Kejadian 2:19

2:19 The Lord God formed ¹  out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would ²  name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

Kejadian 4:7

4:7 Is it not true ³  that if you do what is right, you will be fine? ⁴  But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching ⁵  at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must subdue it.” ⁶ 

Kejadian 8:21

8:21 And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma ⁷  and said ⁸  to himself, ⁹  “I will never again curse ¹⁰  the ground because of humankind, even though ¹¹  the inclination of their minds ¹²  is evil from childhood on. ¹³  I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.

Kejadian 16:2

16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since ¹⁴  the Lord has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with ¹⁵  my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.” ¹⁶  Abram did what ¹⁷  Sarai told him.

Kejadian 17:19

17:19 God said, “No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. ¹⁸  I will confirm my covenant with him as a perpetual ¹⁹  covenant for his descendants after him.

Kejadian 20:7

20:7 But now give back the man’s wife. Indeed ²⁰  he is a prophet ²¹  and he will pray for you; thus you will live. ²²  But if you don’t give her back, ²³  know that you will surely die ²⁴  along with all who belong to you.”

Kejadian 28:6

28:6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him off to Paddan Aram to find a wife there. ²⁵  As he blessed him, ²⁶  Isaac commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman.” ²⁷ 

Kejadian 42:7

42:7 When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger ²⁸  to them and spoke to them harshly. He asked, “Where do you come from?” They answered, ²⁹  “From the land of Canaan, to buy grain for food.” ³⁰ 

Kejadian 43:7

43:7 They replied, “The man questioned us ³¹  thoroughly ³²  about ourselves and our family, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ ³³  So we answered him in this way. ³⁴  How could we possibly know ³⁵  that he would say, ³⁶  ‘Bring your brother down’?”

Kejadian 46:34

46:34 Tell him, ‘Your servants have taken care of cattle ³⁷  from our youth until now, both we and our fathers,’ so that you may live in the land of Goshen, ³⁸  for everyone who takes care of sheep is disgusting ³⁹  to the Egyptians.”

[2:19]  ¹ tn Or “fashioned.” To harmonize the order of events with the chronology of chapter one, some translate the prefixed verb form with vav (ו) consecutive as a past perfect (“had formed,” cf. NIV) here. (In chapter one the creation of the animals preceded the creation of man; here the animals are created after the man.) However, it is unlikely that the Hebrew construction can be translated in this way in the middle of this pericope, for the criteria for unmarked temporal overlay are not present here. See S. R. Driver, A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew, 84-88, and especially R. Buth, “Methodological Collision between Source Criticism and Discourse Analysis,” Biblical Hebrew and Discourse Linguistics, 138-54. For a contrary viewpoint see IBHS 552-53 §33.2.3 and C. J. Collins, “The Wayyiqtol as ‘Pluperfect’: When and Why,” TynBul 46 (1995): 117-40.

[2:19]  ² tn The imperfect verb form is future from the perspective of the past time narrative.

[4:7]  ³ tn The introduction of the conditional clause with an interrogative particle prods the answer from Cain, as if he should have known this. It is not a condemnation, but an encouragement to do what is right.

[4:7]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text is difficult, because only one word occurs, שְׂאֵת (sÿ’et), which appears to be the infinitive construct from the verb “to lift up” (נָאָשׂ, na’as). The sentence reads: “If you do well, uplifting.” On the surface it seems to be the opposite of the fallen face. Everything will be changed if he does well. God will show him favor, he will not be angry, and his face will reflect that. But more may be intended since the second half of the verse forms the contrast: “If you do not do well, sin is crouching….” Not doing well leads to sinful attack; doing well leads to victory and God’s blessing.

[4:7]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “crouching” (רֹבֵץ, rovets) is an active participle. Sin is portrayed with animal imagery here as a beast crouching and ready to pounce (a figure of speech known as zoomorphism). An Akkadian cognate refers to a type of demon; in this case perhaps one could translate, “Sin is the demon at the door” (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 29, 32-33).

[4:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “and toward you [is] its desire, but you must rule over it.” As in Gen 3:16, the Hebrew noun “desire” refers to an urge to control or dominate. Here the desire is that which sin has for Cain, a desire to control for the sake of evil, but Cain must have mastery over it. The imperfect is understood as having an obligatory sense. Another option is to understand it as expressing potential (“you can have [or “are capable of having”] mastery over it.”). It will be a struggle, but sin can be defeated by righteousness. In addition to this connection to Gen 3, other linguistic and thematic links between chaps. 3 and 4 are discussed by A. J. Hauser, “Linguistic and Thematic Links Between Genesis 4:1-6 and Genesis 2–3,” JETS 23 (1980): 297-306.

