Genesis 6:1--15:21

God’s Grief over Humankind’s Wickedness

6:1 When humankind ¹  began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born ²  to them, ³  6:2 the sons of God ⁴  saw that the daughters of humankind were beautiful. Thus they took wives for themselves from any they chose. 6:3 So the Lord said, “My spirit will not remain in ⁵  humankind indefinitely, ⁶  since ⁷  they ⁸  are mortal. ⁹  They ¹⁰  will remain for 120 more years.” ¹¹ 

6:4 The Nephilim ¹²  were on the earth in those days (and also after this) ¹³  when the sons of God were having sexual relations with ¹⁴  the daughters of humankind, who gave birth to their children. ¹⁵  They were the mighty heroes ¹⁶  of old, the famous men. ¹⁷ 

6:5 But the Lord saw ¹⁸  that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination ¹⁹  of the thoughts ²⁰  of their minds ²¹  was only evil ²²  all the time. ²³  6:6 The Lord regretted ²⁴  that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended. ²⁵  6:7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe humankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – everything from humankind to animals, ²⁶  including creatures that move on the ground and birds of the air, for I regret that I have made them.”

6:8 But ²⁷  Noah found favor ²⁸  in the sight of ²⁹  the Lord.

The Judgment of the Flood

6:9 This is the account of Noah. ³⁰ 

Noah was a godly man; he was blameless ³¹ 

among his contemporaries. ³²  He ³³  walked with ³⁴  God. 6:10 Noah had ³⁵  three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

6:11 The earth was ruined ³⁶  in the sight of ³⁷  God; the earth was filled with violence. ³⁸  6:12 God saw the earth, and indeed ³⁹  it was ruined, ⁴⁰  for all living creatures ⁴¹  on the earth were sinful. ⁴²  6:13 So God said ⁴³  to Noah, “I have decided that all living creatures must die, ⁴⁴  for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am about to destroy ⁴⁵  them and the earth. 6:14 Make ⁴⁶  for yourself an ark of cypress ⁴⁷  wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover ⁴⁸  it with pitch inside and out. 6:15 This is how you should make it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. ⁴⁹  6:16 Make a roof for the ark and finish it, leaving 18 inches ⁵⁰  from the top. ⁵¹  Put a door in the side of the ark, and make lower, middle, and upper decks. 6:17 I am about to bring ⁵²  floodwaters ⁵³  on the earth to destroy ⁵⁴  from under the sky all the living creatures that have the breath of life in them. ⁵⁵  Everything that is on the earth will die, 6:18 but I will confirm ⁵⁶  my covenant with you. You will enter ⁵⁷  the ark – you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 6:19 You must bring into the ark two of every kind of living creature from all flesh, ⁵⁸  male and female, to keep them alive ⁵⁹  with you. 6:20 Of the birds after their kinds, and of the cattle after their kinds, and of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you so you can keep them alive. ⁶⁰  6:21 And you must take ⁶¹  for yourself every kind of food ⁶²  that is eaten, ⁶³  and gather it together. ⁶⁴  It will be food for you and for them.

6:22 And Noah did all ⁶⁵  that God commanded him – he did indeed. ⁶⁶ 

7:1 The Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, for I consider you godly among this generation. ⁶⁷  7:2 You must take with you seven ⁶⁸  of every kind of clean animal, ⁶⁹  the male and its mate, ⁷⁰  two of every kind of unclean animal, the male and its mate, 7:3 and also seven ⁷¹  of every kind of bird in the sky, male and female, ⁷²  to preserve their offspring ⁷³  on the face of the earth. 7:4 For in seven days ⁷⁴  I will cause it to rain ⁷⁵  on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the ground every living thing that I have made.”

7:5 And Noah did all ⁷⁶  that the Lord commanded him.

7:6 Noah ⁷⁷  was 600 years old when the floodwaters engulfed ⁷⁸  the earth. 7:7 Noah entered the ark along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives because ⁷⁹  of the floodwaters. 7:8 Pairs ⁸⁰  of clean animals, of unclean animals, of birds, and of everything that creeps along the ground, 7:9 male and female, came into the ark to Noah, ⁸¹  just as God had commanded him. ⁸²  7:10 And after seven days the floodwaters engulfed the earth. ⁸³ 

7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month – on that day all the fountains of the great deep ⁸⁴  burst open and the floodgates of the heavens ⁸⁵  were opened. 7:12 And the rain fell ⁸⁶  on the earth forty days and forty nights.

7:13 On that very day Noah entered the ark, accompanied by his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, along with his wife and his sons’ three wives. ⁸⁷  7:14 They entered, ⁸⁸  along with every living creature after its kind, every animal after its kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, everything with wings. ⁸⁹  7:15 Pairs ⁹⁰  of all creatures ⁹¹  that have the breath of life came into the ark to Noah. 7:16 Those that entered were male and female, ⁹²  just as God commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in.

7:17 The flood engulfed the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark and raised it above the earth. 7:18 The waters completely overwhelmed ⁹³  the earth, and the ark floated ⁹⁴  on the surface of the waters. 7:19 The waters completely inundated ⁹⁵  the earth so that even ⁹⁶  all the high mountains under the entire sky were covered. 7:20 The waters rose more than twenty feet ⁹⁷  above the mountains. ⁹⁸  7:21 And all living things ⁹⁹  that moved on the earth died, including the birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all humankind. 7:22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life ¹⁰⁰  in its nostrils died. 7:23 So the Lord ¹⁰¹  destroyed ¹⁰²  every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, including people, animals, creatures that creep along the ground, and birds of the sky. ¹⁰³  They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived. ¹⁰⁴  7:24 The waters prevailed over ¹⁰⁵  the earth for 150 days.

8:1 But God remembered ¹⁰⁶  Noah and all the wild animals and domestic animals that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to blow over ¹⁰⁷  the earth and the waters receded. 8:2 The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed, ¹⁰⁸  and the rain stopped falling from the sky. 8:3 The waters kept receding steadily ¹⁰⁹  from the earth, so that they ¹¹⁰  had gone down ¹¹¹  by the end of the 150 days. 8:4 On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on one of the mountains of Ararat. ¹¹²  8:5 The waters kept on receding ¹¹³  until the tenth month. On the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains became visible. ¹¹⁴ 

8:6 At the end of forty days, ¹¹⁵  Noah opened the window he had made in the ark ¹¹⁶  8:7 and sent out a raven; it kept flying ¹¹⁷  back and forth until the waters had dried up on the earth.

8:8 Then Noah ¹¹⁸  sent out a dove ¹¹⁹  to see if the waters had receded ¹²⁰  from the surface of the ground. 8:9 The dove could not find a resting place for its feet because water still covered ¹²¹  the surface of the entire earth, and so it returned to Noah ¹²²  in the ark. He stretched out his hand, took the dove, ¹²³  and brought it back into the ark. ¹²⁴  8:10 He waited seven more days and then sent out the dove again from the ark. 8:11 When ¹²⁵  the dove returned to him in the evening, there was ¹²⁶  a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak! Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 8:12 He waited another seven days and sent the dove out again, ¹²⁷  but it did not return to him this time. ¹²⁸ 

8:13 In Noah’s six hundred and first year, ¹²⁹  in the first day of the first month, the waters had dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering from the ark and saw that ¹³⁰  the surface of the ground was dry. 8:14 And by the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth ¹³¹  was dry.

8:15 Then God spoke to Noah and said, 8:16 “Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 8:17 Bring out with you all the living creatures that are with you. Bring out ¹³²  every living thing, including the birds, animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Let them increase ¹³³  and be fruitful and multiply on the earth!” ¹³⁴ 

8:18 Noah went out along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. 8:19 Every living creature, every creeping thing, every bird, and everything that moves on the earth went out of the ark in their groups.

8:20 Noah built an altar to the Lord. He then took some of every kind of clean animal and clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. ¹³⁵  8:21 And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma ¹³⁶  and said ¹³⁷  to himself, ¹³⁸  “I will never again curse ¹³⁹  the ground because of humankind, even though ¹⁴⁰  the inclination of their minds ¹⁴¹  is evil from childhood on. ¹⁴²  I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.

8:22 “While the earth continues to exist, ¹⁴³ 

planting time ¹⁴⁴  and harvest,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

and day and night will not cease.”

God’s Covenant with Humankind through Noah

9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 9:2 Every living creature of the earth and every bird of the sky will be terrified of you. ¹⁴⁵  Everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea are under your authority. ¹⁴⁶  9:3 You may eat any moving thing that lives. ¹⁴⁷  As I gave you ¹⁴⁸  the green plants, I now give ¹⁴⁹  you everything.

9:4 But ¹⁵⁰  you must not eat meat ¹⁵¹  with its life (that is, ¹⁵²  its blood) in it. ¹⁵³  9:5 For your lifeblood ¹⁵⁴  I will surely exact punishment, ¹⁵⁵  from ¹⁵⁶  every living creature I will exact punishment. From each person ¹⁵⁷  I will exact punishment for the life of the individual ¹⁵⁸  since the man was his relative. ¹⁵⁹ 

9:6 “Whoever sheds human blood, ¹⁶⁰ 

by other humans ¹⁶¹ 

must his blood be shed;

for in God’s image ¹⁶² 

God ¹⁶³  has made humankind.”

9:7 But as for you, ¹⁶⁴  be fruitful and multiply; increase abundantly on the earth and multiply on it.”

9:8 God said to Noah and his sons, ¹⁶⁵  9:9 “Look! I now confirm ¹⁶⁶  my covenant with you and your descendants after you ¹⁶⁷  9:10 and with every living creature that is with you, including the birds, the domestic animals, and every living creature of the earth with you, all those that came out of the ark with you – every living creature of the earth. ¹⁶⁸  9:11 I confirm ¹⁶⁹  my covenant with you: Never again will all living things ¹⁷⁰  be wiped out ¹⁷¹  by the waters of a flood; ¹⁷²  never again will a flood destroy the earth.”

9:12 And God said, “This is the guarantee ¹⁷³  of the covenant I am making ¹⁷⁴  with you ¹⁷⁵  and every living creature with you, a covenant ¹⁷⁶  for all subsequent ¹⁷⁷  generations: 9:13 I will place ¹⁷⁸  my rainbow ¹⁷⁹  in the clouds, and it will become ¹⁸⁰  a guarantee of the covenant between me and the earth. 9:14 Whenever ¹⁸¹  I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 9:15 then I will remember my covenant with you ¹⁸²  and with all living creatures of all kinds. ¹⁸³  Never again will the waters become a flood and destroy ¹⁸⁴  all living things. ¹⁸⁵  9:16 When the rainbow is in the clouds, I will notice it and remember ¹⁸⁶  the perpetual covenant between God and all living creatures of all kinds that are on the earth.”

9:17 So God said to Noah, “This is the guarantee of the covenant that I am confirming between me and all living things ¹⁸⁷  that are on the earth.”

The Curse of Canaan

9:18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Now Ham was the father of Canaan.) ¹⁸⁸  9:19 These were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was populated. ¹⁸⁹ 

9:20 Noah, a man of the soil, ¹⁹⁰  began to plant a vineyard. ¹⁹¹  9:21 When he drank some of the wine, he got drunk and uncovered himself ¹⁹²  inside his tent. 9:22 Ham, the father of Canaan, ¹⁹³  saw his father’s nakedness ¹⁹⁴  and told his two brothers who were outside. 9:23 Shem and Japheth took the garment ¹⁹⁵  and placed it on their shoulders. Then they walked in backwards and covered up their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned ¹⁹⁶  the other way so they did not see their father’s nakedness.

9:24 When Noah awoke from his drunken stupor ¹⁹⁷  he learned ¹⁹⁸  what his youngest son had done ¹⁹⁹  to him. 9:25 So he said,

“Cursed ²⁰⁰  be Canaan! ²⁰¹ 

The lowest of slaves ²⁰² 

he will be to his brothers.”

9:26 He also said,

“Worthy of praise is ²⁰³  the Lord, the God of Shem!

May Canaan be the slave of Shem! ²⁰⁴ 

9:27 May God enlarge Japheth’s territory and numbers! ²⁰⁵ 

May he live ²⁰⁶  in the tents of Shem

and may Canaan be his slave!”

9:28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 9:29 The entire lifetime of Noah was 950 years, and then he died.

The Table of Nations

10:1 This is the account ²⁰⁷  of Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons ²⁰⁸  were born ²⁰⁹  to them after the flood.

10:2 The sons of Japheth ²¹⁰  were Gomer, ²¹¹  Magog, ²¹²  Madai, ²¹³  Javan, ²¹⁴  Tubal, ²¹⁵  Meshech, ²¹⁶  and Tiras. ²¹⁷  10:3 The sons of Gomer were ²¹⁸  Askenaz, ²¹⁹  Riphath, ²²⁰  and Togarmah. ²²¹  10:4 The sons of Javan were Elishah, ²²²  Tarshish, ²²³  the Kittim, ²²⁴  and the Dodanim. ²²⁵  10:5 From these the coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to its language, according to their families, by their nations.

10:6 The sons of Ham were Cush, ²²⁶  Mizraim, ²²⁷  Put, ²²⁸  and Canaan. ²²⁹  10:7 The sons of Cush were Seba, ²³⁰  Havilah, ²³¹  Sabtah, ²³²  Raamah, ²³³  and Sabteca. ²³⁴  The sons of Raamah were Sheba ²³⁵  and Dedan. ²³⁶ 

10:8 Cush was the father of ²³⁷  Nimrod; he began to be a valiant warrior on the earth. 10:9 He was a mighty hunter ²³⁸  before the Lord. ²³⁹  (That is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.”) 10:10 The primary regions ²⁴⁰  of his kingdom were Babel, ²⁴¹  Erech, ²⁴²  Akkad, ²⁴³  and Calneh ²⁴⁴  in the land of Shinar. ²⁴⁵  10:11 From that land he went ²⁴⁶  to Assyria, ²⁴⁷  where he built Nineveh, ²⁴⁸  Rehoboth-Ir, ²⁴⁹  Calah, ²⁵⁰  10:12 and Resen, which is between Nineveh and the great city Calah. ²⁵¹ 

10:13 Mizraim ²⁵²  was the father of ²⁵³  the Ludites, ²⁵⁴  Anamites, ²⁵⁵  Lehabites, ²⁵⁶  Naphtuhites, ²⁵⁷  10:14 Pathrusites, ²⁵⁸  Casluhites ²⁵⁹  (from whom the Philistines came), ²⁶⁰  and Caphtorites. ²⁶¹ 

10:15 Canaan was the father of ²⁶²  Sidon his firstborn, ²⁶³  Heth, ²⁶⁴  10:16 the Jebusites, ²⁶⁵  Amorites, ²⁶⁶  Girgashites, ²⁶⁷  10:17 Hivites, ²⁶⁸  Arkites, ²⁶⁹  Sinites, ²⁷⁰  10:18 Arvadites, ²⁷¹  Zemarites, ²⁷²  and Hamathites. ²⁷³  Eventually the families of the Canaanites were scattered 10:19 and the borders of Canaan extended ²⁷⁴  from Sidon ²⁷⁵  all the way to ²⁷⁶  Gerar as far as Gaza, and all the way to ²⁷⁷  Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. 10:20 These are the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, and by their nations.

