23:5 The sons of Heth answered Abraham, 1
23:7 Abraham got up and bowed down to the local people, 2 the sons of Heth.
10:15 Canaan was the father of 3 Sidon his firstborn, 4 Heth, 5
27:46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am deeply depressed 7 because of these daughters of Heth. 8 If Jacob were to marry one of these daughters of Heth who live in this land, I would want to die!” 9
49:1 Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather together so I can tell you 10 what will happen to you in the future. 11
23:1 Sarah lived 127 years. 14
1 tn Heb “answered Abraham saying to him.”
2 tn Heb “to the people of the land” (also in v. 12).
3 tn Heb “fathered.”
4 sn Sidon was the foremost city in Phoenicia; here Sidon may be the name of its founder.
5 tn Some see a reference to “Hittites” here (cf. NIV), but this seems unlikely. See the note on the phrase “sons of Heth” in Gen 23:3.
6 tn See the note on the phrase “sons of Heth” in Gen 23:3.
7 tn Heb “loathe my life.” The Hebrew verb translated “loathe” refers to strong disgust (see Lev 20:23).
8 tn Some translate the Hebrew term “Heth” as “Hittites” here (see also Gen 23:3), but this gives the impression that these people were the classical Hittites of Anatolia. However, there is no known connection between these sons of Heth, apparently a Canaanite group (see Gen 10:15), and the Hittites of Asia Minor. See H. A. Hoffner, Jr., “Hittites,” Peoples of the Old Testament World, 152-53.
9 tn Heb “If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these, from the daughters of the land, why to me life?”
10 tn After the imperative, the cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose/result.
11 tn The expression “in the future” (אַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים, ’akharit hayyamim, “in the end of days”) is found most frequently in prophetic passages; it may refer to the end of the age, the eschaton, or to the distant future. The contents of some of the sayings in this chapter stretch from the immediate circumstances to the time of the settlement in the land to the coming of Messiah. There is a great deal of literature on this chapter, including among others C. Armerding, “The Last Words of Jacob: Genesis 49,” BSac 112 (1955): 320-28; H. Pehlke, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Genesis 49:1-28” (Th.D. dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1985); and B. Vawter, “The Canaanite Background of Genesis 49,” CBQ 17 (1955): 1-18.
12 sn Do not go down to Egypt. The words echo Gen 12:10, which reports that “Abram went down to Egypt,” but state the opposite.
13 tn Heb “say to you.”
14 tn Heb “And the years of Sarah were one hundred years and twenty years and seven years, the years of the life of Sarah.”