38:11 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up.” For he thought, 5 “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.” 6 So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.
1 sn A bowshot would be a distance of about a hundred yards (ninety meters).
2 tn Heb “said.”
3 tn Heb “I will not look on the death of the child.” The cohortative verbal form (note the negative particle אַל,’al) here expresses her resolve to avoid the stated action.
4 tn Heb “and she lifted up her voice and wept” (that is, she wept uncontrollably). The LXX reads “he” (referring to Ishmael) rather than “she” (referring to Hagar), but this is probably an attempt to harmonize this verse with the following one, which refers to the boy’s cries.
5 tn Heb “said.”
6 tn Heb “Otherwise he will die, also he, like his brothers.”
9 tn Heb “men of skill.”
10 tn Heb “make them rulers.”