Genesis 26:2-3

26:2 The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; settle down in the land that I will point out to you. 26:3 Stay in this land. Then I will be with you and will bless you, for I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants, and I will fulfill the solemn promise I made to your father Abraham.

Genesis 43:1

The Second Journey to Egypt

43:1 Now the famine was severe in the land.

Genesis 46:3-4

46:3 He said, “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 46:4 I will go down with you to Egypt and I myself will certainly bring you back from there. 10  Joseph will close your eyes.” 11 

Genesis 46:2

46:2 God spoke to Israel in a vision during the night 12  and said, “Jacob, Jacob!” He replied, “Here I am!”

Genesis 8:1-2

8:1 But God remembered 13  Noah and all the wild animals and domestic animals that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to blow over 14  the earth and the waters receded. 8:2 The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed, 15  and the rain stopped falling from the sky.

Psalms 105:13

105:13 they wandered from nation to nation,

and from one kingdom to another. 16 


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.

tn Heb “say to you.”

tn The Hebrew verb גּוּר (gur) means “to live temporarily without ownership of land.” Abraham’s family will not actually possess the land of Canaan until the Israelite conquest hundreds of years later.

tn After the imperative “stay” the two prefixed verb forms with prefixed conjunction here indicate consequence.

tn The Hebrew term זֶרַע (zera’) occurring here and in v. 18 may mean “seed” (for planting), “offspring” (occasionally of animals, but usually of people), or “descendants” depending on the context.

tn The Hiphil stem of the verb קוּם (qum) here means “to fulfill, to bring to realization.” For other examples of this use of this verb form, see Lev 26:9; Num 23:19; Deut 8:18; 9:5; 1 Sam 1:23; 1 Kgs 6:12; Jer 11:5.

tn Heb “the oath which I swore.”

tn The disjunctive clause gives supplemental information that is important to the storyline.

tn Heb “the God.”

10 tn Heb “and I, I will bring you up, also bringing up.” The independent personal pronoun before the first person imperfect verbal form draws attention to the speaker/subject, while the infinitive absolute after the imperfect strongly emphasizes the statement: “I myself will certainly bring you up.”

11 tn Heb “and Joseph will put his hand upon your eyes.” This is a promise of peaceful death in Egypt with Joseph present to close his eyes.

12 tn Heb “in visions of the night.” The plural form has the singular meaning, probably as a plural of intensity.

13 tn The Hebrew word translated “remembered” often carries the sense of acting in accordance with what is remembered, i.e., fulfilling covenant promises (see B. S. Childs, Memory and Tradition in Israel [SBT], especially p. 34).

14 tn Heb “to pass over.”

15 tn Some (e.g., NIV) translate the preterite verb forms in this verse as past perfects (e.g., “had been closed”), for it seems likely that the sources of the water would have stopped before the waters receded.

16 tn Heb “and from a kingdom to another nation.”