Text -- Genesis 12:9 (NET)

12:9 Abram continually journeyed by stages down to the Negev.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Gen 12:9

¹ tn The Hebrew verb נָסַע (nasa’) means “to journey”; more specifically it means to pull up the tent and move to another place. The construction here uses the preterite of this verb with its infinitive absolute to stress the activity of traveling. But it also adds the infinitive absolute of הָלַךְ (halakh) to stress that the traveling was continually going on. Thus “Abram journeyed, going and journeying” becomes “Abram continually journeyed by stages.”

² tn Or “the South [country].”

sn Negev is the name for the southern desert region in the land of Canaan.