Genesis 4:23

4:23 Lamech said to his wives,

“Adah and Zillah! Listen to me!

You wives of Lamech, hear my words!

I have killed a man for wounding me,

a young man ¹  for hurting me.

Genesis 30:26

30:26 Let me take my wives and my children whom I have acquired by working for you. ²  Then I’ll depart, ³  because you know how hard I’ve worked for you.” ⁴ 

Genesis 33:13

33:13 But Jacob ⁵  said to him, “My lord knows that the children are young, ⁶  and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. ⁷  If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die.

Genesis 42:22

42:22 Reuben said to them, “Didn’t I say to you, ‘Don’t sin against the boy,’ but you wouldn’t listen? So now we must pay for shedding his blood!” ⁸ 

Genesis 44:20

44:20 We said to my lord, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young boy who was born when our father was old. ⁹  The boy’s ¹⁰  brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, ¹¹  and his father loves him.’

¹ tn The Hebrew term יֶלֶד (yeled) probably refers to a youthful warrior here, not a child.

² tn Heb “give my wives and my children, for whom I have served you.” In one sense Laban had already “given” Jacob his two daughters as wives (Gen 29:21, 28). Here Jacob was asking for permission to take his own family along with him on the journey back to Canaan.

³ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.

⁴ tn Heb “for you, you know my service [with] which I have served you.”

³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn Heb “weak.”

⁵ tn Heb “and the sheep and the cattle nursing [are] upon me.”

⁴ tn Heb “and also his blood, look, it is required.” God requires compensation, as it were, from those who shed innocent blood (see Gen 9:6). In other words, God exacts punishment for the crime of murder.

⁵ tn Heb “and a small boy of old age,” meaning that he was born when his father was elderly.

⁶ tn Heb “his”; the referent (the boy just mentioned) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn Heb “he, only he, to his mother is left.”