1 tn Heb “offspring.”
2 tn Heb “would not be his,” that is, legally speaking. Under the levirate system the child would be legally considered the child of his deceased brother.
3 tn The construction shows that this was a repeated practice and not merely one action.
4 tn Heb “he went to.” This expression is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
5 tn Heb “he spoiled [his semen] to the ground.” Onan withdrew prematurely and ejaculated on the ground to prevent his brother’s widow from becoming pregnant.
6 tn Heb “the servant”; the noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
11 tn Heb “her”; the referent (Rebekah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
16 tn The imperative has the force of a prayer here, not a command.
17 tn The “hand” here is a metonymy for “power.”
18 tn Heb “from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.”
19 tn Heb “for I am afraid of him, lest he come.”
20 sn Heb “me, [the] mother upon [the] sons.” The first person pronoun “me” probably means here “me and mine,” as the following clause suggests.
21 tn Heb “[By] the life of Pharaoh.”
26 tn The imperfect here has an injunctive force.
27 tn After the injunctive imperfect, this imperfect with vav indicates purpose or result.
28 tn The Niphal form of the verb has the sense of “to be faithful; to be sure; to be reliable.” Joseph will test his brothers to see if their words are true.
29 tn Heb “and they did so.”
31 tn Heb “for his affection boiled up concerning his brother.” The same expression is used in 1 Kgs 3:26 for the mother’s feelings for her endangered child.
32 tn Heb “and he sought to weep.”