Genesis 9:26

9:26 He also said,

“Worthy of praise is ¹  the Lord, the God of Shem!

May Canaan be the slave of Shem! ² 

Genesis 14:19

14:19 He blessed Abram, saying,

“Blessed be Abram by ³  the Most High God,

Creator ⁴  of heaven and earth. ⁵ 

Genesis 24:31

24:31 Laban said to him, ⁶  “Come, you who are blessed by the Lord! ⁷  Why are you standing out here when I have prepared ⁸  the house and a place for the camels?”

¹ tn Heb “blessed be.”

² tn Heb “a slave to him”; the referent (Shem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn The preposition לְ (lamed) introduces the agent after the passive participle.

⁴ tn Some translate “possessor of heaven and earth” (cf. NASB). But cognate evidence from Ugaritic indicates that there were two homonymic roots ָקנָה (qanah), one meaning “to create” (as in Gen 4:1) and the other “to obtain, to acquire, to possess.” While “possessor” would fit here, “creator” is the more likely due to the collocation with “heaven and earth.”

⁵ tn The terms translated “heaven” and “earth” are both objective genitives after the participle in construct.

⁵ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent (Laban) has been specified and the words “to him” supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁶ sn Laban’s obsession with wealth is apparent; to him it represents how one is blessed by the Lord. Already the author is laying the foundation for subsequent events in the narrative, where Laban’s greed becomes his dominant characteristic.

⁷ tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial.