30:4 So Rachel 4 gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob had marital relations with 5 her.
29:28 Jacob did as Laban said. 20 When Jacob 21 completed Leah’s bridal week, 22 Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 23
30:9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave 24 her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife.
34:8 But Hamor made this appeal to them: “My son Shechem is in love with your daughter. 25 Please give her to him as his wife.
16:3 So after Abram had lived 29 in Canaan for ten years, Sarai, Abram’s wife, gave Hagar, her Egyptian servant, 30 to her husband to be his wife. 31
1 tn The use of the demonstrative pronoun is enclitic, serving as an undeclined particle for emphasis. It gives the sense of “What in the world have you done?” (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).
2 sn The Hebrew word order puts the subject (“the serpent”) before the verb here, giving prominence to it.
3 tn This verb (the Hiphil of נָשָׁא, nasha) is used elsewhere of a king or god misleading his people into false confidence (2 Kgs 18:29 = 2 Chr 32:15 = Isa 36:14; 2 Kgs 19:10 = Isa 37:10), of an ally deceiving a partner (Obad 7), of God deceiving his sinful people as a form of judgment (Jer 4:10), of false prophets instilling their audience with false hope (Jer 29:8), and of pride and false confidence producing self-deception (Jer 37:9; 49:16; Obad 3).
4 tn Heb “and she”; the referent (Rachel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “went in to.” The expression “went in to” in this context refers to sexual intercourse.
7 tn Heb “Take for me this young woman for a wife.”
10 tn The Hebrew verb is בָּנָה (banah, “to make, to build, to construct”). The text states that the
13 tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive here expresses consequence.
14 tn Heb “to me for a wife.”
15 tn Heb “Look, your wife!”
16 tn Heb “take and go.”
16 tn Heb “but also.”
19 tn Heb “her”; the referent has been specified here in the translation for clarity.
20 tn Heb “Rebekah”; here the proper name was replaced by the pronoun (“her”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
21 tn Heb “and he took Rebekah and she became his wife and he loved her.”
22 tn Heb “after his mother.” This must refer to Sarah’s death.
22 tn Heb “And Isaac was the son of forty years when he took Rebekah.”
23 sn Some valuable information is provided here. We learn here that Isaac married thirty-five years before Abraham died, that Rebekah was barren for twenty years, and that Abraham would have lived to see Jacob and Esau begin to grow up. The death of Abraham was recorded in the first part of the chapter as a “tidying up” of one generation before beginning the account of the next.
25 tn Heb “took for a wife.”
28 tn Heb “and Jacob did so.” The words “as Laban said” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
29 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
30 tn Heb “the seven of this one.” The referent of “this one” has been specified in the translation as Leah to avoid confusion with Rachel, mentioned later in the verse.
31 tn Heb “and he gave to him Rachel his daughter for him for a wife.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
31 tn Heb “she took her servant Zilpah and gave her.” The verbs “took” and “gave” are treated as a hendiadys in the translation: “she gave.”
34 tn Heb “Shechem my son, his soul is attached to your daughter.” The verb means “to love” in the sense of being emotionally attached to or drawn to someone. This is a slightly different way of saying what was reported earlier (v. 3). However, there is no mention here of the offense. Even though Hamor is speaking to Dinah’s brothers, he refers to her as their daughter (see v. 17).
37 tn Heb “Make very great upon me the bride price and gift.” The imperatives are used in a rhetorical manner. Shechem’s point is that he will pay the price, no matter how expensive it might be.
38 tn The cohortative expresses Shechem’s resolve to have Dinah as his wife.
39 tn Heb “say.”
40 tn Heb “at the end of ten years, to live, Abram.” The prepositional phrase introduces the temporal clause, the infinitive construct serves as the verb, and the name “Abram” is the subject.
41 tn Heb “the Egyptian, her female servant.”
42 sn To be his wife. Hagar became a slave wife, not on equal standing with Sarai. However, if Hagar produced the heir, she would be the primary wife in the eyes of society. When this eventually happened, Hagar become insolent, prompting Sarai’s anger.
43 tn The Hebrew text simply has “because,” connecting this sentence to what precedes. For stylistic reasons the words “she did this” are supplied in the translation and a new sentence begun.
44 tn Heb “she saw that Shelah had grown up, but she was not given to him as a wife.”
46 sn The meaning of Joseph’s Egyptian name, Zaphenath-Paneah, is uncertain. Many recent commentators have followed the proposal of G. Steindorff that it means “the god has said, ‘he will live’” (“Der Name Josephs Saphenat-Pa‘neach,” ZÄS 31 [1889]: 41-42); others have suggested “the god speaks and lives” (see BDB 861 s.v. צָפְנָת פַּעְנֵחַ); “the man he knows” (J. Vergote, Joseph en Égypte, 145); or “Joseph [who is called] áIp-àankh” (K. A. Kitchen, NBD3 1262).
47 sn The name Asenath may mean “she belongs to the goddess Neit” (see HALOT 74 s.v. אָֽסְנַת). A novel was written at the beginning of the first century entitled Joseph and Asenath, which included a legendary account of the conversion of Asenath to Joseph’s faith in Yahweh. However, all that can be determined from this chapter is that their children received Hebrew names. See also V. Aptowitzer, “Asenath, the Wife of Joseph – a Haggadic Literary-Historical Study,” HUCA 1 (1924): 239-306.
48 sn On (also in v. 50) is another name for the city of Heliopolis.
49 tn Heb “and he passed through.”