37:29 Later Reuben returned to the cistern to find that Joseph was not in it! 1 He tore his clothes,
37:1 But Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, 3 in the land of Canaan. 4
21:27 Abraham took some sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech. The two of them made a treaty. 5
6:1 When humankind 7 began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born 8 to them, 9
1 tn Heb “and look, Joseph was not in the cistern.” By the use of וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, “and look”), the narrator invites the reader to see the situation through Reuben’s eyes.
2 tn Heb “and put sackcloth on his loins.”
3 tn Heb “the land of the sojournings of his father.”
4 sn The next section begins with the heading This is the account of Jacob in Gen 37:2, so this verse actually forms part of the preceding section as a concluding contrast with Esau and his people. In contrast to all the settled and expanded population of Esau, Jacob was still moving about in the land without a permanent residence and without kings. Even if the Edomite king list was added later (as the reference to kings in Israel suggests), its placement here in contrast to Jacob and his descendants is important. Certainly the text deals with Esau before dealing with Jacob – that is the pattern. But the detail is so great in chap. 36 that the contrast cannot be missed.
5 tn Heb “cut a covenant.”
6 tn Or “she conceived.”
7 tn The Hebrew text has the article prefixed to the noun. Here the article indicates the generic use of the word אָדָם (’adam): “humankind.”
8 tn This disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) is circumstantial to the initial temporal clause. It could be rendered, “with daughters being born to them.” For another example of such a disjunctive clause following the construction וַיְהִיכִּי (vayÿhiki, “and it came to pass when”), see 2 Sam 7:1.
9 tn The pronominal suffix is third masculine plural, indicating that the antecedent “humankind” is collective.
10 tn Heb “spoke by the hand of.”
11 tn The word used here (עָרוֹם, ’arom) sometimes means “naked,” but here it appears to mean simply “lightly dressed,” i.e., stripped to one’s undergarments. See HALOT 883 s.v. עָרוֹם. The term also occurs in vv. 3, 4.
12 tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.
13 tn The word “authority” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. “Power” would be another alternative that could be supplied here.