[8:21]  ⁷ tn The Lord “smelled” (וַיָּרַח, vayyarakh) a “soothing smell” (רֵיחַ הַנִּיהֹחַ, reakh hannihoakh). The object forms a cognate accusative with the verb. The language is anthropomorphic. The offering had a sweet aroma that pleased or soothed. The expression in Lev 1 signifies that God accepts the offering with pleasure, and in accepting the offering he accepts the worshiper.

[8:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the Lord said.”

[8:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “in his heart.”

[8:21]  ¹⁰ tn Here the Hebrew word translated “curse” is קָלָל (qalal), used in the Piel verbal stem.

[8:21]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) can be used in a concessive sense (see BDB 473 s.v. כִּי), which makes good sense in this context. Its normal causal sense (“for”) does not fit the context here very well.

[8:21]  ¹² tn Heb “the inclination of the heart of humankind.”

[8:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “from his youth.”

[16:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) introduces the foundational clause for the imperative to follow.

[16:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “enter to.” The expression is a euphemism for sexual relations (also in v. 4).

[16:2]  sn The Hebrew expression translated have sexual relations with does not convey the intimacy of other expressions, such as “so and so knew his wife.” Sarai simply sees this as the social custom of having a child through a surrogate. For further discussion see C. F. Fensham, “The Son of a Handmaid in Northwest Semitic,” VT 19 (1969): 312-21.

[16:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “perhaps I will be built from her.” Sarai hopes to have a family established through this surrogate mother.

[16:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “listened to the voice of,” which is an idiom meaning “obeyed.”

[16:2]  sn Abram did what Sarai told him. This expression was first used in Gen 3:17 of Adam’s obeying his wife. In both cases the text highlights weak faith and how it jeopardized the plan of God.

[17:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “will call his name Isaac.” The name means “he laughs,” or perhaps “may he laugh” (see the note on the word “laughed” in v. 17).

[17:19]  ¹⁹ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[20:7]  ²⁰ tn Or “for,” if the particle is understood as causal (as many English translations do) rather than asseverative.

[20:7]  ²¹ sn For a discussion of the term prophet see N. Walker, “What is a Nabhi?” ZAW 73 (1961): 99-100.

[20:7]  ²² tn After the preceding jussive (or imperfect), the imperative with vav conjunctive here indicates result.

[20:7]  sn He will pray for you that you may live. Abraham was known as a man of God whose prayer would be effectual. Ironically and sadly, he was also known as a liar.

[20:7]  ²³ tn Heb “if there is not you returning.” The suffix on the particle becomes the subject of the negated clause.

[20:7]  ²⁴ tn The imperfect is preceded by the infinitive absolute to make the warning emphatic.

[28:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “to take for himself from there a wife.”

[28:6]  ²⁶ tn The infinitive construct with the preposition and the suffix form a temporal clause.

[28:6]  ²⁷ tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”

[42:7]  ²⁸ sn But pretended to be a stranger. Joseph intends to test his brothers to see if they have changed and have the integrity to be patriarchs of the tribes of Israel. He will do this by putting them in the same situations that they and he were in before. The first test will be to awaken their conscience.

[42:7]  ²⁹ tn Heb “said.”

[42:7]  ³⁰ tn The verb is denominative, meaning “to buy grain”; the word “food” could simply be the direct object, but may also be an adverbial accusative.

[43:7]  ³¹ tn The word “us” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[43:7]  ³² tn The infinitive absolute with the perfect verbal form emphasizes that Joseph questioned them thoroughly.

[43:7]  ³³ sn The report given here concerning Joseph’s interrogation does not exactly match the previous account where they supplied the information to clear themselves (see 42:13). This section may reflect how they remembered the impact of his interrogation, whether he asked the specific questions or not. That may be twisting the truth to protect themselves, not wanting to admit that they volunteered the information. (They admitted as much in 42:31, but now they seem to be qualifying that comment.) On the other hand, when speaking to Joseph later (see 44:19), Judah claims that Joseph asked for the information about their family, making it possible that 42:13 leaves out some of the details of their first encounter.

[43:7]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and we told to him according to these words.”

[43:7]  ³⁵ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the imperfect verbal form, which here is a historic future (that is, future from the perspective of a past time).

[43:7]  ³⁶ tn Once again the imperfect verbal form is used as a historic future (that is, future from the perspective of past time).

[46:34]  ³⁷ tn Heb “your servants are men of cattle.”

[46:34]  ³⁸ sn So that you may live in the land of Goshen. Joseph is apparently trying to stress to Pharaoh that his family is self-sufficient, that they will not be a drain on the economy of Egypt. But they will need land for their animals and so Goshen, located on the edge of Egypt, would be a suitable place for them to live. The settled Egyptians were uneasy with nomadic people, but if Jacob and his family settled in Goshen they would represent no threat.

[46:34]  ³⁹ tn Heb “is an abomination.” The Hebrew word תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, “abomination”) describes something that is loathsome or off-limits. For other practices the Egyptians considered disgusting, see Gen 43:32 and Exod 8:22.