Genesis 50:20

50:20 As for you, you meant to harm me, ¹  but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day. ² 

Genesis 50:1

The Burials of Jacob and Joseph

50:1 Then Joseph hugged his father’s face. ³  He wept over him and kissed him.

Genesis 22:21-23

22:21 Uz the firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel (the father of Aram), ⁴  22:22 Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 22:23 (Now ⁵  Bethuel became the father of Rebekah.) These were the eight sons Milcah bore to Abraham’s brother Nahor.

Genesis 22:2

22:2 God ⁶  said, “Take your son – your only son, whom you love, Isaac ⁷  – and go to the land of Moriah! ⁸  Offer him up there as a burnt offering ⁹  on one of the mountains which I will indicate to ¹⁰  you.”

Genesis 18:25

18:25 Far be it from you to do such a thing – to kill the godly with the wicked, treating the godly and the wicked alike! Far be it from you! Will not the judge ¹¹  of the whole earth do what is right?” ¹² 

Lamentations 3:38-39

3:38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that everything comes –

both calamity and blessing? ¹³ 

3:39 Why should any living person ¹⁴  complain

when punished for his sins? ¹⁵ 

John 18:11

18:11 But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath! Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?” ¹⁶ 

¹ tn Heb “you devised against me evil.”

² tn Heb “God devised it for good in order to do, like this day, to preserve alive a great nation.”

³ tn Heb “fell on.” The expression describes Joseph’s unrestrained sorrow over Jacob’s death; he probably threw himself across the body and embraced his father.

⁴ sn This parenthetical note about Kemuel’s descendant is probably a later insertion by the author/compiler of Genesis and not part of the original announcement.

⁵ tn The disjunctive clause gives information that is important but parenthetical to the narrative. Rebekah would become the wife of Isaac (Gen 24:15).

⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ sn Take your son…Isaac. The instructions are very clear, but the details are deliberate. With every additional description the commandment becomes more challenging.

⁸ sn There has been much debate over the location of Moriah; 2 Chr 3:1 suggests it may be the site where the temple was later built in Jerusalem.

⁹ sn A whole burnt offering signified the complete surrender of the worshiper and complete acceptance by God. The demand for a human sacrifice was certainly radical and may have seemed to Abraham out of character for God. Abraham would have to obey without fully understanding what God was about.

¹⁰ tn Heb “which I will say to.”

¹¹ tn Or “ruler.”

¹² sn Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right? For discussion of this text see J. L. Crenshaw, “Popular Questioning of the Justice of God in Ancient Israel,” ZAW 82 (1970): 380-95, and C. S. Rodd, “Shall Not the Judge of All the Earth Do What Is Just?” ExpTim 83 (1972): 137-39.

¹³ tn Heb “From the mouth of the Most High does it not go forth, both evil and good?”

¹⁴ tn The Hebrew word here is אָדָם (’adam) which can mean “man” or “person.” The second half of the line is more personalized to the speaking voice of the defeated soldier using גֶּבֶר (gever, “man”). See the note at 3:1.

¹⁵ tc Kethib reads the singular חֶטְאוֹ (khet’o, “his sin”), which is reflected in the LXX. Qere reads the plural חֲטָאָיו (khata’ayv, “his sins”) which is preserved in many medieval Hebrew mss and reflected in the other early versions (Aramaic Targum, Syriac Peshitta, Latin Vulgate). The external and internal evidence are not decisive in favor of either reading.

¹⁶ tn Grk “The cup that the Father has given me to drink, shall I not drink it?” The order of the clauses has been rearranged to reflect contemporary English style.