10:21 And sons were also born ²⁷⁸  to Shem (the older brother of Japheth), ²⁷⁹  the father of all the sons of Eber.

10:22 The sons of Shem were Elam, ²⁸⁰  Asshur, ²⁸¹  Arphaxad, ²⁸²  Lud, ²⁸³  and Aram. ²⁸⁴  10:23 The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. ²⁸⁵  10:24 Arphaxad was the father of ²⁸⁶  Shelah, ²⁸⁷  and Shelah was the father of Eber. ²⁸⁸  10:25 Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg because in his days the earth was divided, ²⁸⁹  and his brother’s name was Joktan. 10:26 Joktan was the father of ²⁹⁰  Almodad, ²⁹¹  Sheleph, ²⁹²  Hazarmaveth, ²⁹³  Jerah, ²⁹⁴  10:27 Hadoram, Uzal, ²⁹⁵  Diklah, ²⁹⁶  10:28 Obal, ²⁹⁷  Abimael, ²⁹⁸  Sheba, ²⁹⁹  10:29 Ophir, ³⁰⁰  Havilah, ³⁰¹  and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan. 10:30 Their dwelling place was from Mesha all the way to ³⁰²  Sephar in the eastern hills. 10:31 These are the sons of Shem according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, and according to their nations.

10:32 These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations, and from these the nations spread ³⁰³  over the earth after the flood.

The Dispersion of the Nations at Babel

11:1 The whole earth ³⁰⁴  had a common language and a common vocabulary. ³⁰⁵  11:2 When the people ³⁰⁶  moved eastward, ³⁰⁷  they found a plain in Shinar ³⁰⁸  and settled there. 11:3 Then they said to one another, ³⁰⁹  “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” ³¹⁰  (They had brick instead of stone and tar ³¹¹  instead of mortar.) ³¹²  11:4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens ³¹³  so that ³¹⁴  we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise ³¹⁵  we will be scattered ³¹⁶  across the face of the entire earth.”

11:5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people ³¹⁷  had started ³¹⁸  building. 11:6 And the Lord said, “If as one people all sharing a common language ³¹⁹  they have begun to do this, then ³²⁰  nothing they plan to do will be beyond them. ³²¹  11:7 Come, let’s go down and confuse ³²²  their language so they won’t be able to understand each other.” ³²³ 

11:8 So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building ³²⁴  the city. 11:9 That is why its name was called ³²⁵  Babel ³²⁶  – because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.

The Genealogy of Shem

11:10 This is the account of Shem.

Shem was 100 old when he became the father of Arphaxad, two years after the flood. 11:11 And after becoming the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other ³²⁷  sons and daughters.

11:12 When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. 11:13 And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other ³²⁸  sons and daughters. ³²⁹ 

11:14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. 11:15 And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other ³³⁰  sons and daughters.

11:16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. 11:17 And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.

11:18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. 11:19 And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.

11:20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. 11:21 And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.

11:22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. 11:23 And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.

11:24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. 11:25 And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.

11:26 When Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

The Record of Terah

11:27 This is the account of Terah.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 11:28 Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans, ³³¹  while his father Terah was still alive. ³³²  11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, ³³³  and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; ³³⁴  she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 11:30 But Sarai was barren; she had no children.

11:31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and with them he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there. 11:32 The lifetime ³³⁵  of Terah was 205 years, and he ³³⁶  died in Haran.

The Obedience of Abram

12:1 Now the Lord said ³³⁷  to Abram, ³³⁸ 

“Go out ³³⁹  from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household

to the land that I will show you. ³⁴⁰ 

12:2 Then I will make you ³⁴¹  into a great nation, and I will bless you, ³⁴² 

and I will make your name great, ³⁴³ 

so that you will exemplify divine blessing. ³⁴⁴ 

12:3 I will bless those who bless you, ³⁴⁵ 

but the one who treats you lightly ³⁴⁶  I must curse,

and all the families of the earth will bless one another ³⁴⁷  by your name.”

12:4 So Abram left, ³⁴⁸  just as the Lord had told him to do, ³⁴⁹  and Lot went with him. (Now ³⁵⁰  Abram was 75 years old ³⁵¹  when he departed from Haran.) 12:5 And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew ³⁵²  Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired ³⁵³  in Haran, and they left for ³⁵⁴  the land of Canaan. They entered the land of Canaan.

12:6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree ³⁵⁵  of Moreh ³⁵⁶  at Shechem. ³⁵⁷  (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) ³⁵⁸  12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants ³⁵⁹  I will give this land.” So Abram ³⁶⁰  built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

12:8 Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel ³⁶¹  and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord. ³⁶²  12:9 Abram continually journeyed by stages ³⁶³  down to the Negev. ³⁶⁴ 

The Promised Blessing Jeopardized

12:10 There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt ³⁶⁵  to stay for a while ³⁶⁶  because the famine was severe. ³⁶⁷  12:11 As he approached ³⁶⁸  Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, ³⁶⁹  I know that you are a beautiful woman. ³⁷⁰  12:12 When the Egyptians see you they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will keep you alive. ³⁷¹  12:13 So tell them ³⁷²  you are my sister ³⁷³  so that it may go well ³⁷⁴  for me because of you and my life will be spared ³⁷⁵  on account of you.”

12:14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 12:15 When Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. So Abram’s wife ³⁷⁶  was taken ³⁷⁷  into the household of Pharaoh, ³⁷⁸  12:16 and he did treat Abram well ³⁷⁹  on account of her. Abram received ³⁸⁰  sheep and cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

12:17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with severe diseases ³⁸¹  because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 12:18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, “What is this ³⁸²  you have done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife? 12:19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her ³⁸³  to be my wife? ³⁸⁴  Here is your wife! ³⁸⁵  Take her and go!” ³⁸⁶  12:20 Pharaoh gave his men orders about Abram, ³⁸⁷  and so they expelled him, along with his wife and all his possessions.

Abram’s Solution to the Strife

13:1 So Abram went up from Egypt into the Negev. ³⁸⁸  He took his wife and all his possessions with him, as well as Lot. ³⁸⁹  13:2 (Now Abram was very wealthy ³⁹⁰  in livestock, silver, and gold.) ³⁹¹ 

13:3 And he journeyed from place to place ³⁹²  from the Negev as far as Bethel. ³⁹³  He returned ³⁹⁴  to the place where he had pitched his tent ³⁹⁵  at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai. 13:4 This was the place where he had first built the altar, ³⁹⁶  and there Abram worshiped the Lord. ³⁹⁷ 

13:5 Now Lot, who was traveling ³⁹⁸  with Abram, also had ³⁹⁹  flocks, herds, and tents. 13:6 But the land could ⁴⁰⁰  not support them while they were living side by side. ⁴⁰¹  Because their possessions were so great, they were not able to live ⁴⁰²  alongside one another. 13:7 So there were quarrels ⁴⁰³  between Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen. ⁴⁰⁴  (Now the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at that time.) ⁴⁰⁵ 

13:8 Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no quarreling between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are close relatives. ⁴⁰⁶  13:9 Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself now from me. If you go ⁴⁰⁷  to the left, then I’ll go to the right, but if you go to the right, then I’ll go to the left.”

13:10 Lot looked up and saw ⁴⁰⁸  the whole region ⁴⁰⁹  of the Jordan. He noticed ⁴¹⁰  that all of it was well-watered (before the Lord obliterated ⁴¹¹  Sodom and Gomorrah) ⁴¹²  like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, ⁴¹³  all the way to Zoar. 13:11 Lot chose for himself the whole region of the Jordan and traveled ⁴¹⁴  toward the east.

So the relatives separated from each other. ⁴¹⁵  13:12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, but Lot settled among the cities of the Jordan plain ⁴¹⁶  and pitched his tents next to Sodom. 13:13 (Now ⁴¹⁷  the people ⁴¹⁸  of Sodom were extremely wicked rebels against the Lord.) ⁴¹⁹ 

13:14 After Lot had departed, the Lord said to Abram, ⁴²⁰  “Look ⁴²¹  from the place where you stand to the north, south, east, and west. 13:15 I will give all the land that you see to you and your descendants ⁴²²  forever. 13:16 And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone is able to count the dust of the earth, then your descendants also can be counted. ⁴²³  13:17 Get up and ⁴²⁴  walk throughout ⁴²⁵  the land, ⁴²⁶  for I will give it to you.”

13:18 So Abram moved his tents and went to live ⁴²⁷  by the oaks ⁴²⁸  of Mamre in Hebron, and he built an altar to the Lord there.

The Blessing of Victory for God’s People

14:1 At that time ⁴²⁹  Amraphel king of Shinar, ⁴³⁰  Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations ⁴³¹  14:2 went to war ⁴³²  against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). ⁴³³  14:3 These last five kings ⁴³⁴  joined forces ⁴³⁵  in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea). ⁴³⁶  14:4 For twelve years ⁴³⁷  they had served Kedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year ⁴³⁸  they rebelled. ⁴³⁹  14:5 In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings who were his allies came and defeated ⁴⁴⁰  the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim, 14:6 and the Horites in their hill country of Seir, as far as El Paran, which is near the desert. ⁴⁴¹  14:7 Then they attacked En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh) again, ⁴⁴²  and they conquered all the territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who were living in Hazazon Tamar.

14:8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out and prepared for battle. In the Valley of Siddim they met ⁴⁴³  14:9 Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of nations, ⁴⁴⁴  Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar. Four kings fought against ⁴⁴⁵  five. 14:10 Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. ⁴⁴⁶  When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into them, ⁴⁴⁷  but some survivors ⁴⁴⁸  fled to the hills. ⁴⁴⁹  14:11 The four victorious kings ⁴⁵⁰  took all the possessions and food of Sodom and Gomorrah and left. 14:12 They also took Abram’s nephew ⁴⁵¹  Lot and his possessions when ⁴⁵²  they left, for Lot ⁴⁵³  was living in Sodom. ⁴⁵⁴ 

14:13 A fugitive ⁴⁵⁵  came and told Abram the Hebrew. ⁴⁵⁶  Now Abram was living by the oaks ⁴⁵⁷  of Mamre the Amorite, the brother ⁴⁵⁸  of Eshcol and Aner. (All these were allied by treaty ⁴⁵⁹  with Abram.) ⁴⁶⁰  14:14 When Abram heard that his nephew ⁴⁶¹  had been taken captive, he mobilized ⁴⁶²  his 318 trained men who had been born in his household, and he pursued the invaders ⁴⁶³  as far as Dan. ⁴⁶⁴  14:15 Then, during the night, ⁴⁶⁵  Abram ⁴⁶⁶  divided his forces ⁴⁶⁷  against them and defeated them. He chased them as far as Hobah, which is north ⁴⁶⁸  of Damascus. 14:16 He retrieved all the stolen property. ⁴⁶⁹  He also brought back his nephew Lot and his possessions, as well as the women and the rest of ⁴⁷⁰  the people.

14:17 After Abram ⁴⁷¹  returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet Abram ⁴⁷²  in the Valley of Shaveh (known as the King’s Valley). ⁴⁷³  14:18 Melchizedek king of Salem ⁴⁷⁴  brought out bread and wine. (Now he was the priest of the Most High God.) ⁴⁷⁵  14:19 He blessed Abram, saying,

“Blessed be Abram by ⁴⁷⁶  the Most High God,

Creator ⁴⁷⁷  of heaven and earth. ⁴⁷⁸ 

14:20 Worthy of praise is ⁴⁷⁹  the Most High God,

who delivered ⁴⁸⁰  your enemies into your hand.”

Abram gave Melchizedek ⁴⁸¹  a tenth of everything.

14:21 Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and take the possessions for yourself.” 14:22 But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I raise my hand ⁴⁸²  to the Lord, the Most High God, Creator of heaven and earth, and vow ⁴⁸³  14:23 that I will take nothing ⁴⁸⁴  belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal. That way you can never say, ‘It is I ⁴⁸⁵  who made Abram rich.’ 14:24 I will take nothing ⁴⁸⁶  except compensation for what the young men have eaten. ⁴⁸⁷  As for the share of the men who went with me – Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre – let them take their share.”

The Cutting of the Covenant

15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram! I am your shield ⁴⁸⁸  and the one who will reward you in great abundance.” ⁴⁸⁹ 

15:2 But Abram said, “O sovereign Lord, ⁴⁹⁰  what will you give me since ⁴⁹¹  I continue to be ⁴⁹²  childless, and my heir ⁴⁹³  is ⁴⁹⁴  Eliezer of Damascus?” ⁴⁹⁵  15:3 Abram added, ⁴⁹⁶  “Since ⁴⁹⁷  you have not given me a descendant, then look, one born in my house will be my heir!” ⁴⁹⁸ 

15:4 But look, ⁴⁹⁹  the word of the Lord came to him: “This man ⁵⁰⁰  will not be your heir, ⁵⁰¹  but instead ⁵⁰²  a son ⁵⁰³  who comes from your own body will be ⁵⁰⁴  your heir.” ⁵⁰⁵  15:5 The Lord ⁵⁰⁶  took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars – if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”

15:6 Abram believed ⁵⁰⁷  the Lord, and the Lord ⁵⁰⁸  considered his response of faith ⁵⁰⁹  as proof of genuine loyalty. ⁵¹⁰ 

15:7 The Lord said ⁵¹¹  to him, “I am the Lord ⁵¹²  who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans ⁵¹³  to give you this land to possess.” 15:8 But ⁵¹⁴  Abram ⁵¹⁵  said, “O sovereign Lord, ⁵¹⁶  by what ⁵¹⁷  can I know that I am to possess it?”

