Genesis 6:17

6:17 I am about to bring ¹  floodwaters ²  on the earth to destroy ³  from under the sky all the living creatures that have the breath of life in them. ⁴  Everything that is on the earth will die,

Genesis 33:14

33:14 Let my lord go on ahead of his servant. I will travel more slowly, at the pace of the herds and the children, ⁵  until I come to my lord at Seir.”

Genesis 34:30

34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin ⁶  on me by making me a foul odor ⁷  among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I ⁸  am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”

Genesis 42:37

42:37 Then Reuben said to his father, “You may ⁹  put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care ¹⁰  and I will bring him back to you.”

Genesis 48:7

48:7 But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died – to my sorrow ¹¹  – in the land of Canaan. It happened along the way, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there on the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem). ¹² 

¹ tn The Hebrew construction uses the independent personal pronoun, followed by a suffixed form of הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) and the a participle used with an imminent future nuance: “As for me, look, I am going to bring.”

² tn Heb “the flood, water.”

³ tn The verb שָׁחָת (shakhat, “to destroy”) is repeated yet again, only now in an infinitival form expressing the purpose of the flood.

⁴ tn The Hebrew construction here is different from the previous two; here it is רוּחַ חַיִּים (ruakh khayyim) rather than נֶפֶשׁ הַיָּה (nefesh khayyah) or נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים (nishmat khayyim). It refers to everything that breathes.

⁵ tn Heb “and I, I will move along according to my leisure at the foot of the property which is before me and at the foot of the children.”

⁹ tn The traditional translation is “troubled me” (KJV, ASV), but the verb refers to personal or national disaster and suggests complete ruin (see Josh 7:25, Judg 11:35, Prov 11:17). The remainder of the verse describes the “trouble” Simeon and Levi had caused.

¹⁰ tn In the causative stem the Hebrew verb בָּאַשׁ (ba’ash) means “to cause to stink, to have a foul smell.” In the contexts in which it is used it describes foul smells, stenches, or things that are odious. Jacob senses that the people in the land will find this act terribly repulsive. See P. R. Ackroyd, “The Hebrew Root באשׁ,” JTS 2 (1951): 31-36.

¹¹ tn Jacob speaks in the first person as the head and representative of the entire family.

¹³ tn The nuance of the imperfect verbal form is permissive here.

¹⁴ tn Heb “my hand.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “upon me, against me,” which might mean something like “to my sorrow.”

¹⁸ map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.