Genesis 28:1-22

28:1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman! ¹  28:2 Leave immediately ²  for Paddan Aram! Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and find yourself a wife there, among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 28:3 May the sovereign God ³  bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! ⁴  Then you will become ⁵  a large nation. ⁶  28:4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham ⁷  so that you may possess the land ⁸  God gave to Abraham, the land where you have been living as a temporary resident.” ⁹  28:5 So Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

28:6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him off to Paddan Aram to find a wife there. ¹⁰  As he blessed him, ¹¹  Isaac commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman.” ¹²  28:7 Jacob obeyed his father and mother and left for Paddan Aram. 28:8 Then Esau realized ¹³  that the Canaanite women ¹⁴  were displeasing to ¹⁵  his father Isaac. 28:9 So Esau went to Ishmael and married ¹⁶  Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Abraham’s son Ishmael, along with the wives he already had.

Jacob’s Dream at Bethel

28:10 Meanwhile Jacob left Beer Sheba and set out for Haran. 28:11 He reached a certain place ¹⁷  where he decided to camp because the sun had gone down. ¹⁸  He took one of the stones ¹⁹  and placed it near his head. ²⁰  Then he fell asleep ²¹  in that place 28:12 and had a dream. ²²  He saw ²³  a stairway ²⁴  erected on the earth with its top reaching to the heavens. The angels of God were going up and coming down it 28:13 and the Lord stood at its top. He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. ²⁵  I will give you and your descendants the ground ²⁶  you are lying on. 28:14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, ²⁷  and you will spread out ²⁸  to the west, east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ²⁹  using your name and that of your descendants. ³⁰  28:15 I am with you! ³¹  I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!”

28:16 Then Jacob woke up ³²  and thought, ³³  “Surely the Lord is in this place, but I did not realize it!” 28:17 He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is nothing else than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!”

28:18 Early ³⁴  in the morning Jacob ³⁵  took the stone he had placed near his head ³⁶  and set it up as a sacred stone. ³⁷  Then he poured oil on top of it. 28:19 He called that place Bethel, ³⁸  although the former name of the town was Luz. 28:20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God is with me and protects me on this journey I am taking and gives me food ³⁹  to eat and clothing to wear, 28:21 and I return safely to my father’s home, ⁴⁰  then the Lord will become my God. 28:22 Then this stone ⁴¹  that I have set up as a sacred stone will be the house of God, and I will surely ⁴²  give you back a tenth of everything you give me.” ⁴³ 

Genesis 37:21

37:21 When Reuben heard this, he rescued Joseph ⁴⁴  from their hands, ⁴⁵  saying, ⁴⁶  “Let’s not take his life!” ⁴⁷ 

Genesis 39:14-18

39:14 she called for her household servants and said to them, “See, my husband brought ⁴⁸  in a Hebrew man ⁴⁹  to us to humiliate us. ⁵⁰  He tried to have sex with me, ⁵¹  but I screamed loudly. ⁵²  39:15 When he heard me raise ⁵³  my voice and scream, he left his outer garment beside me and ran outside.”

39:16 So she laid his outer garment beside her until his master came home. 39:17 This is what she said to him: ⁵⁴  “That Hebrew slave ⁵⁵  you brought to us tried to humiliate me, ⁵⁶  39:18 but when I raised my voice and screamed, he left his outer garment and ran outside.”

Genesis 39:1

Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

39:1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. ⁵⁷  An Egyptian named Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard, ⁵⁸  purchased him from ⁵⁹  the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.

Genesis 22:1

The Sacrifice of Isaac

22:1 Some time after these things God tested ⁶⁰  Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am!” Abraham ⁶¹  replied.

Acts 23:35

23:35 he said, “I will give you a hearing ⁶²  when your accusers arrive too.” Then ⁶³  he ordered that Paul ⁶⁴  be kept under guard in Herod’s palace. ⁶⁵ 

Acts 24:23-26

24:23 He ordered the centurion ⁶⁶  to guard Paul, ⁶⁷  but to let him have some freedom, ⁶⁸  and not to prevent any of his friends ⁶⁹  from meeting his needs. ⁷⁰ 

Paul Speaks Repeatedly to Felix

24:24 Some days later, when Felix ⁷¹  arrived with his wife Drusilla, ⁷²  who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him speak ⁷³  about faith in Christ Jesus. ⁷⁴  24:25 While Paul ⁷⁵  was discussing ⁷⁶  righteousness, self-control, ⁷⁷  and the coming judgment, Felix ⁷⁸  became ⁷⁹  frightened and said, “Go away for now, and when I have an opportunity, ⁸⁰  I will send for you.” 24:26 At the same time he was also hoping that Paul would give him money, ⁸¹  and for this reason he sent for Paul ⁸²  as often as possible ⁸³  and talked ⁸⁴  with him.

