Genesis 35:17-18

35:17 When her labor was at its hardest, ¹  the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you are having another son.” ²  35:18 With her dying breath, ³  she named him Ben-Oni. ⁴  But his father called him Benjamin instead. ⁵ 

Genesis 35:1

The Return to Bethel

35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up at once ⁶  to Bethel ⁷  and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” ⁸ 

Genesis 4:20-22

4:20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the first ⁹  of those who live in tents and keep ¹⁰  livestock. 4:21 The name of his brother was Jubal; he was the first of all who play the harp and the flute. 4:22 Now Zillah also gave birth to Tubal-Cain, who heated metal and shaped ¹¹  all kinds of tools made of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal-Cain was Naamah.

Job 13:4

13:4 But you, however, are inventors of lies; ¹² 

all of you are worthless physicians! ¹³ 

Job 21:34

21:34 So how can you console me with your futile words?

Nothing is left of your answers but deception!” ¹⁴ 

¹ tn The construction uses a Hiphil infinitive, which E. A. Speiser classifies as an elative Hiphil. The contrast is with the previous Piel: there “she had hard labor,” and here, “her labor was at its hardest.” Failure to see this, Speiser notes, has led to redundant translations and misunderstandings (Genesis [AB], 273).

² sn Another son. The episode recalls and fulfills the prayer of Rachel at the birth of Joseph (Gen 30:24): “may he add” another son.

³ tn Heb “in the going out of her life, for she was dying.” Rachel named the child with her dying breath.

⁴ sn The name Ben-Oni means “son of my suffering.” It is ironic that Rachel’s words to Jacob in Gen 30:1, “Give me children or I’ll die,” take a different turn here, for it was having the child that brought about her death.

⁵ tn The disjunctive clause is contrastive.

⁶ tn Heb “arise, go up.” The first imperative gives the command a sense of urgency.

⁷ map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

⁸ sn God is calling on Jacob to fulfill his vow he made when he fled from…Esau (see Gen 28:20-22).

⁹ tn Heb “father.” In this passage the word “father” means “founder,” referring to the first to establish such lifestyles and occupations.

¹⁰ tn The word “keep” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation. Other words that might be supplied instead are “tend,” “raise” (NIV), or “have” (NRSV).

¹¹ tn The traditional rendering here, “who forged” (or “a forger of”) is now more commonly associated with counterfeit or fraud (e.g., “forged copies” or “forged checks”) than with the forging of metal. The phrase “heated metal and shaped [it]” has been used in the translation instead.

¹² tn The טֹפְלֵי־שָׁקֶר (tofÿle shaqer) are “plasterers of lies” (Ps 119:69). The verb means “to coat, smear, plaster.” The idea is that of imputing something that is not true. Job is saying that his friends are inventors of lies. The LXX was influenced by the next line and came up with “false physicians.”

¹³ tn The literal rendering of the construct would be “healers of worthlessness.” Ewald and Dillmann translated it “patchers” based on a meaning in Arabic and Ethiopic; this would give the idea “botchers.” But it makes equally good sense to take “healers” as the meaning, for Job’s friends came to minister comfort and restoration to him – but they failed. See P. Humbert, “Maladie et medicine dans l’AT,” RHPR 44 (1964): 1-29.

¹⁴ tn The word מָעַל (ma’al) is used for “treachery; deception; fraud.” Here Job is saying that their way of interpreting reality is dangerously unfaithful.