15:9 The Lord ⁵¹⁸  said to him, “Take for me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” 15:10 So Abram ⁵¹⁹  took all these for him and then cut them in two ⁵²⁰  and placed each half opposite the other, ⁵²¹  but he did not cut the birds in half. 15:11 When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

15:12 When the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep, ⁵²²  and great terror overwhelmed him. ⁵²³  15:13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain ⁵²⁴  that your descendants will be strangers ⁵²⁵  in a foreign country. ⁵²⁶  They will be enslaved and oppressed ⁵²⁷  for four hundred years. 15:14 But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. ⁵²⁸  Afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15:15 But as for you, ⁵²⁹  you will go to your ancestors ⁵³⁰  in peace and be buried at a good old age. ⁵³¹  15:16 In the fourth generation ⁵³²  your descendants ⁵³³  will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.” ⁵³⁴ 

15:17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch ⁵³⁵  passed between the animal parts. ⁵³⁶  15:18 That day the Lord made a covenant ⁵³⁷  with Abram: “To your descendants I give ⁵³⁸  this land, from the river of Egypt ⁵³⁹  to the great river, the Euphrates River – 15:19 the land ⁵⁴⁰  of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 15:20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 15:21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.” ⁵⁴¹ 

Genesis 32:1--36:43

Jacob Wrestles at Peniel

32:1 So Jacob went on his way and the angels of God ⁵⁴²  met him. 32:2 When Jacob saw them, he exclaimed, ⁵⁴³  “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim. ⁵⁴⁴ 

32:3 Jacob sent messengers on ahead ⁵⁴⁵  to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the region ⁵⁴⁶  of Edom. 32:4 He commanded them, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant ⁵⁴⁷  Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now. 32:5 I have oxen, donkeys, sheep, and male and female servants. I have sent ⁵⁴⁸  this message ⁵⁴⁹  to inform my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”

32:6 The messengers returned to Jacob and said, “We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you and has four hundred men with him.” 32:7 Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels. 32:8 “If Esau attacks one camp,” ⁵⁵⁰  he thought, ⁵⁵¹  “then the other camp will be able to escape.” ⁵⁵² 

32:9 Then Jacob prayed, ⁵⁵³  “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said ⁵⁵⁴  to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’ ⁵⁵⁵  32:10 I am not worthy of all the faithful love ⁵⁵⁶  you have shown ⁵⁵⁷  your servant. With only my walking stick ⁵⁵⁸  I crossed the Jordan, ⁵⁵⁹  but now I have become two camps. 32:11 Rescue me, ⁵⁶⁰  I pray, from the hand ⁵⁶¹  of my brother Esau, ⁵⁶²  for I am afraid he will come ⁵⁶³  and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children. ⁵⁶⁴  32:12 But you ⁵⁶⁵  said, ‘I will certainly make you prosper ⁵⁶⁶  and will make ⁵⁶⁷  your descendants like the sand on the seashore, too numerous to count.’” ⁵⁶⁸ 

32:13 Jacob ⁵⁶⁹  stayed there that night. Then he sent ⁵⁷⁰  as a gift ⁵⁷¹  to his brother Esau 32:14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 32:15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 32:16 He entrusted them to ⁵⁷²  his servants, who divided them into herds. ⁵⁷³  He told his servants, “Pass over before me, and keep some distance between one herd and the next.” 32:17 He instructed the servant leading the first herd, ⁵⁷⁴  “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong? ⁵⁷⁵  Where are you going? Whose herds are you driving?’ ⁵⁷⁶  32:18 then you must say, ⁵⁷⁷  ‘They belong ⁵⁷⁸  to your servant Jacob. ⁵⁷⁹  They have been sent as a gift to my lord Esau. ⁵⁸⁰  In fact Jacob himself is behind us.’” ⁵⁸¹ 

32:19 He also gave these instructions to the second and third servants, as well as all those who were following the herds, saying, “You must say the same thing to Esau when you meet him. ⁵⁸²  32:20 You must also say, ‘In fact your servant Jacob is behind us.’” ⁵⁸³  Jacob thought, ⁵⁸⁴  “I will first appease him ⁵⁸⁵  by sending a gift ahead of me. ⁵⁸⁶  After that I will meet him. ⁵⁸⁷  Perhaps he will accept me.” ⁵⁸⁸  32:21 So the gifts were sent on ahead of him ⁵⁸⁹  while he spent that night in the camp. ⁵⁹⁰ 

32:22 During the night Jacob quickly took ⁵⁹¹  his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons ⁵⁹²  and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ⁵⁹³  32:23 He took them and sent them across the stream along with all his possessions. ⁵⁹⁴  32:24 So Jacob was left alone. Then a man ⁵⁹⁵  wrestled ⁵⁹⁶  with him until daybreak. ⁵⁹⁷  32:25 When the man ⁵⁹⁸  saw that he could not defeat Jacob, ⁵⁹⁹  he struck ⁶⁰⁰  the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

32:26 Then the man ⁶⁰¹  said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” ⁶⁰²  “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, ⁶⁰³  “unless you bless me.” ⁶⁰⁴  32:27 The man asked him, ⁶⁰⁵  “What is your name?” ⁶⁰⁶  He answered, “Jacob.” 32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ⁶⁰⁷  “but Israel, ⁶⁰⁸  because you have fought ⁶⁰⁹  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

32:29 Then Jacob asked, “Please tell me your name.” ⁶¹⁰  “Why ⁶¹¹  do you ask my name?” the man replied. ⁶¹²  Then he blessed ⁶¹³  Jacob ⁶¹⁴  there. 32:30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, ⁶¹⁵  explaining, ⁶¹⁶  “Certainly ⁶¹⁷  I have seen God face to face ⁶¹⁸  and have survived.” ⁶¹⁹ 

32:31 The sun rose ⁶²⁰  over him as he crossed over Penuel, ⁶²¹  but ⁶²²  he was limping because of his hip. 32:32 That is why to this day ⁶²³  the Israelites do not eat the sinew which is attached to the socket of the hip, because he struck ⁶²⁴  the socket of Jacob’s hip near the attached sinew.

Jacob Meets Esau

33:1 Jacob looked up ⁶²⁵  and saw that Esau was coming ⁶²⁶  along with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants. 33:2 He put the servants and their children in front, with Leah and her children behind them, and Rachel and Joseph behind them. ⁶²⁷  33:3 But Jacob ⁶²⁸  himself went on ahead of them, and he bowed toward the ground seven times as he approached ⁶²⁹  his brother. 33:4 But Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, hugged his neck, and kissed him. Then they both wept. 33:5 When Esau ⁶³⁰  looked up ⁶³¹  and saw the women and the children, he asked, “Who are these people with you?” Jacob ⁶³²  replied, “The children whom God has graciously given ⁶³³  your servant.” 33:6 The female servants came forward with their children and bowed down. ⁶³⁴  33:7 Then Leah came forward with her children and they bowed down. Finally Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed down.

33:8 Esau ⁶³⁵  then asked, “What did you intend ⁶³⁶  by sending all these herds to meet me?” ⁶³⁷  Jacob ⁶³⁸  replied, “To find favor in your sight, my lord.” 33:9 But Esau said, “I have plenty, my brother. Keep what belongs to you.” 33:10 “No, please take them,” Jacob said. ⁶³⁹  “If I have found favor in your sight, accept ⁶⁴⁰  my gift from my hand. Now that I have seen your face and you have accepted me, ⁶⁴¹  it is as if I have seen the face of God. ⁶⁴²  33:11 Please take my present ⁶⁴³  that was brought to you, for God has been generous ⁶⁴⁴  to me and I have all I need.” ⁶⁴⁵  When Jacob urged him, he took it. ⁶⁴⁶ 

33:12 Then Esau ⁶⁴⁷  said, “Let’s be on our way! ⁶⁴⁸  I will go in front of you.” 33:13 But Jacob ⁶⁴⁹  said to him, “My lord knows that the children are young, ⁶⁵⁰  and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. ⁶⁵¹  If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die. 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, ⁶⁵²  until I come to my lord at Seir.”

33:15 So Esau said, “Let me leave some of my men with you.” ⁶⁵³  “Why do that?” Jacob replied. ⁶⁵⁴  “My lord has already been kind enough to me.” ⁶⁵⁵ 

33:16 So that same day Esau made his way back ⁶⁵⁶  to Seir. 33:17 But ⁶⁵⁷  Jacob traveled to Succoth ⁶⁵⁸  where he built himself a house and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place was called ⁶⁵⁹  Succoth. ⁶⁶⁰ 

33:18 After he left Paddan Aram, Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped near ⁶⁶¹  the city. 33:19 Then he purchased the portion of the field where he had pitched his tent; he bought it ⁶⁶²  from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of money. ⁶⁶³  33:20 There he set up an altar and called it “The God of Israel is God.” ⁶⁶⁴ 

Dinah and the Shechemites

34:1 Now Dinah, Leah’s daughter whom she bore to Jacob, went to meet ⁶⁶⁵  the young women ⁶⁶⁶  of the land. 34:2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, who ruled that area, saw her, he grabbed her, forced himself on her, ⁶⁶⁷  and sexually assaulted her. ⁶⁶⁸  34:3 Then he became very attached ⁶⁶⁹  to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He fell in love with the young woman and spoke romantically to her. ⁶⁷⁰  34:4 Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Acquire this young girl as my wife.” ⁶⁷¹  34:5 When ⁶⁷²  Jacob heard that Shechem ⁶⁷³  had violated his daughter Dinah, his sons were with the livestock in the field. So Jacob remained silent ⁶⁷⁴  until they came in.

34:6 Then Shechem’s father Hamor went to speak with Jacob about Dinah. ⁶⁷⁵  34:7 Now Jacob’s sons had come in from the field when they heard the news. ⁶⁷⁶  They ⁶⁷⁷  were offended ⁶⁷⁸  and very angry because Shechem ⁶⁷⁹  had disgraced Israel ⁶⁸⁰  by sexually assaulting ⁶⁸¹  Jacob’s daughter, a crime that should not be committed. ⁶⁸² 

34:8 But Hamor made this appeal to them: “My son Shechem is in love with your daughter. ⁶⁸³  Please give her to him as his wife. 34:9 Intermarry with us. ⁶⁸⁴  Let us marry your daughters, and take our daughters as wives for yourselves. ⁶⁸⁵  34:10 You may live ⁶⁸⁶  among us, and the land will be open to you. ⁶⁸⁷  Live in it, travel freely in it, ⁶⁸⁸  and acquire property in it.”

34:11 Then Shechem said to Dinah’s ⁶⁸⁹  father and brothers, “Let me find favor in your sight, and whatever you require of me ⁶⁹⁰  I’ll give. ⁶⁹¹  34:12 You can make the bride price and the gift I must bring very expensive, ⁶⁹²  and I’ll give ⁶⁹³  whatever you ask ⁶⁹⁴  of me. Just give me the young woman as my wife!”

34:13 Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully when they spoke because Shechem ⁶⁹⁵  had violated their sister Dinah. 34:14 They said to them, “We cannot give ⁶⁹⁶  our sister to a man who is not circumcised, for it would be a disgrace ⁶⁹⁷  to us. 34:15 We will give you our consent on this one condition: You must become ⁶⁹⁸  like us by circumcising ⁶⁹⁹  all your males. 34:16 Then we will give ⁷⁰⁰  you our daughters to marry, ⁷⁰¹  and we will take your daughters as wives for ourselves, and we will live among you and become one people. 34:17 But if you do not agree to our terms ⁷⁰²  by being circumcised, then we will take ⁷⁰³  our sister ⁷⁰⁴  and depart.”

34:18 Their offer pleased Hamor and his son Shechem. ⁷⁰⁵  34:19 The young man did not delay in doing what they asked ⁷⁰⁶  because he wanted Jacob’s daughter Dinah ⁷⁰⁷  badly. (Now he was more important ⁷⁰⁸  than anyone in his father’s household.) ⁷⁰⁹  34:20 So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate ⁷¹⁰  of their city and spoke to the men of their city, 34:21 “These men are at peace with us. So let them live in the land and travel freely in it, for the land is wide enough ⁷¹¹  for them. We will take their daughters for wives, and we will give them our daughters to marry. ⁷¹²  34:22 Only on this one condition will these men consent to live with us and become one people: They demand ⁷¹³  that every male among us be circumcised just as they are circumcised. 34:23 If we do so, ⁷¹⁴  won’t their livestock, their property, and all their animals become ours? So let’s consent to their demand, so they will live among us.”

34:24 All the men who assembled at the city gate ⁷¹⁵  agreed with ⁷¹⁶  Hamor and his son Shechem. Every male who assembled at the city gate ⁷¹⁷  was circumcised. 34:25 In three days, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword ⁷¹⁸  and went to the unsuspecting city ⁷¹⁹  and slaughtered every male. 34:26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, took Dinah from Shechem’s house, and left. 34:27 Jacob’s sons killed them ⁷²⁰  and looted the city because their sister had been violated. ⁷²¹  34:28 They took their flocks, herds, and donkeys, as well as everything in the city and in the surrounding fields. ⁷²²  34:29 They captured as plunder ⁷²³  all their wealth, all their little ones, and their wives, including everything in the houses.

34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin ⁷²⁴  on me by making me a foul odor ⁷²⁵  among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I ⁷²⁶  am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!” 34:31 But Simeon and Levi replied, ⁷²⁷  “Should he treat our sister like a common prostitute?”

The Return to Bethel

35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Go up at once ⁷²⁸  to Bethel ⁷²⁹  and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” ⁷³⁰  35:2 So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have among you. ⁷³¹  Purify yourselves and change your clothes. ⁷³²  35:3 Let us go up at once ⁷³³  to Bethel. Then I will make ⁷³⁴  an altar there to God, who responded to me in my time of distress ⁷³⁵  and has been with me wherever I went.” ⁷³⁶ 

35:4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their possession ⁷³⁷  and the rings that were in their ears. ⁷³⁸  Jacob buried them ⁷³⁹  under the oak ⁷⁴⁰  near Shechem 35:5 and they started on their journey. ⁷⁴¹  The surrounding cities were afraid of God, ⁷⁴²  and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

35:6 Jacob and all those who were with him arrived at Luz (that is, Bethel) ⁷⁴³  in the land of Canaan. ⁷⁴⁴  35:7 He built an altar there and named the place El Bethel ⁷⁴⁵  because there God had revealed himself ⁷⁴⁶  to him when he was fleeing from his brother. 35:8 (Deborah, ⁷⁴⁷  Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel; thus it was named ⁷⁴⁸  Oak of Weeping.) ⁷⁴⁹ 

35:9 God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan Aram and blessed him. 35:10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but your name will no longer be called Jacob; Israel will be your name.” So God named him Israel. ⁷⁵⁰  35:11 Then God said to him, “I am the sovereign God. ⁷⁵¹  Be fruitful and multiply! A nation – even a company of nations – will descend from you; kings will be among your descendants! ⁷⁵²  35:12 The land I gave ⁷⁵³  to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you. To your descendants ⁷⁵⁴  I will also give this land.” 35:13 Then God went up from the place ⁷⁵⁵  where he spoke with him. 35:14 So Jacob set up a sacred stone pillar in the place where God spoke with him. ⁷⁵⁶  He poured out a drink offering on it, and then he poured oil on it. ⁷⁵⁷  35:15 Jacob named the place ⁷⁵⁸  where God spoke with him Bethel. ⁷⁵⁹ 

35:16 They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, ⁷⁶⁰  Rachel went into labor ⁷⁶¹  – and her labor was hard. 35:17 When her labor was at its hardest, ⁷⁶²  the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you are having another son.” ⁷⁶³  35:18 With her dying breath, ⁷⁶⁴  she named him Ben-Oni. ⁷⁶⁵  But his father called him Benjamin instead. ⁷⁶⁶  35:19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). ⁷⁶⁷  35:20 Jacob set up a marker ⁷⁶⁸  over her grave; it is ⁷⁶⁹  the Marker of Rachel’s Grave to this day.

35:21 Then Israel traveled on and pitched his tent beyond Migdal Eder. ⁷⁷⁰  35:22 While Israel was living in that land, Reuben had sexual relations with ⁷⁷¹  Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard about it.

