21:17 But God heard the boy’s voice. 5 The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, 6 Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard 7 the boy’s voice right where he is crying.
23:16 So Abraham agreed to Ephron’s price 8 and weighed 9 out for him 10 the price 11 that Ephron had quoted 12 in the hearing of the sons of Heth – 400 pieces of silver, according to the standard measurement at the time. 13
31:1 Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were complaining, 14 “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father! He has gotten rich 15 at our father’s expense!” 16
Jacob had twelve sons:
1 tn Heb “look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) introduces the foundational clause for the imperative to follow.
2 tn Heb “enter to.” The expression is a euphemism for sexual relations (also in v. 4).
3 tn Heb “perhaps I will be built from her.” Sarai hopes to have a family established through this surrogate mother.
4 tn Heb “listened to the voice of,” which is an idiom meaning “obeyed.”
5 sn God heard the boy’s voice. The text has not to this point indicated that Ishmael was crying out, either in pain or in prayer. But the text here makes it clear that God heard him. Ishmael is clearly central to the story. Both the mother and the
6 tn Heb “What to you?”
7 sn Here the verb heard picks up the main motif of the name Ishmael (“God hears”), introduced back in chap. 16.
9 tn Heb “listened to Ephron.”
10 tn Heb “and Abraham weighed out.”
11 tn Heb “to Ephron.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
12 tn Heb “silver.”
13 tn Heb “that he had spoken.” The referent (Ephron) has been specified here in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.
14 tn Heb “passing for the merchant.” The final clause affirms that the measurement of silver was according to the standards used by the merchants of the time.
13 tn Heb “and he heard the words of the sons of Laban, saying.”
14 sn The Hebrew word translated “gotten rich” (כָּבוֹד, cavod) has the basic idea of “weight.” If one is heavy with possessions, then that one is wealthy (13:2). Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph all became wealthy when they left the promised land. Jacob’s wealth foreshadows what will happen to Israel when they leave the land of Egypt (Exod 12:35-38).
15 tn Heb “and from that which belonged to our father he has gained all this wealth.”
17 tn Heb “and Reuben went and lay with.” The expression “lay with” is a euphemism for having sexual intercourse.