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Genesis 25:1-34

Context
The Death of Abraham

25:1 Abraham had taken 1  another 2  wife, named Keturah. 25:2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 25:3 Jokshan became the father of Sheba and Dedan. 3  The descendants of Dedan were the Asshurites, Letushites, and Leummites. 25:4 The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were descendants 4  of Keturah.

25:5 Everything he owned Abraham left to his son Isaac. 25:6 But while he was still alive, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines 5  and sent them off to the east, away from his son Isaac. 6 

25:7 Abraham lived a total of 7  175 years. 25:8 Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man who had lived a full life. 8  He joined his ancestors. 9  25:9 His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah 10  near Mamre, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar, the Hethite. 25:10 This was the field Abraham had purchased from the sons of Heth. 11  There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah. 25:11 After Abraham’s death, God blessed 12  his son Isaac. Isaac lived near Beer Lahai Roi. 13 

The Sons of Ishmael

25:12 This is the account of Abraham’s son Ishmael, 14  whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s servant, bore to Abraham.

25:13 These are the names of Ishmael’s sons, by their names according to their records: 15  Nebaioth (Ishmael’s firstborn), Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, 25:14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa, 25:15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. 25:16 These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names by their settlements and their camps – twelve princes 16  according to their clans.

25:17 Ishmael lived a total of 17  137 years. He breathed his last and died; then he joined his ancestors. 18  25:18 His descendants 19  settled from Havilah to Shur, which runs next 20  to Egypt all the way 21  to Asshur. 22  They settled 23  away from all their relatives. 24 

Jacob and Esau

25:19 This is the account of Isaac, 25  the son of Abraham.

Abraham became the father of Isaac. 25:20 When Isaac was forty years old, he married Rebekah, 26  the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean. 27 

25:21 Isaac prayed to 28  the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 25:22 But the children struggled 29  inside her, and she said, “If it is going to be like this, I’m not so sure I want to be pregnant!” 30  So she asked the Lord, 31  25:23 and the Lord said to her,

“Two nations 32  are in your womb,

and two peoples will be separated from within you.

One people will be stronger than the other,

and the older will serve the younger.”

25:24 When the time came for Rebekah to give birth, 33  there were 34  twins in her womb. 25:25 The first came out reddish 35  all over, 36  like a hairy 37  garment, so they named him Esau. 38  25:26 When his brother came out with 39  his hand clutching Esau’s heel, they named him Jacob. 40  Isaac was sixty years old 41  when they were born.

25:27 When the boys grew up, Esau became a skilled 42  hunter, a man of the open fields, but Jacob was an even-tempered man, living in tents. 43  25:28 Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for fresh game, 44  but Rebekah loved 45  Jacob.

25:29 Now Jacob cooked some stew, 46  and when Esau came in from the open fields, he was famished. 25:30 So Esau said to Jacob, “Feed 47  me some of the red stuff – yes, this red stuff – because I’m starving!” (That is why he was also called 48  Edom.) 49 

25:31 But Jacob replied, “First 50  sell me your birthright.” 25:32 “Look,” said Esau, “I’m about to die! What use is the birthright to me?” 51  25:33 But Jacob said, “Swear an oath to me now.” 52  So Esau 53  swore an oath to him and sold his birthright 54  to Jacob.

25:34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew; Esau ate and drank, then got up and went out. 55  So Esau despised his birthright. 56 

Genesis 6:1

Context
God’s Grief over Humankind’s Wickedness

6:1 When humankind 57  began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born 58  to them, 59 

Ezekiel 1:10

Context

1:10 Their faces had this appearance: Each of the four had the face of a man, with the face of a lion on the right, the face of an ox on the left and also the face of an eagle. 60 

Ezekiel 10:14

Context
10:14 Each of the cherubim 61  had four faces: The first was the face of a cherub, 62  the second that of a man, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle.

Ezekiel 41:18-19

Context
41:18 It was made with cherubim and decorative palm trees, with a palm tree between each cherub. Each cherub had two faces: 41:19 a human face toward the palm tree on one side and a lion’s face toward the palm tree on the other side. They were carved on the whole temple all around;

Hosea 5:14

Context
The Lion Will Carry Israel Off Into Exile

5:14 I will be like a lion to Ephraim,

like a young lion to the house of Judah.

