Kejadian 3:14

3:14 The Lord God said to the serpent, ¹ 

“Because you have done this,

cursed ²  are you above all the wild beasts

and all the living creatures of the field!

On your belly you will crawl ³ 

and dust you will eat ⁴  all the days of your life.

Kejadian 4:15

4:15 But the Lord said to him, “All right then, ⁵  if anyone kills Cain, Cain will be avenged seven times as much.” ⁶  Then the Lord put a special mark ⁷  on Cain so that no one who found him would strike him down. ⁸ 

Kejadian 16:2

16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since ⁹  the Lord has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with ¹⁰  my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.” ¹¹  Abram did what ¹²  Sarai told him.

Kejadian 18:28

18:28 what if there are five less than the fifty godly people? Will you destroy ¹³  the whole city because five are lacking?” ¹⁴  He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

Kejadian 18:32

18:32 Finally Abraham ¹⁵  said, “May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”

Kejadian 19:14

19:14 Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. ¹⁶  He said, “Quick, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy ¹⁷  the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them. ¹⁸ 

Kejadian 26:22

26:22 Then he moved away from there and dug another well. They did not quarrel over it, so Isaac ¹⁹  named it ²⁰  Rehoboth, ²¹  saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will prosper in the land.”

Kejadian 30:15

30:15 But Leah replied, ²²  “Wasn’t it enough that you’ve taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes too?” “All right,” ²³  Rachel said, “he may sleep ²⁴  with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

Kejadian 34:21

34:21 “These men are at peace with us. So let them live in the land and travel freely in it, for the land is wide enough ²⁵  for them. We will take their daughters for wives, and we will give them our daughters to marry. ²⁶ 

Kejadian 39:5

39:5 From the time ²⁷  Potiphar ²⁸  appointed him over his household and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed ²⁹  the Egyptian’s household for Joseph’s sake. The blessing of the Lord was on everything that he had, both ³⁰  in his house and in his fields. ³¹ 

Kejadian 42:33

42:33 “Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘This is how I will find out if you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain ³²  for your hungry households and go.

Kejadian 50:5

50:5 ‘My father made me swear an oath. He said, ³³  “I am about to die. Bury me ³⁴  in my tomb that I dug for myself there in the land of Canaan.” Now let me go and bury my father; then I will return.’”

[3:14]  ¹ sn Note that God asks no question of the serpent, does not call for confession, as he did to the man and the woman; there is only the announcement of the curse. The order in this section is chiastic: The man is questioned, the woman is questioned, the serpent is cursed, sentence is passed on the woman, sentence is passed on the man.

[3:14]  ² tn The Hebrew word translated “cursed,” a passive participle from אָרָר (’arar), either means “punished” or “banished,” depending on how one interprets the following preposition. If the preposition is taken as comparative, then the idea is “cursed [i.e., punished] are you above [i.e., more than] all the wild beasts.” In this case the comparative preposition reflects the earlier comparison: The serpent was more shrewd than all others, and so more cursed than all others. If the preposition is taken as separative (see the note on the word “ground” in 4:11), then the idea is “cursed and banished from all the wild beasts.” In this case the serpent is condemned to isolation from all the other animals.

[3:14]  ³ tn Heb “go”; “walk,” but in English “crawl” or “slither” better describes a serpent’s movement.

[3:14]  ⁴ sn Dust you will eat. Being restricted to crawling on the ground would necessarily involve “eating dust,” although that is not the diet of the serpent. The idea of being brought low, of “eating dust” as it were, is a symbol of humiliation.

[4:15]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term לָכֵן (lakhen, “therefore”) in this context carries the sense of “Okay,” or “in that case then I will do this.”

[4:15]  ⁶ sn The symbolic number seven is used here to emphasize that the offender will receive severe punishment. For other rhetorical and hyperbolic uses of the expression “seven times over,” see Pss 12:6; 79:12; Prov 6:31; Isa 30:26.

[4:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “sign”; “reminder.” The term “sign” is not used in the translation because it might imply to an English reader that God hung a sign on Cain. The text does not identify what the “sign” was. It must have been some outward, visual reminder of Cain’s special protected status.

[4:15]  ⁸ sn God becomes Cain’s protector. Here is common grace – Cain and his community will live on under God’s care, but without salvation.

[16:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) introduces the foundational clause for the imperative to follow.

[16:2]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “perhaps I will be built from her.” Sarai hopes to have a family established through this surrogate mother.

[16:2]  ¹² 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.

[18:28]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew verb שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to destroy”) was used earlier to describe the effect of the flood.

[18:28]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “because of five.”

[18:32]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:14]  ¹⁶ sn The language has to be interpreted in the light of the context and the social customs. The men are called “sons-in-law” (literally “the takers of his daughters”), but the daughters had not yet had sex with a man. It is better to translate the phrase “who were going to marry his daughters.” Since formal marriage contracts were binding, the husbands-to-be could already be called sons-in-law.

[19:14]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew active participle expresses an imminent action.

[19:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and he was like one taunting in the eyes of his sons-in-law.” These men mistakenly thought Lot was ridiculing them and their lifestyle. Their response illustrates how morally insensitive they had become.

[26:22]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[26:22]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and he called its name.”

[26:22]  ²¹ sn The name Rehoboth (רְהֹבוֹת, rehovot) is derived from a verbal root meaning “to make room.” The name was a reminder that God had made room for them. The story shows Isaac’s patience with the opposition; it also shows how God’s blessing outdistanced the men of Gerar. They could not stop it or seize it any longer.

[30:15]  ²² tn Heb “and she said to her”; the referent of the pronoun “she” (Leah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[30:15]  ²³ tn Heb “therefore.”

[30:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “lie down.” The expression “lie down with” in this context (here and in the following verse) refers to sexual intercourse. The imperfect verbal form has a permissive nuance here.

[34:21]  ²⁵ tn Heb “wide on both hands,” that is, in both directions.

[34:21]  ²⁶ tn The words “to marry” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[39:5]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and it was from then.”

[39:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Potiphar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[39:5]  ²⁹ sn The Hebrew word translated blessed carries the idea of enrichment, prosperity, success. It is the way believers describe success at the hand of God. The text illustrates the promise made to Abraham that whoever blesses his descendants will be blessed (Gen 12:1-3).

[39:5]  ³⁰ tn Heb “in the house and in the field.” The word “both” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[39:5]  ³¹ sn The passage gives us a good picture of Joseph as a young man who was responsible and faithful, both to his master and to his God. This happened within a very short time of his being sold into Egypt. It undermines the view that Joseph was a liar, a tattletale, and an arrogant adolescent.

[42:33]  ³² tn The word “grain” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[50:5]  ³³ tn Heb “saying.”

[50:5]  ³⁴ tn The imperfect verbal form here has the force of a command.