19:2 He said, “Here, my lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house. Stay the night 1 and wash your feet. Then you can be on your way early in the morning.” 2 “No,” they replied, “we’ll spend the night in the town square.” 3
19:3 But he urged 4 them persistently, so they turned aside with him and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them, including bread baked without yeast, and they ate.
24:32 So Abraham’s servant 8 went to the house and unloaded 9 the camels. Straw and feed were given 10 to the camels, and water was provided so that he and the men who were with him could wash their feet. 11
13:1 Brotherly love must continue.
1 tn The imperatives have the force of invitation.
2 tn These two verbs form a verbal hendiadys: “you can rise up early and go” means “you can go early.”
3 sn The town square refers to the wide street area at the gate complex of the city.
4 tn The Hebrew verb פָּצַר (patsar, “to press, to insist”) ironically foreshadows the hostile actions of the men of the city (see v. 9, where the verb also appears). The repetition of the word serves to contrast Lot to his world.
5 tn Heb “and he said.” The referent (Laban) has been specified and the words “to him” supplied in the translation for clarity.
6 sn Laban’s obsession with wealth is apparent; to him it represents how one is blessed by the
7 tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial.
8 tn Heb “the man”; the referent (Abraham’s servant) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Some translations (e.g., NEB, NASB, NRSV) understand Laban to be the subject of this and the following verbs or take the subject of this and the following verbs as indefinite (referring to an unnamed servant; e.g., NAB, NIV).
10 tn Heb “and [one] gave.” The verb without an expressed subject may be translated as passive.
11 tn Heb “and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.”
12 tn Grk “these are the ones who cause divisions.”
13 tn Or “natural,” that is, living on the level of instincts, not on a spiritual level (the same word occurs in 1 Cor 2:14 as a description of nonbelievers).
14 tn Grk “not having [the] Spirit.”
15 tn The participles in v. 20 have been variously interpreted. Some treat them imperativally or as attendant circumstance to the imperative in v. 21 (“maintain”): “build yourselves up…pray.” But they do not follow the normal contours of either the imperatival or attendant circumstance participles, rendering this unlikely. A better option is to treat them as the means by which the readers are to maintain themselves in the love of God. This both makes eminently good sense and fits the structural patterns of instrumental participles elsewhere.
16 tn Or “keep.”
17 tn Or “waiting for.”
18 tn Grk “unto eternal life.”
19 sn This is a vague allusion to people described in scripture and extra-biblical literature and may include Abraham and Sarah (Gen 18:2-15), Lot (Gen 19:1-14), Gideon (Judg 6:11-18), Manoah (Judg 13:3-22), and possibly Tobit (Tob 12:1-20).