Genesis 1:7

1:7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. ¹  It was so. ² 

Genesis 4:14

4:14 Look! You are driving me off the land ³  today, and I must hide from your presence. ⁴  I will be a homeless wanderer on the earth; whoever finds me will kill me.”

Genesis 7:17

7:17 The flood engulfed the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark and raised it above the earth.

Genesis 8:11

8:11 When ⁵  the dove returned to him in the evening, there was ⁶  a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak! Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

Genesis 13:11

13:11 Lot chose for himself the whole region of the Jordan and traveled ⁷  toward the east.

So the relatives separated from each other. ⁸ 

Genesis 25:6

25:6 But while he was still alive, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines ⁹  and sent them off to the east, away from his son Isaac. ¹⁰ 

Genesis 27:39-40

27:39 So his father Isaac said to him,

“Indeed, ¹¹  your home will be

away from the richness ¹²  of the earth,

and away from the dew of the sky above.

27:40 You will live by your sword

but you will serve your brother.

When you grow restless,

you will tear off his yoke

from your neck.” ¹³ 

Genesis 29:8

29:8 “We can’t,” they said, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well. Then we water ¹⁴  the sheep.”

Genesis 40:17

40:17 In the top basket there were baked goods of every kind for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them from the basket that was on my head.”

Genesis 49:25

49:25 because of the God of your father,

who will help you, ¹⁵ 

because of the sovereign God, ¹⁶ 

who will bless you ¹⁷ 

with blessings from the sky above,

blessings from the deep that lies below,

and blessings of the breasts and womb. ¹⁸ 

¹ tn Heb “the expanse.”

² tn This statement indicates that it happened the way God designed it, underscoring the connection between word and event.

³ tn Heb “from upon the surface of the ground.”

⁴ sn I must hide from your presence. The motif of hiding from the Lord as a result of sin also appears in Gen 3:8-10.

⁵ tn The clause introduced by vav (ו) consecutive is translated as a temporal clause subordinated to the following clause.

⁶ tn The deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to the olive leaf. It invites readers to enter into the story, as it were, and look at the olive leaf with their own eyes.

⁷ tn Heb “Lot traveled.” The proper name has not been repeated in the translation at this point for stylistic reasons.

⁸ tn Heb “a man from upon his brother.”

⁹ tn Heb “the sons of the concubines who [belonged] to Abraham.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “And he sent them away from upon Isaac his son, while he was still living, eastward to the land of the east.”

¹¹ tn Heb “look.”

¹² tn Heb “from the fatness.”

¹³ sn You will tear off his yoke from your neck. It may be that this prophetic blessing found its fulfillment when Jerusalem fell and Edom got its revenge. The oracle makes Edom subservient to Israel and suggests the Edomites would live away from the best land and be forced to sustain themselves by violent measures.

¹⁵ tn The perfect verbal forms with the vav (ו) consecutive carry on the sequence begun by the initial imperfect form.

¹⁷ tn Heb “and he will help you.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “Shaddai.” See the note on the title “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1. The preposition אֵת (’et) in the Hebrew text should probably be emended to אֵל (’el, “God”).

¹⁹ tn Heb “and he will bless you.”

²⁰ sn Jacob envisions God imparting both agricultural (blessings from the sky above, blessings from the deep that lies below) and human fertility (blessings of the breasts and womb) to Joseph and his family.