Jacob had twelve sons:

35:23 The sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, as well as Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.

35:24 The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.

35:25 The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, were Dan and Naphtali.

35:26 The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant, were Gad and Asher.

These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram.

35:27 So Jacob came back to his father Isaac in Mamre, ⁷⁷²  to Kiriath Arba ⁷⁷³  (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. ⁷⁷⁴  35:28 Isaac lived to be 180 years old. ⁷⁷⁵  35:29 Then Isaac breathed his last and joined his ancestors. ⁷⁷⁶  He died an old man who had lived a full life. ⁷⁷⁷  His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

The Descendants of Esau

36:1 What follows is the account of Esau (also known as Edom). ⁷⁷⁸ 

36:2 Esau took his wives from the Canaanites: ⁷⁷⁹  Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah the daughter of Anah and granddaughter ⁷⁸⁰  of Zibeon the Hivite, 36:3 in addition to Basemath the daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.

36:4 Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, Basemath bore Reuel, 36:5 and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. These were the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.

36:6 Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, all the people in his household, his livestock, his animals, and all his possessions which he had acquired in the land of Canaan and went to a land some distance away from ⁷⁸¹  Jacob his brother 36:7 because they had too many possessions to be able to stay together and the land where they had settled ⁷⁸²  was not able to support them because of their livestock. 36:8 So Esau (also known as Edom) lived in the hill country of Seir. ⁷⁸³ 

36:9 This is the account of Esau, the father ⁷⁸⁴  of the Edomites, in the hill country of Seir.

36:10 These were the names of Esau’s sons:

Eliphaz, the son of Esau’s wife Adah, and Reuel, the son of Esau’s wife Basemath.

36:11 The sons of Eliphaz were:

Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.

36:12 Timna, a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz, bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These were the sons ⁷⁸⁵  of Esau’s wife Adah.

36:13 These were the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the sons ⁷⁸⁶  of Esau’s wife Basemath.

36:14 These were the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah the daughter of Anah and granddaughter ⁷⁸⁷  of Zibeon: She bore Jeush, Jalam, and Korah to Esau.

36:15 These were the chiefs ⁷⁸⁸  among the descendants ⁷⁸⁹  of Esau, the sons of Eliphaz, Esau’s firstborn: chief Teman, chief Omar, chief Zepho, chief Kenaz, 36:16 chief Korah, ⁷⁹⁰  chief Gatam, chief Amalek. These were the chiefs descended from Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these were the sons ⁷⁹¹  of Adah.

36:17 These were the sons of Esau’s son Reuel: chief Nahath, chief Zerah, chief Shammah, chief Mizzah. These were the chiefs descended from Reuel in the land of Edom; these were the sons ⁷⁹²  of Esau’s wife Basemath.

36:18 These were the sons of Esau’s wife Oholibamah: chief Jeush, chief Jalam, chief Korah. These were the chiefs descended from Esau’s wife Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah.

36:19 These were the sons of Esau (also known as Edom), and these were their chiefs.

36:20 These were the sons of Seir the Horite, ⁷⁹³  who were living in the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, 36:21 Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These were the chiefs of the Horites, the descendants ⁷⁹⁴  of Seir in the land of Edom.

36:22 The sons of Lotan were Hori and Homam; ⁷⁹⁵  Lotan’s sister was Timna.

36:23 These were the sons of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, ⁷⁹⁶  and Onam.

36:24 These were the sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah (who discovered the hot springs ⁷⁹⁷  in the wilderness as he pastured the donkeys of his father Zibeon).

36:25 These were the children ⁷⁹⁸  of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah.

36:26 These were the sons of Dishon: ⁷⁹⁹  Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Keran.

36:27 These were the sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.

36:28 These were the sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.

36:29 These were the chiefs of the Horites: chief Lotan, chief Shobal, chief Zibeon, chief Anah, 36:30 chief Dishon, chief Ezer, chief Dishan. These were the chiefs of the Horites, according to their chief lists in the land of Seir.

36:31 These were the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king ruled over the Israelites: ⁸⁰⁰ 

36:32 Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom; the name of his city was Dinhabah.

36:33 When Bela died, Jobab the son of Zerah from Bozrah reigned in his place.

36:34 When Jobab died, Husham from the land of the Temanites reigned in his place.

36:35 When Husham died, Hadad the son of Bedad, who defeated the Midianites in the land of Moab, reigned in his place; the name of his city was Avith.

36:36 When Hadad died, Samlah from Masrekah reigned in his place.

36:37 When Samlah died, Shaul from Rehoboth by the River ⁸⁰¹  reigned in his place.

36:38 When Shaul died, Baal-Hanan the son of Achbor reigned in his place.

36:39 When Baal-Hanan the son of Achbor died, Hadad ⁸⁰²  reigned in his place; the name of his city was Pau. ⁸⁰³  His wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-Zahab.

36:40 These were the names of the chiefs of Esau, according to their families, according to their places, by their names: chief Timna, chief Alvah, chief Jetheth, 36:41 chief Oholibamah, chief Elah, chief Pinon, 36:42 chief Kenaz, chief Teman, chief Mibzar, 36:43 chief Magdiel, chief Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom, according to their settlements ⁸⁰⁴  in the land they possessed. This was Esau, the father of the Edomites.

2 Chronicles 35:22

35:22 But Josiah did not turn back from him; ⁸⁰⁵  he disguised himself for battle. He did not take seriously ⁸⁰⁶  the words of Necho which he had received from God; he went to fight him in the Plain of Megiddo. ⁸⁰⁷ 

[6:1]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn The pronominal suffix is third masculine plural, indicating that the antecedent “humankind” is collective.

[6:2]  ⁴ sn The Hebrew phrase translated “sons of God” (בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים, bÿne-ha’elohim) occurs only here (Gen 6:2, 4) and in Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7. There are three major interpretations of the phrase here. (1) In the Book of Job the phrase clearly refers to angelic beings. In Gen 6 the “sons of God” are distinct from “humankind,” suggesting they were not human. This is consistent with the use of the phrase in Job. Since the passage speaks of these beings cohabiting with women, they must have taken physical form or possessed the bodies of men. An early Jewish tradition preserved in 1 En. 6-7 elaborates on this angelic revolt and even names the ringleaders. (2) Not all scholars accept the angelic interpretation of the “sons of God,” however. Some argue that the “sons of God” were members of Seth’s line, traced back to God through Adam in Gen 5, while the “daughters of humankind” were descendants of Cain. But, as noted above, the text distinguishes the “sons of God” from humankind (which would include the Sethites as well as the Cainites) and suggests that the “daughters of humankind” are human women in general, not just Cainites. (3) Others identify the “sons of God” as powerful tyrants, perhaps demon-possessed, who viewed themselves as divine and, following the example of Lamech (see Gen 4:19), practiced polygamy. But usage of the phrase “sons of God” in Job militates against this view. For literature on the subject see G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:135.

[6:3]  ⁵ tn The verb form יָדוֹן (yadon) only occurs here. Some derive it from the verbal root דִּין (din, “to judge”) and translate “strive” or “contend with” (so NIV), but in this case one expects the form to be יָדִין (yadin). The Old Greek has “remain with,” a rendering which may find support from an Arabic cognate (see C. Westermann, Genesis, 1:375). If one interprets the verb in this way, then it is possible to understand רוּחַ (ruakh) as a reference to the divine life-giving spirit or breath, rather than the Lord’s personal Spirit. E. A. Speiser argues that the term is cognate with an Akkadian word meaning “protect” or “shield.” In this case, the Lord’s Spirit will not always protect humankind, for the race will suddenly be destroyed (E. A. Speiser, “YDWN, Gen. 6:3,” JBL 75 [1956]: 126-29).

[6:3]  ⁶ tn Or “forever.”

[6:3]  ⁷ tn The form בְּשַׁגַּם (bÿshagam) appears to be a compound of the preposition בְּ (beth, “in”), the relative שֶׁ (she, “who” or “which”), and the particle גַּם (gam, “also, even”). It apparently means “because even” (see BDB 980 s.v. שֶׁ).

[6:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the plural pronoun has been used in the translation since “man” earlier in the verse has been understood as a collective (“humankind”).

[6:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “flesh.”

[6:3]  ¹⁰ tn See the note on “they” earlier in this verse.

[6:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “his days will be 120 years.” Some interpret this to mean that the age expectancy of people from this point on would be 120, but neither the subsequent narrative nor reality favors this. It is more likely that this refers to the time remaining between this announcement of judgment and the coming of the flood.

[6:4]  ¹² tn The Hebrew word נְפִילִים (nÿfilim) is simply transliterated here, because the meaning of the term is uncertain. According to the text, the Nephilim became mighty warriors and gained great fame in the antediluvian world. The text may imply they were the offspring of the sexual union of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of humankind” (v. 2), but it stops short of saying this in a direct manner. The Nephilim are mentioned in the OT only here and in Num 13:33, where it is stated that they were giants (thus KJV, TEV, NLT “giants” here). The narrator observes that the Anakites of Canaan were descendants of the Nephilim. Certainly these later Anakite Nephilim could not be descendants of the antediluvian Nephilim (see also the following note on the word “this”).

[6:4]  ¹³ tn This observation is parenthetical, explaining that there were Nephilim even after the flood. If all humankind, with the exception of Noah and his family, died in the flood, it is difficult to understand how the postdiluvian Nephilim could be related to the antediluvian Nephilim or how the Anakites of Canaan could be their descendants (see Num 13:33). It is likely that the term Nephilim refers generally to “giants” (see HALOT 709 s.v. נְפִילִים) without implying any ethnic connection between the antediluvian and postdiluvian varieties.

[6:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “were entering to,” referring euphemistically to sexual intercourse here. The Hebrew imperfect verbal form draws attention to the ongoing nature of such sexual unions during the time before the flood.

[6:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and they gave birth to them.” The masculine plural suffix “them” refers to the “sons of God,” to whom the “daughters of humankind” bore children. After the Qal form of the verb יָלָד (yalad, “to give birth”) the preposition לְ (lÿ, “to”) introduces the father of the child(ren). See Gen 16:1, 15; 17:19, 21; 21:2-3, 9; 22:23; 24:24, 47; 25:2, etc.

[6:4]  ¹⁶ tn The parenthetical/explanatory clause uses the word הַגִּבֹּרִים (haggibborim) to describe these Nephilim. The word means “warriors; mighty men; heroes.” The appositional statement further explains that they were “men of renown.” The text refers to superhuman beings who held the world in their power and who lived on in ancient lore outside the Bible. See E. A. Speiser, Genesis (AB), 45-46; C. Westermann, Genesis, 1:379-80; and Anne D. Kilmer, “The Mesopotamian Counterparts of the Biblical Nephilim,” Perspectives on Language and Text, 39-43.

[6:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “men of name” (i.e., famous men).

[6:5]  ¹⁸ sn The Hebrew verb translated “saw” (רָאָה, ra’ah), used here of God’s evaluation of humankind’s evil deeds, contrasts with God’s evaluation of creative work in Gen 1, when he observed that everything was good.

[6:5]  ¹⁹ tn The noun יֵצֶר (yetser) is related to the verb יָצָר (yatsar, “to form, to fashion [with a design]”). Here it refers to human plans or intentions (see Gen 8:21; 1 Chr 28:9; 29:18). People had taken their God-given capacities and used them to devise evil. The word יֵצֶר (yetser) became a significant theological term in Rabbinic literature for what might be called the sin nature – the evil inclination (see also R. E. Murphy, “Yeser in the Qumran Literature,” Bib 39 [1958]: 334-44).

[6:5]  ²⁰ tn The related verb הָשָׁב (hashav) means “to think, to devise, to reckon.” The noun (here) refers to thoughts or considerations.

[6:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “his heart” (referring to collective “humankind”). The Hebrew term לֵב (lev, “heart”) frequently refers to the seat of one’s thoughts (see BDB 524 s.v. לֵב). In contemporary English this is typically referred to as the “mind.”

[6:5]  ²² sn Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil. There is hardly a stronger statement of the wickedness of the human race than this. Here is the result of falling into the “knowledge of good and evil”: Evil becomes dominant, and the good is ruined by the evil.

[6:5]  ²³ tn Heb “all the day.”

[6:6]  ²⁴ tn Or “was grieved”; “was sorry.” In the Niphal stem the verb נָחָם (nakham) can carry one of four semantic meanings, depending on the context: (1) “to experience emotional pain or weakness,” “to feel regret,” often concerning a past action (see Exod 13:17; Judg 21:6, 15; 1 Sam 15:11, 35; Job 42:6; Jer 31:19). In several of these texts כִּי (ki, “because”) introduces the cause of the emotional sorrow. (2) Another meaning is “to be comforted” or “to comfort oneself” (sometimes by taking vengeance). See Gen 24:67; 38:12; 2 Sam 13:39; Ps 77:3; Isa 1:24; Jer 31:15; Ezek 14:22; 31:16; 32:31. (This second category represents a polarization of category one.) (3) The meaning “to relent from” or “to repudiate” a course of action which is already underway is also possible (see Judg 2:18; 2 Sam 24:16 = 1 Chr 21:15; Pss 90:13; 106:45; Jer 8:6; 20:16; 42:10). (4) Finally, “to retract” (a statement) or “to relent or change one’s mind concerning,” “to deviate from” (a stated course of action) is possible (see Exod 32:12, 14; 1 Sam 15:29; Ps 110:4; Isa 57:6; Jer 4:28; 15:6; 18:8, 10; 26:3, 13, 19; Ezek 24:14; Joel 2:13-14; Am 7:3, 6; Jonah 3:9-10; 4:2; Zech 8:14). See R. B. Chisholm, “Does God ‘Change His Mind’?” BSac 152 (1995): 388. The first category applies here because the context speaks of God’s grief and emotional pain (see the following statement in v. 6) as a result of a past action (his making humankind). For a thorough study of the word נָחָם, see H. Van Dyke Parunak, “A Semantic Survey of NHM,” Bib 56 (1975): 512-32.

[6:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and he was grieved to his heart.” The verb עָצָב (’atsav) can carry one of three semantic senses, depending on the context: (1) “to be injured” (Ps 56:5; Eccl 10:9; 1 Chr 4:10); (2) “to experience emotional pain”; “to be depressed emotionally”; “to be worried” (2 Sam 19:2; Isa 54:6; Neh 8:10-11); (3) “to be embarrassed”; “to be offended” (to the point of anger at another or oneself); “to be insulted” (Gen 34:7; 45:5; 1 Sam 20:3, 34; 1 Kgs 1:6; Isa 63:10; Ps 78:40). This third category develops from the second by metonymy. In certain contexts emotional pain leads to embarrassment and/or anger. In this last use the subject sometimes directs his anger against the source of grief (see especially Gen 34:7). The third category fits best in Gen 6:6 because humankind’s sin does not merely wound God emotionally. On the contrary, it prompts him to strike out in judgment against the source of his distress (see v. 7). The verb וַיִּתְעַצֵּב (vayyit’atsev), a Hitpael from עָצָב, alludes to the judgment oracles in Gen 3:16-19. Because Adam and Eve sinned, their life would be filled with pain; but sin in the human race also brought pain to God. The wording of v. 6 is ironic when compared to Gen 5:29. Lamech anticipated relief (נָחָם, nakham) from their work (מַעֲשֶׂה, ma’aseh) and their painful toil (עִצְּבֹן, ’itsÿvon), but now we read that God was sorry (נָחָם, nakham) that he had made (עָשָׂה, ’asah) humankind for it brought him great pain (עָצָב, ’atsav).