Acts 28:16

28:16 When we entered Rome, Paul was allowed to live ⁸⁵  by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him.

Acts 28:30

28:30 Paul ⁸⁶  lived ⁸⁷  there two whole years in his own rented quarters ⁸⁸  and welcomed ⁸⁹  all who came to him,

[28:1]  ¹ tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”

[28:2]  ² tn Heb “Arise! Go!” The first of the two imperatives is adverbial and stresses the immediacy of the departure.

[28:3]  ³ tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.

[28:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and make you fruitful and multiply you.” See Gen 17:6, 20 for similar terminology.

[28:3]  ⁵ tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here indicates consequence. The collocation הָיָה + preposition לְ (hayah + lÿ) means “become.”

[28:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “an assembly of peoples.”

[28:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “and may he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you.” The name “Abraham” is an objective genitive here; this refers to the blessing that God gave to Abraham.

[28:4]  ⁸ tn The words “the land” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[28:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “the land of your sojournings,” that is, the land where Jacob had been living as a resident alien, as his future descendants would after him.

[28:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to take for himself from there a wife.”

[28:6]  ¹¹ tn The infinitive construct with the preposition and the suffix form a temporal clause.

[28:6]  ¹² tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”

[28:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “saw.”

[28:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the daughters of Canaan.”

[28:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “evil in the eyes of.”

[28:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “took for a wife.”

[28:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the place.” The article may indicate simply that the place is definite in the mind of the narrator. However, as the story unfolds the place is transformed into a holy place. See A. P. Ross, “Jacob’s Vision: The Founding of Bethel,” BSac 142 (1985): 224-37.

[28:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and he spent the night there because the sun had gone down.”

[28:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he took from the stones of the place,” which here means Jacob took one of the stones (see v. 18).

[28:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and he put [it at] the place of his head.” The text does not actually say the stone was placed under his head to serve as a pillow, although most interpreters and translators assume this. It is possible the stone served some other purpose. Jacob does not seem to have been a committed monotheist yet (see v. 20-21) so he may have believed it contained some spiritual power. Note that later in the story he anticipates the stone becoming the residence of God (see v. 22). Many cultures throughout the world view certain types of stones as magical and/or sacred. See J. G. Fraser, Folklore in the Old Testament, 231-37.

[28:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “lay down.”

[28:12]  ²² tn Heb “and dreamed.”

[28:12]  ²³ tn Heb “and look.” The scene which Jacob witnessed is described in three clauses introduced with הִנֵּה (hinneh). In this way the narrator invites the reader to witness the scene through Jacob’s eyes. J. P. Fokkelman points out that the particle goes with a lifted arm and an open mouth: “There, a ladder! Oh, angels! and look, the Lord himself” (Narrative Art in Genesis [SSN], 51-52).

[28:12]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew noun סֻלָּם (sullam, “ladder, stairway”) occurs only here in the OT, but there appears to be an Akkadian cognate simmiltu (with metathesis of the second and third consonants and a feminine ending) which has a specialized meaning of “stairway, ramp.” See H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena (SBLDS), 34. For further discussion see C. Houtman, “What Did Jacob See in His Dream at Bethel? Some Remarks on Genesis 28:10-22,” VT 27 (1977): 337-52; J. G. Griffiths, “The Celestial Ladder and the Gate of Heaven,” ExpTim 76 (1964/65): 229-30; and A. R. Millard, “The Celestial Ladder and the Gate of Heaven,” ExpTim 78 (1966/67): 86-87.

[28:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.” The Hebrew word for “father” can typically be used in a broader sense than the English word, in this case referring to Abraham (who was Jacob’s grandfather). For stylistic reasons and for clarity, the words “your father” are supplied with “Isaac” in the translation.

[28:13]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew term אֶרֶץ (’erets) can mean “[the] earth,” “land,” “region,” “piece of ground,” or “ground” depending on the context. Here the term specifically refers to the plot of ground on which Jacob was lying, but at the same time this stands by metonymy for the entire land of Canaan.

