Genesis 14:5

14:5 In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings who were his allies came and defeated ¹  the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim,

Genesis 15:20

15:20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,

Genesis 15:2

15:2 But Abram said, “O sovereign Lord, ²  what will you give me since ³  I continue to be ⁴  childless, and my heir ⁵  is ⁶  Eliezer of Damascus?” ⁷ 

Genesis 5:18

5:18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch.

Genesis 5:22

5:22 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God ⁸  for 300 years, ⁹  and he had other ¹⁰  sons and daughters.

¹ tn The Hebrew verb נָכָה (nakhah) means “to attack, to strike, to smite.” In this context it appears that the strike was successful, and so a translation of “defeated” is preferable.

² tn The Hebrew text has אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה (’adonay yehvih, “Master, Lord”). Since the tetragrammaton (YHWH) usually is pointed with the vowels for the Hebrew word אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “master”) to avoid pronouncing the divine name, that would lead in this place to a repetition of אֲדֹנָי. So the tetragrammaton is here pointed with the vowels for the word אֱלֹהִים (’elohim, “God”) instead. That would produce the reading of the Hebrew as “Master, God” in the Jewish textual tradition. But the presence of “Master” before the holy name is rather compelling evidence that the original would have been “Master, Lord,” which is rendered here “sovereign Lord.”

³ tn The vav (ו) disjunctive at the beginning of the clause is circumstantial, expressing the cause or reason.

⁴ tn Heb “I am going.”

⁵ tn Heb “the son of the acquisition of my house.”

⁶ tn The pronoun is anaphoric here, equivalent to the verb “to be” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 23, §115).

⁷ sn The sentence in the Hebrew text employs a very effective wordplay on the name Damascus: “The son of the acquisition (בֶּן־מֶשֶׁק, ben-mesheq) of my house is Eliezer of Damascus (דַּמֶּשֶׁק, dammesheq).” The words are not the same; they have different sibilants. But the sound play gives the impression that “in the nomen is the omen.” Eliezer the Damascene will be Abram’s heir if Abram dies childless because “Damascus” seems to mean that. See M. F. Unger, “Some Comments on the Text of Genesis 15:2-3,” JBL 72 (1953): 49-50; H. L. Ginsberg, “Abram’s ‘Damascene’ Steward,” BASOR 200 (1970): 31-32.

⁸ sn With the seventh panel there is a digression from the pattern. Instead of simply saying that Enoch lived, the text observes that he “walked with God.” The rare expression “walked with” (the Hitpael form of the verb הָלָךְ, halakh, “to walk” collocated with the preposition אֶת, ’et, “with”) is used in 1 Sam 25:15 to describe how David’s men maintained a cordial and cooperative relationship with Nabal’s men as they worked and lived side by side in the fields. In Gen 5:22 the phrase suggests that Enoch and God “got along.” This may imply that Enoch lived in close fellowship with God, leading a life of devotion and piety. An early Jewish tradition, preserved in 1 En. 1:9 and alluded to in Jude 14, says that Enoch preached about the coming judgment. See F. S. Parnham, “Walking with God,” EvQ 46 (1974): 117-18.

⁹ tn Heb “and Enoch walked with God, after he became the father of Methuselah, [for] 300 years.”

¹⁰ tn The word “other” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.