[6:7]  ²⁶ tn The text simply has “from man to beast, to creatures, and to birds of the air.” The use of the prepositions עַד…מִן (min...’ad) stresses the extent of the judgment in creation.

[6:8]  ²⁷ tn The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) is contrastive here: God condemns the human race, but he is pleased with Noah.

[6:8]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew expression “find favor [in the eyes of]” is an idiom meaning “to be an object of another’s favorable disposition or action,” “to be a recipient of another’s favor, kindness, mercy.” The favor/kindness is often earned, coming in response to an action or condition (see Gen 32:5; 39:4; Deut 24:1; 1 Sam 25:8; Prov 3:4; Ruth 2:10). This is the case in Gen 6:8, where v. 9 gives the basis (Noah’s righteous character) for the divine favor.

[6:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “in the eyes of,” an anthropomorphic expression for God’s opinion or decision. The Lord saw that the whole human race was corrupt, but he looked in favor on Noah.

[6:9]  ³⁰ sn There is a vast body of scholarly literature about the flood story. The following studies are particularly helpful: A. Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and the Old Testament Parallels; M. Kessler, “Rhetorical Criticism of Genesis 7,” Rhetorical Criticism: Essays in Honor of James Muilenburg (PTMS), 1-17; I. M. Kikawada and A. Quinn, Before Abraham Was; A. R. Millard, “A New Babylonian ‘Genesis Story’,” TynBul 18 (1967): 3-18; G. J. Wenham, “The Coherence of the Flood Narrative,” VT 28 (1978): 336-48.

[6:9]  ³¹ tn The Hebrew term תָּמִים (tamim, “blameless”) is used of men in Gen 17:1 (associated with the idiom “walk before,” which means “maintain a proper relationship with,” see 24:40); Deut 18:13 (where it means “blameless” in the sense of not guilty of the idolatrous practices listed before this; see Josh 24:14); Pss 18:23, 26 (“blameless” in the sense of not having violated God’s commands); 37:18 (in contrast to the wicked); 101:2, 6 (in contrast to proud, deceitful slanderers; see 15:2); Prov 2:21; 11:5 (in contrast to the wicked); 28:10; Job 12:4.

[6:9]  ³² tn Heb “Noah was a godly man, blameless in his generations.” The singular “generation” can refer to one’s contemporaries, i.e., those living at a particular point in time. The plural “generations” can refer to successive generations in the past or the future. Here, where it is qualified by “his” (i.e., Noah’s), it refers to Noah’s contemporaries, comprised of the preceding generation (his father’s generation), those of Noah’s generation, and the next generation (those the same age as his children). In other words, “his generations” means the generations contemporary with him. See BDB 190 s.v. דוֹר.

[6:9]  ³³ tn Heb “Noah.” The proper name has been replaced with the pronoun in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[6:9]  ³⁴ tn The construction translated “walked with” is used in Gen 5:22, 24 (see the note on this phrase in 5:22) and in 1 Sam 25:15, where it refers to David’s and Nabal’s men “rubbing shoulders” in the fields. Based on the use in 1 Sam 25:15, the expression seems to mean “live in close proximity to,” which may, by metonymy, mean “maintain cordial relations with.”

[6:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “fathered.”

[6:11]  ³⁶ tn Apart from Gen 6:11-12, the Niphal form of this verb occurs in Exod 8:20 HT (8:24 ET), where it describes the effect of the swarms of flies on the land of Egypt; Jer 13:7 and 18:4, where it is used of a “ruined” belt and “marred” clay pot, respectively; and Ezek 20:44, where it describes Judah’s morally “corrupt” actions. The sense “morally corrupt” fits well in Gen 6:11 because of the parallelism (note “the earth was filled with violence”). In this case “earth” would stand by metonymy for its sinful inhabitants. However, the translation “ruined” works just as well, if not better. In this case humankind’s sin is viewed has having an adverse effect upon the earth. Note that vv. 12b-13 make a distinction between the earth and the living creatures who live on it.

[6:11]  ³⁷ tn Heb “before.”

[6:11]  ³⁸ tn The Hebrew word translated “violence” refers elsewhere to a broad range of crimes, including unjust treatment (Gen 16:5; Amos 3:10), injurious legal testimony (Deut 19:16), deadly assault (Gen 49:5), murder (Judg 9:24), and rape (Jer 13:22).

[6:12]  ³⁹ tn Or “God saw how corrupt the earth was.”

[6:12]  ⁴⁰ tn The repetition in the text (see v. 11) emphasizes the point.

[6:12]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “flesh.” Since moral corruption is in view here, most modern western interpreters understand the referent to be humankind. However, the phrase “all flesh” is used consistently of humankind and the animals in Gen 6-9 (6:17, 19; 7:15-16, 21; 8:17; 9:11, 15-17), suggesting that the author intends to picture all living creatures, humankind and animals, as guilty of moral failure. This would explain why the animals, not just humankind, are victims of the ensuing divine judgment. The OT sometimes views animals as morally culpable (Gen 9:5; Exod 21:28-29; Jonah 3:7-8). The OT also teaches that a person’s sin can contaminate others (people and animals) in the sinful person’s sphere (see the story of Achan, especially Josh 7:10). So the animals could be viewed here as morally contaminated because of their association with sinful humankind.

[6:12]  ⁴² tn Heb “had corrupted its way.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix on “way” refers to the collective “all flesh.” The construction “corrupt one’s way” occurs only here (though Ezek 16:47 uses the Hiphil in an intransitive sense with the preposition בְּ [bet, “in”] followed by “ways”). The Hiphil of שָׁחָת (shakhat) means “to ruin, to destroy, to corrupt,” often as here in a moral/ethical sense. The Hebrew term דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) here refers to behavior or moral character, a sense that it frequently carries (see BDB 203 s.v. דֶּרֶךְ 6.a).

[6:13]  ⁴³ sn On the divine style utilized here, see R. Lapointe, “The Divine Monologue as a Channel of Revelation,” CBQ 32 (1970): 161-81.

[6:13]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “the end of all flesh is coming [or “has come”] before me.” (The verb form is either a perfect or a participle.) The phrase “end of all flesh” occurs only here. The term “end” refers here to the end of “life,” as v. 3 and the following context (which describes how God destroys all flesh) make clear. The statement “the end has come” occurs in Ezek 7:2, 6, where it is used of divine judgment. The phrase “come before” occurs in Exod 28:30, 35; 34:34; Lev 15:14; Num 27:17; 1 Sam 18:13, 16; 2 Sam 19:8; 20:8; 1 Kgs 1:23, 28, 32; Ezek 46:9; Pss 79:11 (groans come before God); 88:3 (a prayer comes before God); 100:2; 119:170 (prayer comes before God); Lam 1:22 (evil doing comes before God); Esth 1:19; 8:1; 9:25; 1 Chr 16:29. The expression often means “have an audience with” or “appear before.” But when used metaphorically, it can mean “get the attention of” or “prompt a response.” This is probably the sense in Gen 6:13. The necessity of ending the life of all flesh on earth is an issue that has gotten the attention of God. The term “end” may even be a metonymy for that which has prompted it – violence (see the following clause).

[6:13]  ⁴⁵ tn The participle, especially after הִנֵּה (hinneh) has an imminent future nuance. The Hiphil of שָׁחָת (shakhat) here has the sense “to destroy” (in judgment). Note the wordplay involving this verb in vv. 11-13: The earth is “ruined” because all flesh has acted in a morally “corrupt” manner. Consequently, God will “destroy” all flesh (the referent of the suffix “them”) along with the ruined earth. They had ruined themselves and the earth with violence, and now God would ruin them with judgment. For other cases where “earth” occurs as the object of the Hiphil of שָׁחָת, see 1 Sam 6:5; 1 Chr 20:1; Jer 36:29; 51:25.

[6:14]  ⁴⁶ sn The Hebrew verb is an imperative. A motif of this section is that Noah did as the Lord commanded him – he was obedient. That obedience had to come from faith in the word of the Lord. So the theme of obedience to God’s word is prominent in this prologue to the law.

[6:14]  ⁴⁷ tn A transliteration of the Hebrew term yields “gopher (גֹּפֶר, gofer) wood” (so KJV, NAB, NASB). While the exact nature of the wood involved is uncertain (cf. NLT “resinous wood”), many modern translations render the Hebrew term as “cypress” (so NEB, NIV, NRSV).

[6:14]  ⁴⁸ tn The Hebrew term כָּפָר (kafar, “to cover, to smear” [= to caulk]) appears here in the Qal stem with its primary, nonmetaphorical meaning. The Piel form כִּפֶּר (kipper), which has the metaphorical meaning “to atone, to expiate, to pacify,” is used in Levitical texts (see HALOT 493-94 s.v. כפר). Some authorities regard the form in v. 14 as a homonym of the much more common Levitical term (see BDB 498 s.v. כָּפָר).

[6:15]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about 18 inches (45 cm) long.

[6:16]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “a cubit.”

[6:16]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “to a cubit you shall finish it from above.” The idea is that Noah was to leave an 18-inch opening from the top for a window for light.

[6:17]  ⁵² 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.”

[6:17]  ⁵³ tn Heb “the flood, water.”

[6:17]  ⁵⁴ tn The verb שָׁחָת (shakhat, “to destroy”) is repeated yet again, only now in an infinitival form expressing the purpose of the flood.

[6:17]  ⁵⁵ 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.

[6:18]  ⁵⁶ tn The Hebrew verb וַהֲקִמֹתִי (vahaqimoti) is the Hiphil perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive (picking up the future sense from the participles) from קוּם (qum, “to rise up”). This may refer to the confirmation or fulfillment of an earlier promise, but it is more likely that it anticipates the unconditional promise made to humankind following the flood (see Gen 9:9, 11, 17).

[6:18]  ⁵⁷ tn The perfect verb form with vav (ו) consecutive is best understood as specific future, continuing God’s description of what will happen (see vv. 17-18a).

[6:19]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “from all life, from all flesh, two from all you must bring.” The disjunctive clause at the beginning of the verse (note the conjunction with prepositional phrase, followed by two more prepositional phrases in apposition and then the imperfect verb form) signals a change in mood from announcement (vv. 17-18) to instruction.

[6:19]  ⁵⁹ tn The Piel infinitive construct לְהַחֲיוֹת (lÿhakhayot, here translated as “to keep them alive”) shows the purpose of bringing the animals into the ark – saving life. The Piel of this verb means here “to preserve alive.”

[6:20]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “to keep alive.”

[6:21]  ⁶¹ tn The verb is a direct imperative: “And you, take for yourself.” The form stresses the immediate nature of the instruction; the pronoun underscores the directness.

[6:21]  ⁶² tn Heb “from all food,” meaning “some of every kind of food.”

[6:21]  ⁶³ tn Or “will be eaten.”

[6:21]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “and gather it to you.”

[6:22]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “according to all.”

[6:22]  ⁶⁶ tn The last clause seems redundant: “and thus (כֵּן, ken) he did.” It underscores the obedience of Noah to all that God had said.

[7:1]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “for you I see [as] godly before me in this generation.” The direct object (“you”) is placed first in the clause to give it prominence. The verb “to see” here signifies God’s evaluative discernment.

[7:2]  ⁶⁸ tn Or “seven pairs” (cf. NRSV).

[7:2]  ⁶⁹ sn For a study of the Levitical terminology of “clean” and “unclean,” see L. E. Toombs, IDB 1:643.

[7:2]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “a male and his female” (also a second time at the end of this verse). The terms used here for male and female animals (אִישׁ, ’ish) and אִשָּׁה, ’ishah) normally refer to humans.

[7:3]  ⁷¹ tn Or “seven pairs” (cf. NRSV).

[7:3]  ⁷² tn Here (and in v. 9) the Hebrew text uses the normal generic terms for “male and female” (זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה, zakhar unÿqevah).

[7:3]  ⁷³ tn Heb “to keep alive offspring.”

[7:4]  ⁷⁴ tn Heb “for seven days yet,” meaning “after [or “in”] seven days.”

[7:4]  ⁷⁵ tn The Hiphil participle מַמְטִיר (mamtir, “cause to rain”) here expresses the certainty of the act in the imminent future.

[7:5]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “according to all.”

[7:6]  ⁷⁷ tn Heb “Now Noah was.” The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + predicate nominative after implied “to be” verb) provides background information. The age of Noah receives prominence.

[7:6]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “and the flood was water upon.” The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) is circumstantial/temporal in relation to the preceding clause. The verb הָיָה (hayah) here carries the nuance “to come” (BDB 225 s.v. הָיָה). In this context the phrase “come upon” means “to engulf.”

[7:7]  ⁷⁹ tn The preposition מִן (min) is causal here, explaining why Noah and his family entered the ark.

[7:8]  ⁸⁰ tn Heb “two two” meaning “in twos.”

[7:9]  ⁸¹ tn The Hebrew text of vv. 8-9a reads, “From the clean animal[s] and from the animal[s] which are not clean and from the bird[s] and everything that creeps on the ground, two two they came to Noah to the ark, male and female.”

[7:9]  ⁸² tn Heb “Noah”; the pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[7:10]  ⁸³ tn Heb “came upon.”

[7:11]  ⁸⁴ tn The Hebrew term תְּהוֹם (tÿhom, “deep”) refers to the watery deep, the salty ocean – especially the primeval ocean that surrounds and underlies the earth (see Gen 1:2).

[7:11]  ⁸⁵ sn On the prescientific view of the sky reflected here, see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World (AnBib), 46.

[7:12]  ⁸⁶ tn Heb “was.”

[7:13]  ⁸⁷ tn Heb “On that very day Noah entered, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and the wife of Noah, and the three wives of his sons with him into the ark.”

[7:14]  ⁸⁸ tn The verb “entered” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[7:14]  ⁸⁹ tn Heb “every bird, every wing.”

[7:15]  ⁹⁰ tn Heb “two two” meaning “in twos.”

[7:15]  ⁹¹ tn Heb “flesh.”

[7:16]  ⁹² tn Heb “Those that went in, male and female from all flesh they went in.”

[7:18]  ⁹³ tn Heb “and the waters were great and multiplied exceedingly.” The first verb in the sequence is וַיִּגְבְּרוּ (vayyigbÿru, from גָּבַר, gavar), meaning “to become great, mighty.” The waters did not merely rise; they “prevailed” over the earth, overwhelming it.

[7:18]  ⁹⁴ tn Heb “went.”

