Kejadian 2:16

2:16 Then the Lord God commanded ¹  the man, “You may freely eat ²  fruit ³  from every tree of the orchard,

Kejadian 18:10

18:10 One of them ⁴  said, “I will surely return ⁵  to you when the season comes round again, ⁶  and your wife Sarah will have a son!” ⁷  (Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, not far behind him. ⁸ 

Kejadian 20:5

20:5 Did Abraham ⁹  not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ¹⁰  ‘He is my brother.’ I have done this with a clear conscience ¹¹  and with innocent hands!”

Kejadian 24:42-43

24:42 When I came to the spring today, I prayed, ‘O Lord, God of my master Abraham, if you have decided to make my journey successful, ¹²  may events unfold as follows: ¹³  24:43 Here I am, standing by the spring. ¹⁴  When ¹⁵  the young woman goes out to draw water, I’ll say, “Give me a little water to drink from your jug.”

Kejadian 25:22

25:22 But the children struggled ¹⁶  inside her, and she said, “If it is going to be like this, I’m not so sure I want to be pregnant!” ¹⁷  So she asked the Lord, ¹⁸ 

Kejadian 32:4

32:4 He commanded them, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant ¹⁹  Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now.

Kejadian 41:34

41:34 Pharaoh should do ²⁰  this – he should appoint ²¹  officials ²²  throughout the land to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt ²³  during the seven years of abundance.

Kejadian 42:18

42:18 On the third day Joseph said to them, “Do as I say ²⁴  and you will live, ²⁵  for I fear God. ²⁶ 

Kejadian 45:19

45:19 You are also commanded to say, ²⁷  ‘Do this: Take for yourselves wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives. Bring your father and come.

Kejadian 48:20

48:20 So he blessed them that day, saying,

“By you ²⁸  will Israel bless, ²⁹  saying,

‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’”

So he put Ephraim before Manasseh. ³⁰ 

[2:16]  ¹ sn This is the first time in the Bible that the verb tsavah (צָוָה, “to command”) appears. Whatever the man had to do in the garden, the main focus of the narrative is on keeping God’s commandments. God created humans with the capacity to obey him and then tested them with commands.

[2:16]  ² tn The imperfect verb form probably carries the nuance of permission (“you may eat”) since the man is not being commanded to eat from every tree. The accompanying infinitive absolute adds emphasis: “you may freely eat,” or “you may eat to your heart’s content.”

[2:16]  ³ tn The word “fruit” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied as the direct object of the verb “eat.” Presumably the only part of the tree the man would eat would be its fruit (cf. 3:2).

[18:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (one of the three men introduced in v. 2) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Some English translations have specified the referent as the Lord (cf. RSV, NIV) based on vv. 1, 13, but the Hebrew text merely has “he said” at this point, referring to one of the three visitors. Aside from the introductory statement in v. 1, the incident is narrated from Abraham’s point of view, and the suspense is built up for the reader as Abraham’s elaborate banquet preparations in the preceding verses suggest he suspects these are important guests. But not until the promise of a son later in this verse does it become clear who is speaking. In v. 13 the Hebrew text explicitly mentions the Lord.

[18:10]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, using the infinitive absolute with the imperfect tense.

[18:10]  sn I will surely return. If Abraham had not yet figured out who this was, this interchange would have made it clear. Otherwise, how would a return visit from this man mean Sarah would have a son?

[18:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “as/when the time lives” or “revives,” possibly referring to the springtime.

[18:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “and there will be (הִנֵּה, hinneh) a son for Sarah.”

[18:10]  ⁸ tn This is the first of two disjunctive parenthetical clauses preparing the reader for Sarah’s response (see v. 12).

[20:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[20:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and she, even she.”

[20:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “with the integrity of my heart.”

[24:42]  ¹² tn Heb “if you are making successful my way on which I am going.”

[24:42]  ¹³ tn The words “may events unfold as follows” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

[24:43]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the spring of water.”

[24:43]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and it will be.”

[25:22]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew word used here suggests a violent struggle that was out of the ordinary.

[25:22]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “If [it is] so, why [am] I this [way]?” Rebekah wanted to know what was happening to her, but the question itself reflects a growing despair over the struggle of the unborn children.

[25:22]  ¹⁸ sn Asked the Lord. In other passages (e.g., 1 Sam 9:9) this expression refers to inquiring of a prophet, but no details are provided here.

[32:4]  ¹⁹ sn Your servant. The narrative recounts Jacob’s groveling in fear before Esau as he calls his brother his “lord,” as if to minimize what had been done twenty years ago.

[41:34]  ²⁰ tn The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. The Samaritan Pentateuch has a jussive form here, “and let [Pharaoh] do.”

[41:34]  ²¹ tn Heb “and let him appoint.” The jussive form expresses Joseph’s advice to Pharaoh.

[41:34]  ²² 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]  ²³ 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.

[42:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Do this.”

[42:18]  ²⁵ tn After the preceding imperative, the imperative with vav (ו) can, as here, indicate logical sequence.

[42:18]  ²⁶ sn For I fear God. Joseph brings God into the picture to awaken his brothers’ consciences. The godly person cares about the welfare of people, whether they live or die. So he will send grain back, but keep one of them in Egypt. This action contrasts with their crime of selling their brother into slavery.

[45:19]  ²⁷ tn The words “to say” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[48:20]  ²⁸ tn The pronoun is singular in the Hebrew text, apparently elevating Ephraim as the more prominent of the two. Note, however, that both are named in the blessing formula that follows.

[48:20]  ²⁹ tn Or “pronounce a blessing.”

[48:20]  ³⁰ sn On the elevation of Ephraim over Manasseh see E. C. Kingsbury, “He Set Ephraim Before Manasseh,” HUCA 38 (1967): 129-36; H. Mowvley, “The Concept and Content of ‘Blessing’ in the Old Testament,” BT 16 (1965): 74-80; and I. Mendelsohn, “On the Preferential Status of the Eldest Son,” BASOR 156 (1959): 38-40.