27:41 So Esau hated 1 Jacob because of the blessing his father had given to his brother. 2 Esau said privately, 3 “The time 4 of mourning for my father is near; then I will kill 5 my brother Jacob!”
43:1 Now the famine was severe in the land. 9 43:2 When they finished eating the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Return, buy us a little more food.”
51:1 “Listen to me, you who pursue godliness, 16
who seek the Lord!
Look at the rock from which you were chiseled,
at the quarry 17 from which you were dug! 18
51:2 Look at Abraham, your father,
and Sarah, who gave you birth. 19
When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, 20
but I blessed him 21 and gave him numerous descendants. 22
1 tn Or “bore a grudge against” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV). The Hebrew verb שָׂטַם (satam) describes persistent hatred.
2 tn Heb “because of the blessing which his father blessed him.”
3 tn Heb “said in his heart.” The expression may mean “said to himself.” Even if this is the case, v. 42 makes it clear that he must have shared his intentions with someone, because the news reached Rebekah.
4 tn Heb “days.”
5 tn The cohortative here expresses Esau’s determined resolve to kill Jacob.
6 tn Or “by drought.”
7 tn Heb “frost, ice,” though when contrasted with the חֹרֶב (khorev, “drought, parching heat”) of the day, “piercing cold” is more appropriate as a contrast.
8 tn Heb “and my sleep fled from my eyes.”
9 tn The disjunctive clause gives supplemental information that is important to the storyline.
10 tn Heb “in your hand.”
11 tn Heb “take back in your hand.” The imperfect verbal form probably has an injunctive or obligatory force here, since Jacob is instructing his sons.
12 sn God sent me. The repetition of this theme that God sent Joseph is reminiscent of commission narratives in which the leader could announce that God sent him (e.g., Exod 3:15).
13 tn Heb “to make you a remnant.” The verb, followed here by the preposition לְ (lÿ), means “to make.”
14 tn The infinitive gives a second purpose for God’s action.
15 tn The verb כּוּל (kul) in the Pilpel stem means “to nourish, to support, to sustain.” As in 1 Kgs 20:27, it here means “to supply with food.”
16 tn Or “righteousness” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “justice”; NLT “hope for deliverance.”
17 tn Heb “the excavation of the hole.”
18 sn The “rock” and “quarry” refer here to Abraham and Sarah, the progenitors of the nation.
19 sn Although Abraham and Sarah are distant ancestors of the people the prophet is addressing, they are spoken of as the immediate parents.
20 tn Heb “one”; NLT “was alone”; TEV “was childless.”
21 tn “Bless” may here carry the sense of “endue with potency, reproductive power.” See Gen 1:28.
22 tn Heb “and I made him numerous.”