Genesis 42:36

42:36 Their father Jacob said to them, “You are making me childless! Joseph is gone. ¹  Simeon is gone. ²  And now you want to take ³  Benjamin! Everything is against me.”

Genesis 42:38

42:38 But Jacob ⁴  replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. ⁵  If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair ⁶  in sorrow to the grave.” ⁷ 

Genesis 37:30

37:30 returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy isn’t there! And I, where can I go?”

Genesis 44:20

44:20 We said to my lord, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young boy who was born when our father was old. ⁸  The boy’s ⁹  brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, ¹⁰  and his father loves him.’

Genesis 44:28

44:28 The first disappeared ¹¹  and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” I have not seen him since.

Genesis 45:26

45:26 They told him, “Joseph is still alive and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” Jacob was stunned, ¹²  for he did not believe them.

Jeremiah 31:15

31:15 The Lord says,

“A sound is heard in Ramah, ¹³ 

a sound of crying in bitter grief.

It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her children

and refusing to be comforted, because her children are gone.” ¹⁴ 

Lamentations 5:7

5:7 Our forefathers ¹⁵  sinned and are dead, ¹⁶ 

but we ¹⁷  suffer ¹⁸  their punishment. ¹⁹ 

Matthew 2:16

2:16 When Herod ²⁰  saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became enraged. He sent men ²¹  to kill all the children in Bethlehem ²²  and throughout the surrounding region from the age of two and under, according to the time he had learned from the wise men.

Matthew 2:18

2:18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,

weeping and loud wailing, ²³ 

Rachel weeping for her children,

and she did not want to be comforted, because they were ²⁴  gone.” ²⁵ 

[42:36]  ¹ tn Heb “is not.”

[42:36]  ² tn Heb “is not.”

[42:36]  ³ tn The nuance of the imperfect verbal form is desiderative here.

[42:38]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[42:38]  ⁵ sn The expression he alone is left meant that (so far as Jacob knew) Benjamin was the only surviving child of his mother Rachel.

[42:38]  ⁶ sn The expression bring down my gray hair is figurative, using a part for the whole – they would put Jacob in the grave. But the gray head signifies a long life of worry and trouble.

[42:38]  ⁷ tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.

[44:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “and a small boy of old age,” meaning that he was born when his father was elderly.

[44:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “his”; the referent (the boy just mentioned) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[44:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he, only he, to his mother is left.”

[44:28]  ¹¹ tn Heb “went forth from me.”

[45:26]  ¹² tn Heb “and his heart was numb.” Jacob was stunned by the unbelievable news and was unable to respond.

[31:15]  ¹³ sn Ramah is a town in Benjamin approximately five miles (8 km) north of Jerusalem. It was on the road between Bethel and Bethlehem. Traditionally, Rachel’s tomb was located near there at a place called Zelzah (1 Sam 10:2). Rachel was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin and was very concerned about having children because she was barren (Gen 30:1-2) and went to great lengths to have them (Gen 30:3, 14-15, 22-24). She was the grandmother of Ephraim and Manasseh which were two of the major tribes in northern Israel. Here Rachel is viewed metaphorically as weeping for her “children,” the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, who had been carried away into captivity in 722 b.c.

[31:15]  ¹⁴ tn Or “gone into exile” (cf. v. 16), though some English versions take this as meaning “dead” (e.g., NCV, CEV, NLT), presumably in light of Matt 2:18.

[5:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fathers,” but here the term also refers to “forefathers,” i.e., more distant ancestors.

[5:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and are no more.”

[5:7]  ¹⁷ tc The Kethib is written אֲנַחְנוּ (’anakhnu, “we”) but the Qere reads וַאֲנַחְנוּ (va’anakhnu, “but we”). The Qere is supported by many medieval Hebrew mss, as well as most of the ancient versions (Aramaic Targum, Syriac Peshitta, Latin Vulgate). The ו (vav) prefixed to וַאֲנַחְנוּ (va’anakhnu) functions either in a disjunctive sense (“but”) or resultant sense (“so”).

[5:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “so we bear.”

[5:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “their iniquities.” The noun עָוֹן (’avon) has a broad range of meanings, including: (1) iniquity, (2) guilt of iniquity, and (3) consequence or punishment for iniquity (cause-effect metonymical relation). The context suggests that “punishment for sin” is most appropriate here (e.g., Gen 4:13; 19:15; Exod 28:38, 43; Lev 5:1, 17; 7:18; 10:17; 16:22; 17:16; 19:8; 20:17, 19; 22:16; 26:39, 41, 43; Num 5:31; 14:34; 18:1, 23; 30:15; 1 Sam 25:24; 28:10; 2 Sam 14:9; 2 Kgs 7:9; Job 10:14; Pss 31:11; 69:28; 106:43; Prov 5:22; Isa 5:18; 30:13; 40:2; 53:6, 11; 64:5, 6; Jer 51:6; Lam 4:22; 5:7; Ezek 4:4-6, 17; 7:16; 14:10; 18:19-20; 21:30, 34; 24:23; 32:27; 35:5; 39:23; 44:10, 12).

[2:16]  ²⁰ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1. Note the fulfillment of the prophecy given by the angel in 2:13.

[2:16]  ²¹ tn Or “soldiers.”

[2:16]  ²² map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[2:18]  ²³ tc The LXX of Jer 38:15 (31:15 ET) has “lamentation, weeping, and loud wailing”; most later mss (C D L W 0233 ˹³ 33 Ï) have a quotation in Matthew which conforms to that of the LXX (θρῆνος καὶ κλαυθμός καὶ ὀδυρμός; qrhno" kai klauqmo" kai odurmo"). But such assimilations were routine among the scribes; as such, they typically should be discounted because they are both predictable and motivated. The shorter reading, without “lamentation and,” is thus to be preferred, especially since it cannot easily be accounted for unless it is the original wording here. Further, it is found in the better mss along with a good cross-section of other witnesses (א B Z 0250 ˹ pc lat co).

[2:18]  ²⁴ tn Grk “are”; the Greek text uses a present tense verb.

[2:18]  ²⁵ sn A quotation from Jer 31:15.