Genesis 11:7

11:7 Come, let’s go down and confuse ¹  their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.” ² 

Genesis 29:21

29:21 Finally Jacob said ³  to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my time of service is up. ⁴  I want to have marital relations with her.” ⁵ 

Genesis 47:16

47:16 Then Joseph said, “If your money is gone, bring your livestock, and I will give you food ⁶  in exchange for ⁷  your livestock.”

¹ tn The cohortatives mirror the cohortatives of the people. They build to ascend the heavens; God comes down to destroy their language. God speaks here to his angelic assembly. See the notes on the word “make” in 1:26 and “know” in 3:5, as well as Jub. 10:22-23, where an angel recounts this incident and says “And the Lord our God said to us…. And the Lord went down and we went down with him. And we saw the city and the tower which the sons of men built.” On the chiastic structure of the story, see G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:235.

² tn Heb “they will not hear, a man the lip of his neighbor.”

³ tn Heb “and Jacob said.”

⁴ tn Heb “my days are fulfilled.”

⁵ tn Heb “and I will go in to her.” The verb is a cohortative; it may be subordinated to the preceding request, “that I may go in,” or it may be an independent clause expressing his desire. The verb “go in” in this context refers to sexual intercourse (i.e., the consummation of the marriage).

⁵ tn The word “food” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁶ tn On the use of the preposition here see BDB 90 s.v. בְּ.