I myself will tear them to pieces,

then I will carry them off, and no one will be able to rescue them!

Revelation 4:6-7

Context
4:6 and in front of the throne was something like a sea of glass, like crystal. 63 

In 64  the middle of the throne 65  and around the throne were four living creatures 66  full of eyes in front and in back. 4:7 The 67  first living creature was like a lion, the 68  second creature like an ox, the third creature had a face like a man’s, and the fourth creature looked like an eagle flying.

Revelation 5:5

Context
5:5 Then 69  one of the elders said 70  to me, “Stop weeping! 71  Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered; 72  thus he can open 73  the scroll and its seven seals.”

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[25:1]  1 tn Or “took.”

[25:1]  2 tn Heb “And Abraham added and took.”

[25:3]  3 sn The names Sheba and Dedan appear in Gen 10:7 as descendants of Ham through Cush and Raamah. Since these two names are usually interpreted to be place names, one plausible suggestion is that some of Abraham’s descendants lived in those regions and took names linked with it.

[25:4]  4 tn Or “sons.”

[25:6]  5 tn Heb “the sons of the concubines who [belonged] to Abraham.”

[25:6]  6 tn Heb “And he sent them away from upon Isaac his son, while he was still living, eastward to the land of the east.”

[25:7]  7 tn Heb “and these are the days of the years of the lifetime of Abraham that he lived.” The normal genealogical formula is expanded here due to the importance of the life of Abraham.

[25:8]  8 tn Heb “old and full.”

[25:8]  9 tn Heb “And he was gathered to his people.” In the ancient Israelite view he joined his deceased ancestors in Sheol, the land of the dead.

[25:9]  10 sn The cave of Machpelah was the place Abraham had purchased as a burial place for his wife Sarah (Gen 23:17-18).

[25:10]  11 tn See the note on the phrase “sons of Heth” in Gen 23:3.

[25:11]  12 sn God blessed Isaac. The Hebrew verb “bless” in this passage must include all the gifts that God granted to Isaac. But fertility was not one of them, at least not for twenty years, because Rebekah was barren as well (see v. 21).

[25:11]  13 sn Beer Lahai Roi. See the note on this place name in Gen 24:62.

[25:12]  14 sn This is the account of Ishmael. The Book of Genesis tends to tidy up the family records at every turning point. Here, before proceeding with the story of Isaac’s family, the narrative traces Ishmael’s family line. Later, before discussing Jacob’s family, the narrative traces Esau’s family line (see Gen 36).

[25:13]  15 tn The meaning of this line is not easily understood. The sons of Ishmael are listed here “by their names” and “according to their descendants.”

[25:16]  16 tn Or “tribal chieftains.”

[25:17]  17 tn Heb “And these are the days of the years of Ishmael.”

[25:17]  18 tn Heb “And he was gathered to his people.” In the ancient Israelite view he joined his deceased ancestors in Sheol, the land of the dead.

[25:18]  19 tn Heb “they”; the referent (Ishmael’s descendants) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:18]  20 tn Heb “which is by the face of,” or near the border. The territory ran along the border of Egypt.

[25:18]  21 tn Heb “as you go.”

[25:18]  22 sn The name Asshur refers here to a tribal area in the Sinai.

[25:18]  23 tn Heb “he fell.”

[25:18]  24 tn Heb “upon the face of all his brothers.” This last expression, obviously alluding to the earlier oracle about Ishmael (Gen 16:12), could mean that the descendants of Ishmael lived in hostility to others or that they lived in a territory that was opposite the lands of their relatives. While there is some ambiguity about the meaning, the line probably does give a hint of the Ishmaelite-Israelite conflicts to come.

[25:19]  25 sn This is the account of Isaac. What follows for several chapters is not the account of Isaac, except briefly, but the account of Jacob and Esau. The next chapters tell what became of Isaac and his family.

[25:20]  26 tn Heb “And Isaac was the son of forty years when he took Rebekah.”

[25:20]  27 sn Some valuable information is provided here. We learn here that Isaac married thirty-five years before Abraham died, that Rebekah was barren for twenty years, and that Abraham would have lived to see Jacob and Esau begin to grow up. The death of Abraham was recorded in the first part of the chapter as a “tidying up” of one generation before beginning the account of the next.