[7:19]  ⁹⁵ tn Heb “and the waters were great exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition emphasizes the depth of the waters.

[7:19]  ⁹⁶ tn Heb “and.”

[7:20]  ⁹⁷ tn Heb “rose fifteen cubits.” Since a cubit is considered by most authorities to be about eighteen inches, this would make the depth 22.5 feet. This figure might give the modern reader a false impression of exactness, however, so in the translation the phrase “fifteen cubits” has been rendered “more than twenty feet.”

[7:20]  ⁹⁸ tn Heb “the waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward and they covered the mountains.” Obviously, a flood of twenty feet did not cover the mountains; the statement must mean the flood rose about twenty feet above the highest mountain.

[7:21]  ⁹⁹ tn Heb “flesh.”

[7:22]  ¹⁰⁰ tn Heb “everything which [has] the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils from all which is in the dry land.”

[7:23]  ¹⁰¹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:23]  ¹⁰² tn Heb “wiped away” (cf. NRSV “blotted out”).

[7:23]  ¹⁰³ tn Heb “from man to animal to creeping thing and to the bird of the sky.”

[7:23]  ¹⁰⁴ tn The Hebrew verb שָׁאָר (sha’ar) means “to be left over; to survive” in the Niphal verb stem. It is the word used in later biblical texts for the remnant that escapes judgment. See G. F. Hasel, “Semantic Values of Derivatives of the Hebrew Root só’r,” AUSS 11 (1973): 152-69.

[7:24]  ¹⁰⁵ sn The Hebrew verb translated “prevailed over” suggests that the waters were stronger than the earth. The earth and everything in it were no match for the return of the chaotic deep.

[8:1]  ¹⁰⁶ tn The Hebrew word translated “remembered” often carries the sense of acting in accordance with what is remembered, i.e., fulfilling covenant promises (see B. S. Childs, Memory and Tradition in Israel [SBT], especially p. 34).

[8:1]  ¹⁰⁷ tn Heb “to pass over.”

[8:2]  ¹⁰⁸ tn Some (e.g., NIV) translate the preterite verb forms in this verse as past perfects (e.g., “had been closed”), for it seems likely that the sources of the water would have stopped before the waters receded.

[8:3]  ¹⁰⁹ tn The construction combines a Qal preterite from שׁוּב (shuv) with its infinitive absolute to indicate continuous action. The infinitive absolute from הָלָךְ (halakh) is included for emphasis: “the waters returned…going and returning.”

[8:3]  ¹¹⁰ tn Heb “the waters.” The pronoun (“they”) has been employed in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:3]  ¹¹¹ tn The vav (ו) consecutive with the preterite here describes the consequence of the preceding action.

[8:4]  ¹¹² tn Heb “on the mountains of Ararat.” Obviously a boat (even one as large as the ark) cannot rest on multiple mountains. Perhaps (1) the preposition should be translated “among,” or (2) the plural “mountains” should be understood in the sense of “mountain range” (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 53). A more probable option (3) is that the plural indicates an indefinite singular, translated “one of the mountains” (see GKC 400 §124.o).

[8:5]  ¹¹³ tn Heb “the waters were going and lessening.” The perfect verb form הָיָה (hayah) is used as an auxiliary verb with the infinitive absolute חָסוֹר (khasor, “lessening”), while the infinitive absolute הָלוֹךְ (halokh) indicates continuous action.

[8:5]  ¹¹⁴ tn Or “could be seen.”

[8:6]  ¹¹⁵ tn The introductory verbal form וַיְהִי (vayÿhi), traditionally rendered “and it came to pass,” serves as a temporal indicator and has not been translated here.

[8:6]  ¹¹⁶ tn Heb “opened the window in the ark which he had made.” The perfect tense (“had made”) refers to action preceding the opening of the window, and is therefore rendered as a past perfect. Since in English “had made” could refer to either the ark or the window, the order of the phrases was reversed in the translation to clarify that the window is the referent.

[8:7]  ¹¹⁷ tn Heb “and it went out, going out and returning.” The Hebrew verb יָצָא (yatsa’), translated here “flying,” is modified by two infinitives absolute indicating that the raven went back and forth.

[8:8]  ¹¹⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Noah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:8]  ¹¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text adds “from him.” This has not been translated for stylistic reasons, because it is redundant in English.

[8:8]  ¹²⁰ tn The Hebrew verb קָלָל (qalal) normally means “to be light, to be slight”; it refers here to the waters receding.

[8:9]  ¹²¹ tn The words “still covered” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:9]  ¹²² tn Heb “him”; the referent (Noah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:9]  ¹²³ tn Heb “it”; the referent (the dove) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:9]  ¹²⁴ tn Heb “and he brought it to himself to the ark.”

[8:11]  ¹²⁵ tn The clause introduced by vav (ו) consecutive is translated as a temporal clause subordinated to the following clause.

[8:11]  ¹²⁶ tn The deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to the olive leaf. It invites readers to enter into the story, as it were, and look at the olive leaf with their own eyes.

[8:12]  ¹²⁷ tn The word “again” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:12]  ¹²⁸ tn Heb “it did not again return to him still.” For a study of this section of the flood narrative, see W. O. E. Oesterley, “The Dove with the Olive Leaf (Gen VIII 8–11),” ExpTim 18 (1906/07): 377-78.

[8:13]  ¹²⁹ tn Heb In the six hundred and first year.” Since this refers to the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life, the word “Noah’s” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[8:13]  ¹³⁰ tn Heb “and saw and look.” As in v. 11, the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) invites readers to enter into the story, as it were, and look at the dry ground with their own eyes.

[8:14]  ¹³¹ tn In v. 13 the ground (הָאֲדָמָה, ha’adamah) is dry; now the earth (הָאָרֶץ, ha’arets) is dry.

[8:17]  ¹³² tn The words “bring out” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:17]  ¹³³ tn Following the Hiphil imperative, “bring out,” the three perfect verb forms with vav (ו) consecutive carry an imperatival nuance. For a discussion of the Hebrew construction here and the difficulty of translating it into English, see S. R. Driver, A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew, 124-25.

[8:17]  ¹³⁴ tn Heb “and let them swarm in the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

[8:20]  ¹³⁵ sn Offered burnt offerings on the altar. F. D. Maurice includes a chapter on the sacrifice of Noah in The Doctrine of Sacrifice. The whole burnt offering, according to Leviticus 1, represented the worshiper’s complete surrender and dedication to the Lord. After the flood Noah could see that God was not only a God of wrath, but a God of redemption and restoration. The one who escaped the catastrophe could best express his gratitude and submission through sacrificial worship, acknowledging God as the sovereign of the universe.

[8:21]  ¹³⁶ tn The Lord “smelled” (וַיָּרַח, vayyarakh) a “soothing smell” (רֵיחַ הַנִּיהֹחַ, reakh hannihoakh). The object forms a cognate accusative with the verb. The language is anthropomorphic. The offering had a sweet aroma that pleased or soothed. The expression in Lev 1 signifies that God accepts the offering with pleasure, and in accepting the offering he accepts the worshiper.

[8:21]  ¹³⁷ tn Heb “and the Lord said.”

[8:21]  ¹³⁸ tn Heb “in his heart.”

[8:21]  ¹³⁹ tn Here the Hebrew word translated “curse” is קָלָל (qalal), used in the Piel verbal stem.

[8:21]  ¹⁴⁰ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) can be used in a concessive sense (see BDB 473 s.v. כִּי), which makes good sense in this context. Its normal causal sense (“for”) does not fit the context here very well.

[8:21]  ¹⁴¹ tn Heb “the inclination of the heart of humankind.”

[8:21]  ¹⁴² tn Heb “from his youth.”

[8:22]  ¹⁴³ tn Heb “yet all the days of the earth.” The idea is “[while there are] yet all the days of the earth,” meaning, “as long as the earth exists.”

[8:22]  ¹⁴⁴ tn Heb “seed,” which stands here by metonymy for the time when seed is planted.

[9:2]  ¹⁴⁵ tn Heb “and fear of you and dread of you will be upon every living creature of the earth and upon every bird of the sky.” The suffixes on the nouns “fear” and “dread” are objective genitives. The animals will fear humans from this time forward.

[9:2]  ¹⁴⁶ tn Heb “into your hand are given.” The “hand” signifies power. To say the animals have been given into the hands of humans means humans have been given authority over them.

[9:3]  ¹⁴⁷ tn Heb “every moving thing that lives for you will be for food.”

[9:3]  ¹⁴⁸ tn The words “I gave you” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[9:3]  ¹⁴⁹ tn The perfect verb form describes the action that accompanies the declaration.

[9:4]  ¹⁵⁰ tn Heb “only.”

[9:4]  ¹⁵¹ tn Or “flesh.”

[9:4]  ¹⁵² tn Heb “its life, its blood.” The second word is in apposition to the first, explaining what is meant by “its life.” Since the blood is equated with life, meat that had the blood in it was not to be eaten.

[9:4]  ¹⁵³ tn The words “in it” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[9:5]  ¹⁵⁴ tn Again the text uses apposition to clarify what kind of blood is being discussed: “your blood, [that is] for your life.” See C. L. Dewar, “The Biblical Use of the Term ‘Blood,’” JTS 4 (1953): 204-8.

[9:5]  ¹⁵⁵ tn The word “punishment” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarification. The verb דָּרָשׁ (darash) means “to require, to seek, to ask for, to exact.” Here it means that God will exact punishment for the taking of a life. See R. Mawdsley, “Capital Punishment in Gen. 9:6,” CentBib 18 (1975): 20-25.

[9:5]  ¹⁵⁶ tn Heb “from the hand of,” which means “out of the hand of” or “out of the power of” and is nearly identical in sense to the preposition מִן (min) alone.

[9:5]  ¹⁵⁷ tn Heb “and from the hand of the man.” The article has a generic function, indicating the class, i.e., humankind.

[9:5]  ¹⁵⁸ tn Heb “of the man.”

[9:5]  ¹⁵⁹ tn Heb “from the hand of a man, his brother.” The point is that God will require the blood of someone who kills, since the person killed is a relative (“brother”) of the killer. The language reflects Noah’s situation (after the flood everyone would be part of Noah’s extended family), but also supports the concept of the brotherhood of humankind. According to the Genesis account the entire human race descended from Noah.

[9:6]  ¹⁶⁰ tn Heb “the blood of man.”

[9:6]  ¹⁶¹ tn Heb “by man,” a generic term here for other human beings.

[9:6]  ¹⁶² sn See the notes on the words “humankind” and “likeness” in Gen 1:26, as well as J. Barr, “The Image of God in the Book of Genesis – A Study of Terminology,” BJRL 51 (1968/69): 11-26.

[9:6]  ¹⁶³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:7]  ¹⁶⁴ sn The disjunctive clause (conjunction + pronominal subject + verb) here indicates a strong contrast to what has preceded. Against the backdrop of the warnings about taking life, God now instructs the people to produce life, using terms reminiscent of the mandate given to Adam (Gen 1:28).

[9:8]  ¹⁶⁵ tn Heb “to Noah and to his sons with him, saying.”

[9:9]  ¹⁶⁶ tn Heb “I, look, I confirm.” The particle הִנְנִי (hinni) used with the participle מֵקִים (meqim) gives the sense of immediacy or imminence, as if to say, “Look! I am now confirming.”

[9:9]  ¹⁶⁷ tn The three pronominal suffixes (translated “you,” “your,” and “you”) are masculine plural. As v. 8 indicates, Noah and his sons are addressed.

[9:10]  ¹⁶⁸ tn The verbal repetition is apparently for emphasis.

[9:11]  ¹⁶⁹ tn The verb וַהֲקִמֹתִי (vahaqimoti) is a perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive and should be translated with the English present tense, just as the participle at the beginning of the speech was (v. 9). Another option is to translate both forms with the English future tense (“I will confirm”).

[9:11]  ¹⁷⁰ tn Heb “all flesh.”

[9:11]  ¹⁷¹ tn Heb “cut off.”

[9:11]  ¹⁷² tn Heb “and all flesh will not be cut off again by the waters of the flood.”

[9:12]  ¹⁷³ tn Heb “sign.”

[9:12]  ¹⁷⁴ sn On the making of covenants in Genesis, see W. F. Albright, “The Hebrew Expression for ‘Making a Covenant’ in Pre-Israelite Documents,” BASOR 121 (1951): 21-22.

[9:12]  ¹⁷⁵ tn Heb “between me and between you.”

[9:12]  ¹⁷⁶ tn The words “a covenant” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[9:12]  ¹⁷⁷ tn The Hebrew term עוֹלָם (’olam) means “ever, forever, lasting, perpetual.” The covenant would extend to subsequent generations.

[9:13]  ¹⁷⁸ tn The translation assumes that the perfect verbal form is used rhetorically, emphasizing the certainty of the action. Other translation options include “I have placed” (present perfect; cf. NIV, NRSV) and “I place” (instantaneous perfect; cf. NEB).

[9:13]  ¹⁷⁹ sn The Hebrew word קֶשֶׁת (qeshet) normally refers to a warrior’s bow. Some understand this to mean that God the warrior hangs up his battle bow at the end of the flood, indicating he is now at peace with humankind, but others question the legitimacy of this proposal. See C. Westermann, Genesis, 1:473, and G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:196.

[9:13]  ¹⁸⁰ tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here has the same aspectual function as the preceding perfect of certitude.

[9:14]  ¹⁸¹ tn The temporal indicator (וְהָיָה, vÿhayah, conjunction + the perfect verb form), often translated “it will be,” anticipates a future development.

[9:15]  ¹⁸² tn Heb “which [is] between me and between you.”

[9:15]  ¹⁸³ tn Heb “all flesh.”

[9:15]  ¹⁸⁴ tn Heb “to destroy.”

[9:15]  ¹⁸⁵ tn Heb “all flesh.”

[9:16]  ¹⁸⁶ tn The translation assumes that the infinitive לִזְכֹּר (lizkor, “to remember”) here expresses the result of seeing the rainbow. Another option is to understand it as indicating purpose, in which case it could be translated, “I will look at it so that I may remember.”

[9:17]  ¹⁸⁷ tn Heb “all flesh.”

[9:18]  ¹⁸⁸ sn The concluding disjunctive clause is parenthetical. It anticipates the following story, which explains that the Canaanites, Ham’s descendants through Canaan, were cursed because they shared the same moral abandonment that their ancestor displayed. See A. van Selms, “The Canaanites in the Book of Genesis,” OTS 12 (1958): 182-213.

[9:19]  ¹⁸⁹ tn Heb “was scattered.” The verb פָּצָה (patsah, “to scatter” [Niphal, “to be scattered”]) figures prominently in story of the dispersion of humankind in chap. 11.

[9:20]  ¹⁹⁰ sn The epithet a man of the soil indicates that Noah was a farmer.

[9:20]  ¹⁹¹ tn Or “Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard”; Heb “and Noah, a man of the ground, began and he planted a vineyard.”

