Genesis 28:12

28:12 and had a dream. ¹  He saw ²  a stairway ³  erected on the earth with its top reaching to the heavens. The angels of God were going up and coming down it

Genesis 40:8

40:8 They told him, “We both had dreams, ⁴  but there is no one to interpret them.” Joseph responded, “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Tell them ⁵  to me.”

Genesis 41:15

41:15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, ⁶  and there is no one who can interpret ⁷  it. But I have heard about you, that ⁸  you can interpret dreams.” ⁹ 

Genesis 42:9

42:9 Then Joseph remembered ¹⁰  the dreams he had dreamed about them, and he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see if our land is vulnerable!” ¹¹ 

¹ tn Heb “and dreamed.”

² tn Heb “and look.” The scene which Jacob witnessed is described in three clauses introduced with הִנֵּה (hinneh). In this way the narrator invites the reader to witness the scene through Jacob’s eyes. J. P. Fokkelman points out that the particle goes with a lifted arm and an open mouth: “There, a ladder! Oh, angels! and look, the Lord himself” (Narrative Art in Genesis [SSN], 51-52).

³ tn The Hebrew noun סֻלָּם (sullam, “ladder, stairway”) occurs only here in the OT, but there appears to be an Akkadian cognate simmiltu (with metathesis of the second and third consonants and a feminine ending) which has a specialized meaning of “stairway, ramp.” See H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 34. For further discussion see C. Houtman, “What Did Jacob See in His Dream at Bethel? Some Remarks on Genesis 28:10-22,” VT 27 (1977): 337-52; J. G. Griffiths, “The Celestial Ladder and the Gate of Heaven,” ExpTim 76 (1964/65): 229-30; and A. R. Millard, “The Celestial Ladder and the Gate of Heaven,” ExpTim 78 (1966/67): 86-87.

⁴ tn Heb “a dream we dreamed.”

⁵ tn The word “them” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁷ tn Heb “dreamed a dream.”

⁸ tn Heb “there is no one interpreting.”

⁹ tn Heb “saying.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “you hear a dream to interpret it,” which may mean, “you only have to hear a dream to be able to interpret it.”

¹⁰ sn You are spies. Joseph wanted to see how his brothers would react if they were accused of spying.

¹¹ tn Heb “to see the nakedness of the land you have come.”