[25:21]  28 tn The Hebrew verb עָתַר (’atar), translated “prayed [to]” here, appears in the story of God’s judgment on Egypt in which Moses asked the Lord to remove the plagues. The cognate word in Arabic means “to slaughter for sacrifice,” and the word is used in Zeph 3:10 to describe worshipers who bring offerings. Perhaps some ritual accompanied Isaac’s prayer here.

[25:22]  29 tn The Hebrew word used here suggests a violent struggle that was out of the ordinary.

[25:22]  30 tn Heb “If [it is] so, why [am] I this [way]?” Rebekah wanted to know what was happening to her, but the question itself reflects a growing despair over the struggle of the unborn children.

[25:22]  31 sn Asked the Lord. In other passages (e.g., 1 Sam 9:9) this expression refers to inquiring of a prophet, but no details are provided here.

[25:23]  32 sn By metonymy the two children in her womb are described as two nations of which the two children, Jacob and Esau, would become the fathers. The language suggests there would be a struggle between these nations, with one being stronger than the other. The oracle reveals that all of Jacob’s scheming was unnecessary in the final analysis. He would have become the dominant nation without using deception to steal his brother’s blessing.

[25:24]  33 tn Heb “And her days were filled to give birth.”

[25:24]  34 tn Heb “look!” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator invites the audience to view the scene as if they were actually present at the birth.

[25:25]  35 sn Reddish. The Hebrew word translated “reddish” is אַדְמוֹנִי (’admoni), which forms a wordplay on the Edomites, Esau’s descendants. The writer sees in Esau’s appearance at birth a sign of what was to come. After all, the reader has already been made aware of the “nations” that were being born.

[25:25]  36 tn Heb “all of him.”

[25:25]  37 sn Hairy. Here is another wordplay involving the descendants of Esau. The Hebrew word translated “hairy” is שֵׂעָר (sear); the Edomites will later live in Mount Seir, perhaps named for its wooded nature.

[25:25]  38 tn Heb “And they called his name Esau.” The name “Esau” (עֵשָׂו, ’esav) is not etymologically related to שֵׂעָר (sear), but it draws on some of the sounds.

[25:26]  39 tn The disjunctive clause describes an important circumstance accompanying the birth. Whereas Esau was passive at birth, Jacob was active.

[25:26]  40 tn Heb “And he called his name Jacob.” Some ancient witnesses read “they called his name Jacob” (see v. 25). In either case the subject is indefinite.

[25:26]  41 tn Heb “the son of sixty years.”

[25:27]  42 tn Heb “knowing.”

[25:27]  43 tn The disjunctive clause juxtaposes Jacob with Esau and draws attention to the striking contrasts. In contrast to Esau, a man of the field, Jacob was civilized, as the phrase “living in tents” signifies. Whereas Esau was a skillful hunter, Jacob was calm and even-tempered (תָּם, tam), which normally has the idea of “blameless.”

[25:28]  44 tn Heb “the taste of game was in his mouth.” The word for “game,” “venison” is here the same Hebrew word as “hunter” in the last verse. Here it is a metonymy, referring to that which the hunter kills.

[25:28]  45 tn The disjunctive clause juxtaposes Rebekah with Jacob and draws attention to the contrast. The verb here is a participle, drawing attention to Rebekah’s continuing, enduring love for her son.

[25:29]  46 sn Jacob cooked some stew. There are some significant words and wordplays in this story that help clarify the points of the story. The verb “cook” is זִיד (zid), which sounds like the word for “hunter” (צַיִד, tsayid). This is deliberate, for the hunter becomes the hunted in this story. The word זִיד means “to cook, to boil,” but by the sound play with צַיִד it comes to mean “set a trap by cooking.” The usage of the word shows that it can also have the connotation of acting presumptuously (as in boiling over). This too may be a comment on the scene. For further discussion of the rhetorical devices in the Jacob narratives, see J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis (SSN).

[25:30]  47 tn The rare term לָעַט (laat), translated “feed,” is used in later Hebrew for feeding animals (see Jastrow, 714). If this nuance was attached to the word in the biblical period, then it may depict Esau in a negative light, comparing him to a hungry animal. Famished Esau comes in from the hunt, only to enter the trap. He can only point at the red stew and ask Jacob to feed him.