[9:21]  ¹⁹² tn The Hebrew verb גָּלָה (galah) in the Hitpael verbal stem (וַיִּתְגַּל, vayyitggal) means “to uncover oneself” or “to be uncovered.” Noah became overheated because of the wine and uncovered himself in the tent.

[9:22]  ¹⁹³ sn For the second time (see v. 18) the text informs the reader of the relationship between Ham and Canaan. Genesis 10 will explain that Canaan was the ancestor of the Canaanite tribes living in the promised land.

[9:22]  ¹⁹⁴ tn Some would translate “had sexual relations with,” arguing that Ham committed a homosexual act with his drunken father for which he was cursed. However, the expression “see nakedness” usually refers to observation of another’s nakedness, not a sexual act (see Gen 42:9, 12 where “nakedness” is used metaphorically to convey the idea of “weakness” or “vulnerability”; Deut 23:14 where “nakedness” refers to excrement; Isa 47:3; Ezek 16:37; Lam 1:8). The following verse (v. 23) clearly indicates that visual observation, not a homosexual act, is in view here. In Lev 20:17 the expression “see nakedness” does appear to be a euphemism for sexual intercourse, but the context there, unlike that of Gen 9:22, clearly indicates that in that passage sexual contact is in view. The expression “see nakedness” does not in itself suggest a sexual connotation. Some relate Gen 9:22 to Lev 18:6-11, 15-19, where the expression “uncover [another’s] nakedness” (the Piel form of גָּלָה, galah) refers euphemistically to sexual intercourse. However, Gen 9:22 does not say Ham “uncovered” the nakedness of his father. According to the text, Noah uncovered himself; Ham merely saw his father naked. The point of the text is that Ham had no respect for his father. Rather than covering his father up, he told his brothers. Noah then gave an oracle that Ham’s descendants, who would be characterized by the same moral abandonment, would be cursed. Leviticus 18 describes that greater evil of the Canaanites (see vv. 24-28).

[9:23]  ¹⁹⁵ tn The word translated “garment” has the Hebrew definite article on it. The article may simply indicate that the garment is definite and vivid in the mind of the narrator, but it could refer instead to Noah’s garment. Did Ham bring it out when he told his brothers?

[9:23]  ¹⁹⁶ tn Heb “their faces [were turned] back.”

[9:24]  ¹⁹⁷ tn Heb “his wine,” used here by metonymy for the drunken stupor it produced.

[9:24]  ¹⁹⁸ tn Heb “he knew.”

[9:24]  ¹⁹⁹ tn The Hebrew verb עָשָׂה (’asah, “to do”) carries too general a sense to draw the conclusion that Ham had to have done more than look on his father’s nakedness and tell his brothers.

[9:25]  ²⁰⁰ sn For more on the curse, see H. C. Brichto, The Problem of “Curse” in the Hebrew Bible (JBLMS), and J. Scharbert, TDOT 1:405-18.

[9:25]  ²⁰¹ sn Cursed be Canaan. The curse is pronounced on Canaan, not Ham. Noah sees a problem in Ham’s character, and on the basis of that he delivers a prophecy about the future descendants who will live in slavery to such things and then be controlled by others. (For more on the idea of slavery in general, see E. M. Yamauchi, “Slaves of God,” BETS 9 [1966]: 31-49). In a similar way Jacob pronounced oracles about his sons based on their revealed character (see Gen 49).

[9:25]  ²⁰² tn Heb “a servant of servants” (עֶבֶד עֲבָדִים, ’eved ’avadim), an example of the superlative genitive. It means Canaan will become the most abject of slaves.

[9:26]  ²⁰³ tn Heb “blessed be.”

[9:26]  ²⁰⁴ tn Heb “a slave to him”; the referent (Shem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:27]  ²⁰⁵ tn Heb “may God enlarge Japheth.” The words “territory and numbers” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:27]  ²⁰⁶ tn In this context the prefixed verbal form is a jussive (note the distinct jussive forms both before and after this in vv. 26 and 27).

[10:1]  ²⁰⁷ tn The title אֵלֶּה תּוֹלְדֹת (’elle tolÿdot, here translated as “This is the account”) here covers 10:1–11:9, which contains the so-called Table of Nations and the account of how the nations came to be dispersed.

[10:1]  ²⁰⁸ sn Sons were born to them. A vertical genealogy such as this encompasses more than the names of sons. The list includes cities, tribes, and even nations. In a loose way, the names in the list have some derivation or connection to the three ancestors.

[10:1]  ²⁰⁹ tn It appears that the Table of Nations is a composite of at least two ancient sources: Some sections begin with the phrase “the sons of” (בְּנֵי, bÿne) while other sections use “begot” (יָלָד, yalad). It may very well be that the “sons of” list was an old, “bare bones” list that was retained in the family records, while the “begot” sections were editorial inserts by the writer of Genesis, reflecting his special interests. See A. P. Ross, “The Table of Nations in Genesis 10 – Its Structure,” BSac 137 (1980): 340-53; idem, “The Table of Nations in Genesis 10 – Its Content,” BSac 138 (1981): 22-34.

[10:2]  ²¹⁰ sn The Greek form of the name Japheth, Iapetos, is used in Greek tradition for the ancestor of the Greeks.

[10:2]  ²¹¹ sn Gomer was the ancestor of the Cimmerians. For a discussion of the Cimmerians see E. M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier (SBA), 49-61.

[10:2]  ²¹² sn For a discussion of various proposals concerning the descendants of Magog see E. M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier (SBA), 22-24.

[10:2]  ²¹³ sn Madai was the ancestor of the Medes, who lived east of Assyria.

[10:2]  ²¹⁴ sn Javan was the father of the Hellenic race, the Ionians who lived in western Asia Minor.

[10:2]  ²¹⁵ sn Tubal was the ancestor of militaristic tribes that lived north of the Black Sea. For a discussion of ancient references to Tubal see E. M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier (SBA), 24-26.

[10:2]  ²¹⁶ sn Meshech was the ancestor of the people known in Assyrian records as the Musku. For a discussion of ancient references to them see E. M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier (SBA), 24-26.

[10:2]  ²¹⁷ sn Tiras was the ancestor of the Thracians, some of whom possibly became the Pelasgian pirates of the Aegean.

[10:3]  ²¹⁸ sn The descendants of Gomer were all northern tribes of the Upper Euphrates.

[10:3]  ²¹⁹ sn Askenaz was the ancestor of a northern branch of Indo-Germanic tribes, possibly Scythians. For discussion see E. M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier (SBA), 63.

[10:3]  ²²⁰ sn The descendants of Riphath lived in a district north of the road from Haran to Carchemish.

[10:3]  ²²¹ sn Togarmah is also mentioned in Ezek 38:6, where it refers to Til-garimmu, the capital of Kammanu, which bordered Tabal in eastern Turkey. See E. M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier (SBA), 26, n. 28.

[10:4]  ²²² sn The descendants of Elishah populated Cyprus.

[10:4]  ²²³ sn The descendants of Tarshish settled along the southern coast of what is modern Turkey. However, some identify the site Tarshish (see Jonah 1:3) with Sardinia or Spain.

[10:4]  ²²⁴ sn The name Kittim is associated with Cyprus, as well as coastlands east of Rhodes. It is used in later texts to refer to the Romans.

[10:4]  ²²⁵ tc Most of the MT mss read “Dodanim” here, but 1 Chr 1:7 has “Rodanim,” perhaps referring to the island of Rhodes. But the Qere reading in 1 Chr 1:7 suggests “Dodanim.” Dodona is one of the most ancient and revered spots in ancient Greece.

[10:6]  ²²⁶ sn The descendants of Cush settled in Nubia (Ethiopia).

[10:6]  ²²⁷ sn The descendants of Mizraim settled in Upper and Lower Egypt.

[10:6]  ²²⁸ sn The descendants of Put settled in Libya.

[10:6]  ²²⁹ sn The descendants of Canaan lived in the region of Phoenicia (Palestine).

[10:7]  ²³⁰ sn The descendants of Seba settled in Upper Egypt along the Nile.

[10:7]  ²³¹ sn The Hebrew name Havilah apparently means “stretch of sand” (see HALOT 297 s.v. חֲוִילָה). Havilah’s descendants settled in eastern Arabia.

[10:7]  ²³² sn The descendants of Sabtah settled near the western shore of the Persian Gulf in ancient Hadhramaut.

[10:7]  ²³³ sn The descendants of Raamah settled in southwest Arabia.

[10:7]  ²³⁴ sn The descendants of Sabteca settled in Samudake, east toward the Persian Gulf.

[10:7]  ²³⁵ sn Sheba became the name of a kingdom in southwest Arabia.

[10:7]  ²³⁶ sn The name Dedan is associated with àUla in northern Arabia.

[10:8]  ²³⁷ tn Heb “fathered.” Embedded within Cush’s genealogy is an account of Nimrod, a mighty warrior. There have been many attempts to identify him, but none are convincing.

[10:9]  ²³⁸ tn The Hebrew word for “hunt” is צַיִד (tsayid), which is used on occasion for hunting men (1 Sam 24:12; Jer 16:16; Lam 3:15).

[10:9]  ²³⁹ tn Another option is to take the divine name here, לִפְנֵי יִהוָה (lifne yÿhvah, “before the Lord [YHWH]”), as a means of expressing the superlative degree. In this case one may translate “Nimrod was the greatest hunter in the world.”

[10:10]  ²⁴⁰ tn Heb “beginning.” E. A. Speiser, Genesis (AB), 67, suggests “mainstays,” citing Jer 49:35 as another text where the Hebrew noun is so used.

[10:10]  ²⁴¹ tn Or “Babylon.”

[10:10]  ²⁴² sn Erech (ancient Uruk, modern Warka), one of the most ancient civilizations, was located southeast of Babylon.

[10:10]  ²⁴³ sn Akkad, or ancient Agade, was associated with Sargon and located north of Babylon.

[10:10]  ²⁴⁴ tn No such place is known in Shinar (i.e., Babylonia). Therefore some have translated the Hebrew term כַלְנֵה (khalneh) as “all of them,” referring to the three previous names (cf. NRSV).

[10:10]  ²⁴⁵ sn Shinar is another name for Babylonia.

[10:11]  ²⁴⁶ tn The subject of the verb translated “went” is probably still Nimrod. However, it has also been interpreted that “Ashur went,” referring to a derivative power.

[10:11]  ²⁴⁷ tn Heb “Asshur.”

[10:11]  ²⁴⁸ sn Nineveh was an ancient Assyrian city situated on the Tigris River.

[10:11]  ²⁴⁹ sn The name Rehoboth-Ir means “and broad streets of a city,” perhaps referring to a suburb of Nineveh.

[10:11]  ²⁵⁰ sn Calah (modern Nimrud) was located twenty miles north of Nineveh.

[10:12]  ²⁵¹ tn Heb “and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; it [i.e., Calah] is the great city.”

[10:13]  ²⁵² sn Mizraim is the Hebrew name for Egypt (cf. NRSV).

[10:13]  ²⁵³ tn Heb “fathered.”

[10:13]  ²⁵⁴ sn The Ludites were African tribes west of the Nile Delta.

[10:13]  ²⁵⁵ sn The Anamites lived in North Africa, west of Egypt, near Cyrene.

[10:13]  ²⁵⁶ sn The Lehabites are identified with the Libyans.

[10:13]  ²⁵⁷ sn The Naphtuhites lived in Lower Egypt (the Nile Delta region).

[10:14]  ²⁵⁸ sn The Pathrusites are known in Egyptian as P-to-reshi; they resided in Upper Egypt.

[10:14]  ²⁵⁹ sn The Casluhites lived in Crete and eventually settled east of the Egyptian Delta, between Egypt and Canaan.

[10:14]  ²⁶⁰ tn Several commentators prefer to reverse the order of the words to put this clause after the next word, since the Philistines came from Crete (where the Caphtorites lived). But the table may suggest migration rather than lineage, and the Philistines, like the Israelites, came through the Nile Delta region of Egypt. For further discussion of the origin and migration of the Philistines, see D. M. Howard, “Philistines,” Peoples of the Old Testament World, 232.

[10:14]  ²⁶¹ sn The Caphtorites resided in Crete, but in Egyptian literature Caphtor refers to “the region beyond” the Mediterranean.

[10:15]  ²⁶² tn Heb “fathered.”

[10:15]  ²⁶³ sn Sidon was the foremost city in Phoenicia; here Sidon may be the name of its founder.

[10:15]  ²⁶⁴ tn Some see a reference to “Hittites” here (cf. NIV), but this seems unlikely. See the note on the phrase “sons of Heth” in Gen 23:3.

[10:16]  ²⁶⁵ sn The Jebusites were the Canaanite inhabitants of ancient Jerusalem.

[10:16]  ²⁶⁶ sn Here Amorites refers to smaller groups of Canaanite inhabitants of the mountainous regions of Palestine, rather than the large waves of Amurru, or western Semites, who migrated to the region.

[10:16]  ²⁶⁷ sn The Girgashites are an otherwise unknown Canaanite tribe, though the name is possibly mentioned in Ugaritic texts (see G. J. Wenham, Genesis [WBC], 1:226).

[10:17]  ²⁶⁸ sn The Hivites were Canaanite tribes of a Hurrian origin.

[10:17]  ²⁶⁹ sn The Arkites lived in Arka, a city in Lebanon, north of Sidon.

[10:17]  ²⁷⁰ sn The Sinites lived in Sin, another town in Lebanon.

[10:18]  ²⁷¹ sn The Arvadites lived in the city Arvad, located on an island near the mainland close to the river El Kebir.

[10:18]  ²⁷² sn The Zemarites lived in the town Sumur, north of Arka.

[10:18]  ²⁷³ sn The Hamathites lived in Hamath on the Orontes River.

[10:19]  ²⁷⁴ tn Heb “were.”

[10:19]  ²⁷⁵ map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[10:19]  ²⁷⁶ tn Heb “as you go.”

[10:19]  ²⁷⁷ tn Heb “as you go.”

[10:21]  ²⁷⁸ tn Heb “And to Shem was born.”

[10:21]  ²⁷⁹ tn Or “whose older brother was Japheth.” Some translations render Japheth as the older brother, understanding the adjective הַגָּדוֹל (haggadol, “older”) as modifying Japheth. However, in Hebrew when a masculine singular definite attributive adjective follows the sequence masculine singular construct noun + proper name, the adjective invariably modifies the noun in construct, not the proper name. Such is the case here. See Deut 11:7; Judg 1:13; 2:7; 3:9; 9:5; 2 Kgs 15:35; 2 Chr 27:3; Neh 3:30; Jer 13:9; 36:10; Ezek 10:19; 11:1.

[10:22]  ²⁸⁰ sn The Hebrew name Elam (עֵילָם, ’elam) means “highland.” The Elamites were a non-Semitic people who lived east of Babylon.