[28:14]  ²⁷ tn This is the same Hebrew word translated “ground” in the preceding verse.

[28:14]  ²⁸ tn The verb is singular in the Hebrew; Jacob is addressed as the representative of his descendants.

[28:14]  ²⁹ tn Theoretically the Niphal stem can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of “bless” is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Jacob were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in other formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation “will bless (i.e., pronounce blessings upon) themselves/one another.” The Hitpael of “bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 28:14 predicts that Jacob will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae (see Gen 12:2 and 18:18 as well, where Abram/Abraham receives this promise). For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.

[28:14]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and they will pronounce blessings by you, all the families of the earth, and by your offspring.”

[28:15]  ³¹ tn Heb “Look, I [am] with you.” The clause is a nominal clause; the verb to be supplied could be present (as in the translation) or future, “Look, I [will be] with you” (cf. NEB).

[28:16]  ³² tn Heb “woke up from his sleep.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[28:16]  ³³ tn Heb “said.”

[28:18]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and he got up early…and he took.”

[28:18]  ³⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:18]  ³⁶ tn See the note on this phrase in v. 11.

[28:18]  ³⁷ tn Heb “standing stone.”

[28:19]  ³⁸ tn The name Bethel means “house of God” in Hebrew (see v. 17).

[28:20]  ³⁹ tn Heb “bread,” although the term can be used for food in general.

[28:21]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and I return in peace to the house of my father.”

[28:22]  ⁴¹ tn The disjunctive clause structure (conjunction + noun/subject) is used to highlight the statement.

[28:22]  ⁴² tn The infinitive absolute is used before the finite verb for emphasis.

[28:22]  ⁴³ tn Heb “and all which you give to me I will surely give a tenth of it to you.” The disjunctive clause structure (conjunction + noun/object) highlights this statement as well.

[37:21]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[37:21]  ⁴⁵ sn From their hands. The instigators of this plot may have been the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah (see v. 2).

[37:21]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “and he said.”

[37:21]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “we must not strike him down [with respect to] life.”

[39:14]  ⁴⁸ tn The verb has no expressed subject, and so it could be treated as a passive (“a Hebrew man was brought in”; cf. NIV). But it is clear from the context that her husband brought Joseph into the household, so Potiphar is the apparent referent here. Thus the translation supplies “my husband” as the referent of the unspecified pronominal subject of the verb (cf. NEB, NRSV).

[39:14]  ⁴⁹ sn A Hebrew man. Potiphar’s wife raises the ethnic issue when talking to her servants about what their boss had done.

[39:14]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “to make fun of us.” The verb translated “to humiliate us” here means to hold something up for ridicule, or to toy with something harmfully. Attempted rape would be such an activity, for it would hold the victim in contempt.

[39:14]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “he came to me to lie with me.” Here the expression “lie with” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

[39:14]  ⁵² tn Heb “and I cried out with a loud voice.”

[39:15]  ⁵³ tn Heb “that I raised.”

[39:17]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “and she spoke to him according to these words, saying.”

[39:17]  ⁵⁵ sn That Hebrew slave. Now, when speaking to her husband, Potiphar’s wife refers to Joseph as a Hebrew slave, a very demeaning description.

[39:17]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “came to me to make fun of me.” The statement needs no explanation because of the connotations of “came to me” and “to make fun of me.” See the note on the expression “humiliate us” in v. 14.

[39:1]  ⁵⁷ tn The disjunctive clause resumes the earlier narrative pertaining to Joseph by recapitulating the event described in 37:36. The perfect verbal form is given a past perfect translation to restore the sequence of the narrative for the reader.

[39:1]  ⁵⁸ sn Captain of the guard. See the note on this phrase in Gen 37:36.

[39:1]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “from the hand of.”

[22:1]  ⁶⁰ sn The Hebrew verb used here means “to test; to try; to prove.” In this passage God tests Abraham to see if he would be obedient. See T. W. Mann, The Book of the Torah, 44-48. See also J. L. Crenshaw, A Whirlpool of Torment (OBT), 9-30; and J. I. Lawlor, “The Test of Abraham,” GTJ 1 (1980): 19-35.