[25:30]  48 tn The verb has no expressed subject and so is given a passive translation.

[25:30]  49 sn Esau’s descendants would eventually be called Edom. Edom was the place where they lived, so-named probably because of the reddish nature of the hills. The writer can use the word “red” to describe the stew that Esau gasped for to convey the nature of Esau and his descendants. They were a lusty, passionate, and profane people who lived for the moment. Again, the wordplay is meant to capture the “omen in the nomen.”

[25:31]  50 tn Heb “today.”

[25:32]  51 tn Heb “And what is this to me, a birthright?”

[25:33]  52 tn Heb “Swear to me today.”

[25:33]  53 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[25:33]  54 sn And sold his birthright. There is evidence from Hurrian culture that rights of inheritance were occasionally sold or transferred. Here Esau is portrayed as a profane person who would at the moment rather have a meal than the right to inherit. He will soon forget this trade and seek his father’s blessing in spite of it.

[25:34]  55 sn The style here is typical of Hebrew narrative; after the tension is resolved with the dialogue, the working out of it is recorded in a rapid sequence of verbs (“gave”; “ate”; “drank”; “got up”; “went out”). See also Gen 3:1-7 for another example.

[25:34]  56 sn So Esau despised his birthright. This clause, which concludes the episode, is a summary statement which reveals the underlying significance of Esau’s actions. “To despise” means to treat something as worthless or with contempt. Esau’s willingness to sell his birthright was evidence that he considered it to be unimportant.

[6:1]  57 tn The Hebrew text has the article prefixed to the noun. Here the article indicates the generic use of the word אָדָם (’adam): “humankind.”

[6:1]  58 tn This disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) is circumstantial to the initial temporal clause. It could be rendered, “with daughters being born to them.” For another example of such a disjunctive clause following the construction וַיְהִיכִּי (vayÿhiki, “and it came to pass when”), see 2 Sam 7:1.

[6:1]  59 tn The pronominal suffix is third masculine plural, indicating that the antecedent “humankind” is collective.

[1:10]  60 tc The MT has an additional word at the beginning of v. 11, וּפְנֵיהֶם (ufÿnehem, “and their faces”), which is missing from the LXX. As the rest of the verse only applies to wings, “their faces” would have to somehow be understood in the previous clause. But this would be very awkward and is doubly problematic since “their faces” are already introduced as the topic at the beginning of v. 10. The Hebrew scribe appears to have copied the phrase “and their faces and their wings” from v. 8, where it introduces the content of 9-11. Only “and (as for) their wings” belongs here.

[10:14]  61 tn Heb “each one”; the referent (the cherubim) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:14]  62 sn The living creature described here is thus slightly different from the one described in Ezek 1:10, where a bull’s face appeared instead of a cherub’s. Note that some English versions harmonize the two descriptions and read the same here as in 1:10 (cf. NAB, NLT “an ox”; TEV, CEV “a bull”). This may be justified based on v. 22, which states the creatures’ appearance was the same.

[4:6]  63 tn This could refer to rock crystal, but it is possible this refers to ice (an older meaning). See BDAG 571 s.v. κρύσταλλος.

[4:6]  64 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[4:6]  65 tn Perhaps, “in the middle of the throne area” (see L&N 83.10).

[4:6]  66 tn On the meaning of ζῴον (zwon) BDAG 431 s.v. 2 states, “Of the four peculiar beings at God’s throne, whose description Rv 4:6-9 reminds one of the ζῷα in Ezk 1:5ff, the cherubim. S. also Rv 5:6, 8, 11, 14; 6:1, 3, 5-7; 7:11; 14:3; 15:7; 19:4.”

[4:7]  67 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[4:7]  68 tn Both here and before the phrase “the third,” καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[5:5]  69 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[5:5]  70 tn Grk “says” (a historical present).

[5:5]  71 tn The present imperative with μή (mh) is used here to command cessation of an action in progress (ExSyn 724 lists this verse as an example).

[5:5]  72 tn Or “has been victorious”; traditionally, “has overcome.”

[5:5]  73 tn The infinitive has been translated as an infinitive of result here.



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