1 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.
2 tn Heb “God.” The pronoun (“he”) has been employed in the translation for stylistic reasons.
3 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.”
4 tn Or “seven pairs” (cf. NRSV).
5 tn Here (and in v. 9) the Hebrew text uses the normal generic terms for “male and female” (זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה, zakhar unÿqevah).
6 tn Heb “to keep alive offspring.”
7 tn Heb “and food was placed before him.”
8 tn Heb “my words.”
9 tc Some ancient textual witnesses have a plural verb, “and they said.”
10 tn Heb “And look, seven other cows were coming up after them from the Nile, bad of appearance and thin of flesh.”
11 tn Heb “the Nile.” This has been replaced by “the river” in the translation for stylistic reasons.
13 tn Heb “saw Ephraim, the children of the third.”
14 tn Heb “they were born on the knees of Joseph.” This expression implies their adoption by Joseph, which meant that they received an inheritance from him.