6:8 Now the king of Syria was at war with Israel. He consulted his advisers, who said, “Invade 1 at such and such 2 a place.”
20:8 Early in the morning 3 Abimelech summoned 4 all his servants. When he told them about all these things, 5 they 6 were terrified.
41:1 At the end of two full years 9 Pharaoh had a dream. 10 As he was standing by the Nile,
20:1 Abraham journeyed from there to the Negev 16 region and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived as a temporary resident 17 in Gerar,
1 tc The verb form used here is difficult to analyze. On the basis of the form נְחִתִּים (nÿkhitim) in v. 9 from the root נָחַת (nakhat), it is probably best to emend the verb to תִּנְחְתוּ (tinkhÿtu; a Qal imperfect form from the same root). The verb נָחַת in at least two other instances carries the nuance “go down, descend” in a military context. For a defense of this view, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 72.
2 sn The advisers would have mentioned a specific location, but the details are not significant to the narrator’s purpose, so he simply paraphrases here.
3 tn Heb “And Abimelech rose early in the morning and he summoned.”
4 tn The verb קָרָא (qara’) followed by the preposition לְ (lamed) means “to summon.”
5 tn Heb “And he spoke all these things in their ears.”
6 tn Heb “the men.” This has been replaced by the pronoun “they” in the translation for stylistic reasons.
7 tn Heb “like this,” but the referent could be misunderstood to be a man like that described by Joseph in v. 33, rather than Joseph himself. For this reason the proper name “Joseph” has been supplied in the translation.
8 tn The rhetorical question expects the answer “No, of course not!”
9 tn Heb “two years, days.”
10 tn Heb “was dreaming.”
11 tn Or “for,” if the particle is understood as causal (as many English translations do) rather than asseverative.
12 sn For a discussion of the term prophet see N. Walker, “What is a Nabhi?” ZAW 73 (1961): 99-100.
13 tn After the preceding jussive (or imperfect), the imperative with vav conjunctive here indicates result.
14 tn Heb “if there is not you returning.” The suffix on the particle becomes the subject of the negated clause.
15 tn The imperfect is preceded by the infinitive absolute to make the warning emphatic.
16 tn Or “the South [country]”; Heb “the land of the Negev.”
17 tn Heb “and he sojourned.”