Genesis 2:23

2:23 Then the man said,

“This one at last ¹  is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

this one will be called ²  ‘woman,’

for she was taken out of ³  man.” ⁴ 

Genesis 12:11

12:11 As he approached ⁵  Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, ⁶  I know that you are a beautiful woman. ⁷ 

Genesis 24:3

24:3 so that I may make you solemnly promise ⁸  by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth: You must not acquire ⁹  a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living.

Genesis 24:37

24:37 My master made me swear an oath. He said, ‘You must not acquire a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living,

Genesis 24:40

24:40 He answered, ‘The Lord, before whom I have walked, ¹⁰  will send his angel with you. He will make your journey a success and you will find a wife for my son from among my relatives, from my father’s family.

Genesis 26:34

26:34 When ¹¹  Esau was forty years old, ¹²  he married ¹³  Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, as well as Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

Genesis 28:1-2

28:1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman! ¹⁴  28:2 Leave immediately ¹⁵  for Paddan Aram! Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and find yourself a wife there, among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

¹ tn The Hebrew term הַפַּעַם (happa’am) means “the [this] time, this place,” or “now, finally, at last.” The expression conveys the futility of the man while naming the animals and finding no one who corresponded to him.

² tn The Hebrew text is very precise, stating: “of this one it will be said, ‘woman’.” The text is not necessarily saying that the man named his wife – that comes after the fall (Gen 3:20).

³ tn Or “from” (but see v. 22).

⁴ sn This poetic section expresses the correspondence between the man and the woman. She is bone of his bones, flesh of his flesh. Note the wordplay (paronomasia) between “woman” (אִשָּׁה, ’ishah) and “man” (אִישׁ, ’ish). On the surface it appears that the word for woman is the feminine form of the word for man. But the two words are not etymologically related. The sound and the sense give that impression, however, and make for a more effective wordplay.

⁵ tn Heb “drew near to enter.”

⁶ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) is deictic here; it draws attention to the following fact.

⁷ tn Heb “a woman beautiful of appearance are you.”

⁹ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose.

¹⁰ tn Heb “because you must not take.”

¹³ tn The verb is the Hitpael of הָלַךְ (halakh), meaning “live one’s life” (see Gen 17:1). The statement may simply refer to serving the Lord or it may have a more positive moral connotation (“serve faithfully”).

¹⁷ tn The sentence begins with the temporal indicator (“and it happened”), making this clause subordinate to the next.

¹⁸ tn Heb “the son of forty years.”

¹⁹ tn Heb “took as a wife.”

²¹ tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”

²⁵ tn Heb “Arise! Go!” The first of the two imperatives is adverbial and stresses the immediacy of the departure.