1:31 God saw all that he had made – and it was very good! 4 There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.
9:17 So God said to Noah, “This is the guarantee of the covenant that I am confirming between me and all living things 10 that are on the earth.”
22:19 Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set out together 11 for Beer Sheba where Abraham stayed. 12
49:26 The blessings of your father are greater
than 35 the blessings of the eternal mountains 36
or the desirable things of the age-old hills.
They will be on the head of Joseph
and on the brow of the prince of his brothers. 37
1 tn Heb “he called to,” meaning “he named.”
2 tn Heb “and the darkness he called night.” The words “he called” have not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3 tn Another option is to translate, “Evening came, and then morning came.” This formula closes the six days of creation. It seems to follow the Jewish order of reckoning time: from evening to morning. Day one started with the dark, continued through the creation of light, and ended with nightfall. Another alternative would be to translate, “There was night and then there was day, one day.”
4 tn The Hebrew text again uses הִנֵּה (hinneh) for the sake of vividness. It is a particle that goes with the gesture of pointing, calling attention to something.
7 tn The verb is usually translated “and sanctified it.” The Piel verb קִדֵּשׁ (qiddesh) means “to make something holy; to set something apart; to distinguish it.” On the literal level the phrase means essentially that God made this day different. But within the context of the Law, it means that the day belonged to God; it was for rest from ordinary labor, worship, and spiritual service. The day belonged to God.
8 tn Heb “God.” The pronoun (“he”) has been employed in the translation for stylistic reasons.
9 tn Heb “for on it he ceased from all his work which God created to make.” The last infinitive construct and the verb before it form a verbal hendiadys, the infinitive becoming the modifier – “which God creatively made,” or “which God made in his creating.”
10 tn The word “people” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation. The construction uses a passive verb without an expressed subject. “To call was begun” can be interpreted to mean that people began to call.
11 tn Heb “call in the name.” The expression refers to worshiping the
13 tn Heb “all flesh.”
16 tn Heb “and they arose and went together.”
17 tn Heb “and Abraham stayed in Beer Sheba. This has been translated as a relative clause for stylistic reasons.
19 tn Heb “her”; the referent has been specified here in the translation for clarity.
20 tn Heb “Rebekah”; here the proper name was replaced by the pronoun (“her”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
21 tn Heb “and he took Rebekah and she became his wife and he loved her.”
22 tn Heb “after his mother.” This must refer to Sarah’s death.
22 tn Heb “they”; the referent (Ishmael’s descendants) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
23 tn Heb “which is by the face of,” or near the border. The territory ran along the border of Egypt.
24 tn Heb “as you go.”
25 sn The name Asshur refers here to a tribal area in the Sinai.
26 tn Heb “he fell.”
27 tn Heb “upon the face of all his brothers.” This last expression, obviously alluding to the earlier oracle about Ishmael (Gen 16:12), could mean that the descendants of Ishmael lived in hostility to others or that they lived in a territory that was opposite the lands of their relatives. While there is some ambiguity about the meaning, the line probably does give a hint of the Ishmaelite-Israelite conflicts to come.
25 tn Heb “and Jacob said when he saw them.”
26 sn The name Mahanaim apparently means “two camps.” Perhaps the two camps were those of God and of Jacob.
28 sn Deborah. This woman had been Rebekah’s nurse, but later attached herself to Jacob. She must have been about one hundred and eighty years old when she died.
29 tn “and he called its name.” There is no expressed subject, so the verb can be translated as passive.
30 tn Or “Allon Bacuth,” if one transliterates the Hebrew name (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). An oak tree was revered in the ancient world and often designated as a shrine or landmark. This one was named for the weeping (mourning) occasioned by the death of Deborah.
31 tn Heb “and Isaac expired and died and he was gathered to his people.” In the ancient Israelite view he joined his deceased ancestors in Sheol, the land of the dead.
32 tn Heb “old and full of years.”
34 tn Or perhaps “territories”; Heb “dwelling places.”
37 tn The LXX reads “nine sons,” probably counting the grandsons of Joseph born to Ephraim and Manasseh (cf. 1 Chr 7:14-20).
38 tn Heb “And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two people; all the people belonging to the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were seventy.”
40 tn The pronouns translated “your” and “you” in this verse are singular in the Hebrew text.
41 tn The Hebrew word שְׁכֶם (shÿkhem) could be translated either as “mountain slope” or “shoulder, portion,” or even taken as the proper name “Shechem.” Jacob was giving Joseph either (1) one portion above his brothers, or (2) the mountain ridge he took from the Amorites, or (3) Shechem. The ambiguity actually allows for all three to be the referent. He could be referring to the land in Shechem he bought in Gen 33:18-19, but he mentions here that it was acquired by warfare, suggesting that the events of 34:25-29 are in view (even though at the time he denounced it, 34:30). Joseph was later buried in Shechem (Josh 24:32).
43 tn Heb “have prevailed over.”
44 tn One could interpret the phrase הוֹרַי (horay) to mean “my progenitors” (literally, “the ones who conceived me”), but the masculine form argues against this. It is better to emend the text to הַרֲרֵי (harare, “mountains of”) because it forms a better parallel with the next clause. In this case the final yod (י) on the form is a construct plural marker, not a pronominal suffix.
45 tn For further discussion of this passage, see I. Sonne, “Genesis 49:24-26,” JBL 65 (1946): 303-6.