Genesis 4:11

4:11 So now, you are banished ¹  from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

Genesis 8:11

8:11 When ²  the dove returned to him in the evening, there was ³  a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak! Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

Genesis 29:8

29:8 “We can’t,” they said, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well. Then we water ⁴  the sheep.”

Genesis 34:26

34:26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and left.

Genesis 41:40

41:40 You will oversee my household, and all my people will submit to your commands. ⁵  Only I, the king, will be greater than you. ⁶ 

Genesis 42:27

42:27 When one of them ⁷  opened his sack to get feed for his donkey at their resting place, ⁸  he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. ⁹ 

Genesis 43:12

43:12 Take double the money with you; ¹⁰  you must take back ¹¹  the money that was returned in the mouths of your sacks – perhaps it was an oversight.

Genesis 43:21

43:21 But when we came to the place where we spent the night, we opened our sacks and each of us found his money – the full amount ¹²  – in the mouth of his sack. So we have returned it. ¹³ 

Genesis 44:2

44:2 Then put ¹⁴  my cup – the silver cup – in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the money for his grain.” He did as Joseph instructed. ¹⁵ 

Genesis 44:8

44:8 Look, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. Why then would we steal silver or gold from your master’s house?

Genesis 45:21

45:21 So the sons of Israel did as he said. ¹⁶  Joseph gave them wagons as Pharaoh had instructed, ¹⁷  and he gave them provisions for the journey.

Genesis 47:12

47:12 Joseph also provided food for his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household, according to the number of their little children.

¹ tn Heb “cursed are you from the ground.” As in Gen 3:14, the word “cursed,” a passive participle from אָרָר (’arar), either means “punished” or “banished,” depending on how one interprets the following preposition. If the preposition is taken as indicating source, then the idea is “cursed (i.e., punished) are you from [i.e., “through the agency of”] the ground” (see v. 12a). If the preposition is taken as separative, then the idea is “cursed and banished from the ground.” In this case the ground rejects Cain’s efforts in such a way that he is banished from the ground and forced to become a fugitive out in the earth (see vv. 12b, 14).

² tn The clause introduced by vav (ו) consecutive is translated as a temporal clause subordinated to the following clause.

³ tn The deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to the olive leaf. It invites readers to enter into the story, as it were, and look at the olive leaf with their own eyes.

³ tn The perfect verbal forms with the vav (ו) consecutive carry on the sequence begun by the initial imperfect form.

⁴ tn Heb “and at your mouth (i.e., instructions) all my people will kiss.” G. J. Wenham translates this “shall kowtow to your instruction” (Genesis [WBC], 2:395). Although there is some textual support for reading “will be judged, ruled by you,” this is probably an attempt to capture the significance of this word. Wenham lists a number of references where individuals have tried to make connections with other words or expressions – such as a root meaning “order themselves” lying behind “kiss,” or an idiomatic idea of “kiss” meaning “seal the mouth,” and so “be silent and submit to.” See K. A. Kitchen, “The Term Nsq in Genesis 41:40,” ExpTim 69 (1957): 30; D. S. Sperling, “Genesis 41:40: A New Interpretation,” JANESCU 10 (1978): 113-19.

⁵ tn Heb “only the throne, I will be greater than you.”

⁵ tn Heb “and the one.” The article indicates that the individual is vivid in the mind of the narrator, yet it is not important to identify him by name.

⁶ tn Heb “at the lodging place.”

⁷ tn Heb “and look, it [was] in the mouth of his sack.” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator invites the reader to look through the eyes of the character and thereby draws attention to the money.

⁶ tn Heb “in your hand.”

⁷ tn Heb “take back in your hand.” The imperfect verbal form probably has an injunctive or obligatory force here, since Jacob is instructing his sons.

⁷ tn Heb “in its weight.”

⁸ tn Heb “brought it back in our hand.”

⁸ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express Joseph’s instructions.

⁹ tn Heb “and he did according to the word of Joseph which he spoke.”

⁹ tn Heb “and the sons of Israel did so.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “according to the mouth of Pharaoh.”