth is an issue that has gotten the attention of God. The term “end” may even be a metonymy for that which has prompted it – violence (see the following clause).

[6:13]  ²⁴ tn The participle, especially after הִנֵּה (hinneh) has an imminent future nuance. The Hiphil of שָׁחָת (shakhat) here has the sense “to destroy” (in judgment). Note the wordplay involving this verb in vv. 11-13: The earth is “ruined” because all flesh has acted in a morally “corrupt” manner. Consequently, God will “destroy” all flesh (the referent of the suffix “them”) along with the ruined earth. They had ruined themselves and the earth with violence, and now God would ruin them with judgment. For other cases where “earth” occurs as the object of the Hiphil of שָׁחָת, see 1 Sam 6:5; 1 Chr 20:1; Jer 36:29; 51:25.

[9:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “sign.”

[9:12]  ²⁶ sn On the making of covenants in Genesis, see W. F. Albright, “The Hebrew Expression for ‘Making a Covenant’ in Pre-Israelite Documents,” BASOR 121 (1951): 21-22.

[9:12]  ²⁷ tn Heb “between me and between you.”

[9:12]  ²⁸ tn The words “a covenant” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[9:12]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew term עוֹלָם (’olam) means “ever, forever, lasting, perpetual.” The covenant would extend to subsequent generations.

[12:4]  ³⁰ sn So Abram left. This is the report of Abram’s obedience to God’s command (see v. 1).

[12:4]  ³¹ tn Heb “just as the Lord said to him.”

[12:4]  ³² tn The disjunctive clause (note the pattern conjunction + subject + implied “to be” verb) is parenthetical, telling the age of Abram when he left Haran.

[12:4]  ³³ tn Heb “was the son of five years and seventy year[s].”

[12:4]  sn Terah was 70 years old when he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran (Gen 11:26). Terah was 205 when he died in Haran (11:32). Abram left Haran at the age of 75 after his father died. Abram was born when Terah was 130. Abram was not the firstborn – he is placed first in the list of three because of his importance. The same is true of the list in Gen 10:1 (Shem, Ham and Japheth). Ham was the youngest son (9:24). Japheth was the older brother of Shem (10:21), so the birth order of Noah’s sons was Japheth, Shem, and Ham.

[15:5]  ³⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:13]  ³⁵ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, with the Qal infinitive absolute followed by the imperfect from יָדַע (yada’, “know”). The imperfect here has an obligatory or imperatival force.

[15:13]  ³⁶ tn The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger, “sojourner, stranger”) is related to the verb גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to stay for awhile”). Abram’s descendants will stay in a land as resident aliens without rights of citizenship.

[15:13]  ³⁷ tn Heb “in a land not theirs.”

[15:13]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and they will serve them and they will oppress them.” The verb עִנּוּ, (’innu, a Piel form from עָנָה, ’anah, “to afflict, to oppress, to treat harshly”), is used in Exod 1:11 to describe the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt.

[18:29]  ³⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:29]  ⁴⁰ tn The construction is a verbal hendiadys – the preterite (“he added”) is combined with an adverb “yet” and an infinitive “to speak.”

[18:30]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:30]  ⁴² tn Heb “let it not be hot to the Lord.” This is an idiom which means “may the Lord not be angry.”

[18:30]  ⁴³ tn After the jussive, the cohortative indicates purpose/result.

[18:31]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:12]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “Let it not be evil in your eyes.”

[21:12]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “listen to her voice.” The idiomatic expression means “obey; comply.” Here her advice, though harsh, is necessary and conforms to the will of God. Later (see Gen 25), when Abraham has other sons, he sends them all away as well.

[21:12]  ⁴⁷ tn The imperfect verbal form here draws attention to an action that is underway.

[21:12]  ⁴⁸ tn Or perhaps “will be named”; Heb “for in Isaac offspring will be called to you.” The exact meaning of the statement is not clear, but it does indicate that God’s covenantal promises to Abraham will be realized through Isaac, not Ishmael.