20:20 Joab answered, “Get serious! 1 I don’t want to swallow up or destroy anything!
44:17 But Joseph said, “Far be it from me to do this! The man in whose hand the cup was found will become my slave, but the rest of 2 you may go back 3 to your father in peace.”
44:1 He instructed the servant who was over his household, “Fill the sacks of the men with as much food as they can carry and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack.
2:1 The heavens and the earth 4 were completed with everything that was in them. 5
26:1 There was a famine in the land, subsequent to the earlier famine that occurred 8 in the days of Abraham. 9 Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.
21:1 The Lord visited 11 Sarah just as he had said he would and did 12 for Sarah what he had promised. 13
1 tn Heb “Far be it, far be it from me.” The expression is clearly emphatic, as may be seen in part by the repetition. P. K. McCarter, however, understands it to be coarser than the translation adopted here. He renders it as “I’ll be damned if…” (II Samuel [AB], 426, 429), which (while it is not a literal translation) may not be too far removed from the way a soldier might have expressed himself.
2 tn The words “the rest of” have been supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
3 tn Heb “up” (reflecting directions from their point of view – “up” to Canaan; “down” to Egypt).
4 tn See the note on the phrase “the heavens and the earth” in 1:1.
5 tn Heb “and all the host of them.” Here the “host” refers to all the entities and creatures that God created to populate the world.
6 tn Heb “strikes.” Here the verb has the nuance “to harm in any way.” It would include assaulting the woman or killing the man.
7 tn The use of the infinitive absolute before the imperfect makes the construction emphatic.
8 tn Heb “in addition to the first famine which was.”
9 sn This account is parallel to two similar stories about Abraham (see Gen 12:10-20; 20:1-18). Many scholars do not believe there were three similar incidents, only one that got borrowed and duplicated. Many regard the account about Isaac as the original, which then was attached to the more important person, Abraham, with supernatural elements being added. For a critique of such an approach, see R. Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative, 47-62. It is more likely that the story illustrates the proverb “like father, like son” (see T. W. Mann, The Book of the Torah, 53). In typical human fashion the son follows his father’s example of lying to avoid problems. The appearance of similar events reported in a similar way underscores the fact that the blessing has now passed to Isaac, even if he fails as his father did.
10 tn Heb “the one born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.” The two modifying clauses, the first introduced with an article and the second with the relative pronoun, are placed in the middle of the sentence, before the name Isaac is stated. They are meant to underscore that this was indeed an actual birth to Abraham and Sarah in fulfillment of the promise.
11 sn The Hebrew verb translated “visit” (פָּקַד, paqad ) often describes divine intervention for blessing or cursing; it indicates God’s special attention to an individual or a matter, always with respect to his people’s destiny. He may visit (that is, destroy) the Amalekites; he may visit (that is, deliver) his people in Egypt. Here he visits Sarah, to allow her to have the promised child. One’s destiny is changed when the
12 tn Heb “and the
13 tn Heb “spoken.”