35:27 So Jacob came back to his father Isaac in Mamre, 3 to Kiriath Arba 4 (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. 5
1 tn Heb “Sarah.” The proper name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“she”) for stylistic reasons.
2 sn Mourn…weep. The description here is of standard mourning rites (see K. A. Kitchen, NBD3 149-50). They would have been carried out in the presence of the corpse, probably in Sarah’s tent. So Abraham came in to mourn; then he rose up to go and bury his dead (v. 3).
3 tn This is an adverbial accusative of location.
4 tn The name “Kiriath Arba” is in apposition to the preceding name, “Mamre.”
5 tn The Hebrew verb גּוּר (gur), traditionally rendered “to sojourn,” refers to temporary settlement without ownership rights.
6 tc The MT has the singular, but the ancient versions and Smr have the plural.
7 tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the following clause. The first verse gave the account of their journey over the whole land; this section focuses on what happened in the area of Hebron, which would be the basis for the false report.
8 sn These names are thought to be three clans that were in the Hebron area (see Josh 15:14; Judg 1:20). To call them descendants of Anak is usually taken to mean that they were large or tall people (2 Sam 21:18-22). They were ultimately driven out by Caleb.
9 sn The text now provides a brief historical aside for the readers. Zoan was probably the city of Tanis, although that is disputed today by some scholars. It was known in Egypt in the New Kingdom as “the fields of Tanis,” which corresponded to the “fields of Zoar” in the Hebrew Bible (Ps 78:12, 43).
10 tn Heb “Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb son of Jephunneh as an inheritance.”
11 tn Heb “And he was the great man among the Anakites.”