[22:1]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:35]  ⁶² tn Or “I will hear your case.” BDAG 231 s.v. διακούω has “as legal t.t. give someone an opportunity to be heard in court, give someone (τινός) a hearing Ac 23:35”; L&N 56.13 has “to give a judicial hearing in a legal matter – ‘to hear a case, to provide a legal hearing, to hear a case in court.’”

[23:35]  ⁶³ tn Grk “ordering.” The participle κελεύσας (keleusas) has been translated as a finite verb and a new sentence begun here due to the length and complexity of the Greek sentence. “Then” has also been supplied to indicate the logical and temporal sequence.

[23:35]  ⁶⁴ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:35]  ⁶⁵ sn Herod’s palace (Grk “Herod’s praetorium”) was the palace built in Caesarea by Herod the Great. See Josephus, Ant. 15.9.6 (15.331). These events belong to the period of a.d. 56-57.

[24:23]  ⁶⁶ sn See the note on the word centurion in 10:1.

[24:23]  ⁶⁷ tn Grk “that he was to be guarded.” The passive construction (τηρεῖσθαι, threisqai) has been converted to an active one in parallel with the following clauses, and the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:23]  ⁶⁸ tn BDAG 77 s.v. ἄνεσις 1 states, “lit. relaxation of custodial control, some liberty, ἀ. ἔχειν have some freedom Ac 24:23.”

[24:23]  ⁶⁹ tn Grk “any of his own” (this could also refer to relatives).

[24:23]  ⁷⁰ tn Grk “from serving him.”

[24:24]  ⁷¹ sn See the note on Antonius Felix in 23:24.

[24:24]  ⁷² sn It is possible that Drusilla, being Jewish, was the source of Felix’s knowledge about the new movement called Christianity. The youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa I and sister of Agrippa II, she would have been close to 20 years old at the time. She had married the king of a small region in Syria but divorced him at the age of 16 to marry Felix. This was her second marriage and Felix’s third (Josephus, Ant. 19.9.1 [19.354], 20.7.2 [20.141-144]). As a member of Herod’s family, she probably knew about the Way.

[24:24]  ⁷³ tn The word “speak” is implied; BDAG 32 s.v. ἀκούω 1.c has “ἤκουσεν αὐτοῦ περὶ τῆς…πίστεως he heard him speak about faith Ac 24:24.”

[24:24]  ⁷⁴ tn Or “Messiah Jesus”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[24:25]  ⁷⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:25]  ⁷⁶ tn Or “speaking about.”

[24:25]  ⁷⁷ tn Grk “and self-control.” This 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.

[24:25]  ⁷⁸ sn See the note on Felix in 23:26.

[24:25]  ⁷⁹ tn Grk “becoming.” The participle γενόμενος (genomenos) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[24:25]  ⁸⁰ tn Or “when I find time.” BDAG 639 s.v. μεταλαμβάνω 2 has “καιρὸν μ. have an opportunity = find time…Ac 24:25.”

[24:26]  ⁸¹ tn Grk “he was hoping that money would be given to him by Paul.” To simplify the translation, the passive construction has been converted to an active one.

[24:26]  ⁸² tn Grk “him”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:26]  ⁸³ tn “As often as possible” reflects the comparative form of the adjective πυκνός (puknos); see BDAG 897 s.v. πυκνός, which has “Neut. of the comp. πυκνότερον as adv. more often, more frequently and in an elative sense very often, quite frequently…also as often as possible…Ac 24:26.”

[24:26]  ⁸⁴ tn On this term, which could mean “conferred with him,” see BDAG 705 s.v. ὁμιλέω.

[28:16]  ⁸⁵ tn Or “to stay.”

[28:30]  ⁸⁶ tn Grk “He”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:30]  ⁸⁷ tn Or “stayed.”

[28:30]  ⁸⁸ tn Or perhaps, “two whole years at his own expense.” BDAG 654 s.v. μίσθωμα states, “the customary act. mng. ‘contract price, rent’…is not found in our lit. (Ac) and the pass. what is rented, a rented house is a mng. not found outside it (even Ammonius Gramm. [100 ad] p. 93 Valck. knows nothing of it. Hence the transl. at his own expense [NRSV] merits attention) ἐν ἰδίῳ μισθώματι in his own rented lodgings Ac 28:30 (for the idea cp. Jos., Ant. 18, 235).”

[28:30]  ⁸⁹ tn Or “and received.”