[10:22]  ²⁸¹ sn Asshur is the name for the Assyrians. Asshur was the region in which Nimrod expanded his power (see v. 11, where the name is also mentioned). When names appear in both sections of a genealogical list, it probably means that there were both Hamites and Shemites living in that region in antiquity, especially if the name is a place name.

[10:22]  ²⁸² sn The descendants of Arphaxad may have lived northeast of Nineveh.

[10:22]  ²⁸³ sn Lud may have been the ancestor of the Ludbu, who lived near the Tigris River.

[10:22]  ²⁸⁴ sn Aram became the collective name of the northern tribes living in the steppes of Mesopotamia and speaking Aramaic dialects.

[10:23]  ²⁸⁵ tc The MT reads “Mash”; the LXX and 1 Chr 1:17 read “Meshech.”

[10:24]  ²⁸⁶ tn Heb “fathered.”

[10:24]  ²⁸⁷ tc The MT reads “Arphaxad fathered Shelah”; the LXX reads “Arphaxad fathered Cainan, and Cainan fathered Sala [= Shelah].” The LXX reading also appears to lie behind Luke 3:35-36.

[10:24]  ²⁸⁸ sn Genesis 11 traces the line of Shem through Eber (עֵבֶר, ’ever ) to Abraham the “Hebrew” (עִבְרִי, ’ivri).

[10:25]  ²⁸⁹ tn The expression “the earth was divided” may refer to dividing the land with canals, but more likely it anticipates the division of languages at Babel (Gen 11). The verb פָּלָג (palag, “separate, divide”) is used in Ps 55:9 for a division of languages.

[10:26]  ²⁹⁰ tn Heb “fathered.”

[10:26]  ²⁹¹ sn The name Almodad combines the Arabic article al with modad (“friend”). Almodad was the ancestor of a South Arabian people.

[10:26]  ²⁹² sn The name Sheleph may be related to Shilph, a district of Yemen; Shalph is a Yemenite tribe.

[10:26]  ²⁹³ sn The name Hazarmaveth should be equated with Hadramawt, located in Southern Arabia.

[10:26]  ²⁹⁴ sn The name Jerah means “moon.”

[10:27]  ²⁹⁵ sn Uzal was the name of the old capital of Yemen.

[10:27]  ²⁹⁶ sn The name Diklah means “date-palm.”

[10:28]  ²⁹⁷ sn Obal was a name used for several localities in Yemen.

[10:28]  ²⁹⁸ sn The name Abimael is a genuine Sabean form which means “my father, truly, he is God.”

[10:28]  ²⁹⁹ sn The descendants of Sheba lived in South Arabia, where the Joktanites were more powerful than the Hamites.

[10:29]  ³⁰⁰ sn Ophir became the name of a territory in South Arabia. Many of the references to Ophir are connected with gold (e.g., 1 Kgs 9:28, 10:11, 22:48; 1 Chr 29:4; 2 Chr 8:18, 9:10; Job 22:24, 28:16; Ps 45:9; Isa 13:12).

[10:29]  ³⁰¹ sn Havilah is listed with Ham in v. 7.

[10:30]  ³⁰² tn Heb “as you go.”

[10:32]  ³⁰³ tn Or “separated.”

[11:1]  ³⁰⁴ sn The whole earth. Here “earth” is a metonymy of subject, referring to the people who lived in the earth. Genesis 11 begins with everyone speaking a common language, but chap. 10 has the nations arranged by languages. It is part of the narrative art of Genesis to give the explanation of the event after the narration of the event. On this passage see A. P. Ross, “The Dispersion of the Nations in Genesis 11:1-9,” BSac 138 (1981): 119-38.

[11:1]  ³⁰⁵ tn Heb “one lip and one [set of] words.” The term “lip” is a metonymy of cause, putting the instrument for the intended effect. They had one language. The term “words” refers to the content of their speech. They had the same vocabulary.

[11:2]  ³⁰⁶ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:2]  ³⁰⁷ tn Or perhaps “from the east” (NRSV) or “in the east.”

[11:2]  ³⁰⁸ tn Heb “in the land of Shinar.”

[11:3]  ³⁰⁹ tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.” The Hebrew idiom may be translated “to each other” or “one to another.”

[11:3]  ³¹⁰ tn The speech contains two cohortatives of exhortation followed by their respective cognate accusatives: “let us brick bricks” (נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים, nilbbÿnah lÿvenim) and “burn for burning” (נִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה, nisrÿfah lisrefah). This stresses the intensity of the undertaking; it also reflects the Akkadian text which uses similar constructions (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 75-76).

[11:3]  ³¹¹ tn Or “bitumen” (cf. NEB, NRSV).

[11:3]  ³¹² tn The disjunctive clause gives information parenthetical to the narrative.

[11:4]  ³¹³ tn A translation of “heavens” for שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) fits this context because the Babylonian ziggurats had temples at the top, suggesting they reached to the heavens, the dwelling place of the gods.

[11:4]  ³¹⁴ tn The form וְנַעֲשֶׂה (vÿna’aseh, from the verb עשׂה, “do, make”) could be either the imperfect or the cohortative with a vav (ו) conjunction (“and let us make…”). Coming after the previous cohortative, this form expresses purpose.

[11:4]  ³¹⁵ tn The Hebrew particle פֶּן (pen) expresses a negative purpose; it means “that we be not scattered.”

[11:4]  ³¹⁶ sn The Hebrew verb פָּוָץ (pavats, translated “scatter”) is a key term in this passage. The focal point of the account is the dispersion (“scattering”) of the nations rather than the Tower of Babel. But the passage also forms a polemic against Babylon, the pride of the east and a cosmopolitan center with a huge ziggurat. To the Hebrews it was a monument to the judgment of God on pride.

[11:5]  ³¹⁷ tn Heb “the sons of man.” The phrase is intended in this polemic to portray the builders as mere mortals, not the lesser deities that the Babylonians claimed built the city.

[11:5]  ³¹⁸ tn The Hebrew text simply has בָּנוּ (banu), but since v. 8 says they left off building the city, an ingressive idea (“had started building”) should be understood here.

[11:6]  ³¹⁹ tn Heb “and one lip to all of them.”

[11:6]  ³²⁰ tn Heb “and now.” The foundational clause beginning with הֵן (hen) expresses the condition, and the second clause the result. It could be rendered “If this…then now.”

[11:6]  ³²¹ tn Heb “all that they purpose to do will not be withheld from them.”

[11:7]  ³²² tn The cohortatives mirror the cohortatives of the people. They build to ascend the heavens; God comes down to destroy their language. God speaks here to his angelic assembly. See the notes on the word “make” in 1:26 and “know” in 3:5, as well as Jub. 10:22-23, where an angel recounts this incident and says “And the Lord our God said to us…. And the Lord went down and we went down with him. And we saw the city and the tower which the sons of men built.” On the chiastic structure of the story, see G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:235.

[11:7]  ³²³ tn Heb “they will not hear, a man the lip of his neighbor.”

[11:8]  ³²⁴ tn The infinitive construct לִבְנֹת (livnot, “building”) here serves as the object of the verb “they ceased, stopped,” answering the question of what they stopped doing.

[11:9]  ³²⁵ tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.

[11:9]  ³²⁶ sn Babel. Here is the climax of the account, a parody on the pride of Babylon. In the Babylonian literature the name bab-ili meant “the gate of God,” but in Hebrew it sounds like the word for “confusion,” and so retained that connotation. The name “Babel” (בָּבֶל, bavel) and the verb translated “confused” (בָּלַל, balal) form a paronomasia (sound play). For the many wordplays and other rhetorical devices in Genesis, see J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis (SSN).

[11:11]  ³²⁷ tn The word “other” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.

[11:13]  ³²⁸ tn The word “other” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.

[11:13]  ³²⁹ tc The reading of the MT is followed in vv. 11-12; the LXX reads, “And [= when] Arphaxad had lived thirty-five years, [and] he fathered [= became the father of] Cainan. And after he fathered [= became the father of] Cainan, Arphaxad lived four hundred and thirty years and fathered [= had] [other] sons and daughters, and [then] he died. And [= when] Cainan had lived one hundred and thirty years, [and] he fathered [= became the father of] Sala [= Shelah]. And after he fathered [= became the father of] Sala [= Shelah], Cainan lived three hundred and thirty years and fathered [= had] [other] sons and daughters, and [then] he died.” See also the note on “Shelah” in Gen 10:24; the LXX reading also appears to lie behind Luke 3:35-36.

[11:15]  ³³⁰ tn Here and in vv. 16, 19, 21, 23, 25 the word “other” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for stylistic reasons.

[11:28]  ³³¹ sn The phrase of the Chaldeans is a later editorial clarification for the readers, designating the location of Ur. From all evidence there would have been no Chaldeans in existence at this early date; they are known in the time of the neo-Babylonian empire in the first millennium b.c.

[11:28]  ³³² tn Heb “upon the face of Terah his father.”

[11:29]  ³³³ sn The name Sarai (a variant spelling of “Sarah”) means “princess” (or “lady”). Sharratu was the name of the wife of the moon god Sin. The original name may reflect the culture out of which the patriarch was called, for the family did worship other gods in Mesopotamia.

[11:29]  ³³⁴ sn The name Milcah means “Queen.” But more to the point here is the fact that Malkatu was a title for Ishtar, the daughter of the moon god. If the women were named after such titles (and there is no evidence that this was the motivation for naming the girls “Princess” or “Queen”), that would not necessarily imply anything about the faith of the two women themselves.

[11:32]  ³³⁵ tn Heb “And the days of Terah were.”

[11:32]  ³³⁶ tn Heb “Terah”; the pronoun has been substituted for the proper name in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[12:1]  ³³⁷ sn The Lord called Abram while he was in Ur (see Gen 15:7; Acts 7:2); but the sequence here makes it look like it was after the family left to migrate to Canaan (11:31-32). Genesis records the call of Abram at this place in the narrative because it is the formal beginning of the account of Abram. The record of Terah was brought to its end before this beginning.

[12:1]  ³³⁸ tn The call of Abram begins with an imperative לֶךְ־לְךָ (lekh-lÿkha, “go out”) followed by three cohortatives (v. 2a) indicating purpose or consequence (“that I may” or “then I will”). If Abram leaves, then God will do these three things. The second imperative (v. 2b, literally “and be a blessing”) is subordinated to the preceding cohortatives and indicates God’s ultimate purpose in calling and blessing Abram. On the syntactical structure of vv. 1-2 see R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 37. For a similar sequence of volitive forms see Gen 45:18.

[12:1]  ³³⁹ tn The initial command is the direct imperative (לֶךְ, lekh) from the verb הָלַךְ (halakh). It is followed by the lamed preposition with a pronominal suffix (לְךָ, lÿkha) emphasizing the subject of the imperative: “you leave.”

[12:1]  ³⁴⁰ sn To the land that I will show you. The call of Abram illustrates the leading of the Lord. The command is to leave. The Lord’s word is very specific about what Abram is to leave (the three prepositional phrases narrow to his father’s household), but is not specific at all about where he is to go. God required faith, a point that Heb 11:8 notes.

[12:2]  ³⁴¹ tn The three first person verbs in v. 2a should be classified as cohortatives. The first two have pronominal suffixes, so the form itself does not indicate a cohortative. The third verb form is clearly cohortative.

[12:2]  ³⁴² sn I will bless you. The blessing of creation is now carried forward to the patriarch. In the garden God blessed Adam and Eve; in that blessing he gave them (1) a fruitful place, (2) endowed them with fertility to multiply, and (3) made them rulers over creation. That was all ruined at the fall. Now God begins to build his covenant people; in Gen 12-22 he promises to give Abram (1) a land flowing with milk and honey, (2) a great nation without number, and (3) kingship.

[12:2]  ³⁴³ tn Or “I will make you famous.”

[12:2]  ³⁴⁴ tn Heb “and be a blessing.” The verb form הְיֵה (hÿyeh) is the Qal imperative of the verb הָיָה (hayah). The vav (ו) with the imperative after the cohortatives indicates purpose or consequence. What does it mean for Abram to “be a blessing”? Will he be a channel or source of blessing for others, or a prime example of divine blessing? A similar statement occurs in Zech 8:13, where God assures his people, “You will be a blessing,” in contrast to the past when they “were a curse.” Certainly “curse” here does not refer to Israel being a source of a curse, but rather to the fact that they became a curse-word or byword among the nations, who regarded them as the epitome of an accursed people (see 2 Kgs 22:19; Jer 42:18; 44:8, 12, 22). Therefore the statement “be a blessing” seems to refer to Israel being transformed into a prime example of a blessed people, whose name will be used in blessing formulae, rather than in curses. If the statement “be a blessing” is understood in the same way in Gen 12:2, then it means that God would so bless Abram that other nations would hear of his fame and hold him up as a paradigm of divine blessing in their blessing formulae.

[12:3]  ³⁴⁵ tn The Piel cohortative has as its object a Piel participle, masculine plural. Since the Lord binds himself to Abram by covenant, those who enrich Abram in any way share in the blessings.

[12:3]  ³⁴⁶ tn In this part of God’s statement there are two significant changes that often go unnoticed. First, the parallel and contrasting participle מְקַלֶּלְךָ (mÿqallelkha) is now singular and not plural. All the versions and a few Masoretic mss read the plural. But if it had been plural, there would be no reason to change it to the singular and alter the parallelism. On the other hand, if it was indeed singular, it is easy to see why the versions would change it to match the first participle. The MT preserves the original reading: “the one who treats you lightly.” The point would be a contrast with the lavish way that God desires to bless many. The second change is in the vocabulary. The English usually says, “I will curse those who curse you.” But there are two different words for curse here. The first is קָלַל (qalal), which means “to be light” in the Qal, and in the Piel “to treat lightly, to treat with contempt, to curse.” The second verb is אָרַר (’arar), which means “to banish, to remove from the blessing.” The point is simple: Whoever treats Abram and the covenant with contempt as worthless God will banish from the blessing. It is important also to note that the verb is not a cohortative, but a simple imperfect. Since God is binding himself to Abram, this would then be an obligatory imperfect: “but the one who treats you with contempt I must curse.”

[12:3]  ³⁴⁷ tn Theoretically the Niphal 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 Abram were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in later 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 on”] themselves [or “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 12:2 predicts that Abram will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.

[12:4]  ³⁴⁸ sn So Abram left. This is the report of Abram’s obedience to God’s command (see v. 1).

[12:4]  ³⁴⁹ tn Heb “just as the Lord said to him.”

[12:4]  ³⁵⁰ tn The disjunctive clause (note the pattern conjunction + subject + implied “to be” verb) is parenthetical, telling the age of Abram when he left Haran.

[12:4]  ³⁵¹ tn Heb “was the son of five years and seventy year[s].”

[12:5]  ³⁵² tn Heb “the son of his brother.”

[12:5]  ³⁵³ tn For the semantic nuance “acquire [property]” for the verb עָשָׂה (’asah), see BDB 795 s.v. עָשָׂה.

[12:5]  ³⁵⁴ tn Heb “went out to go.”

[12:6]  ³⁵⁵ tn Or “terebinth.”

[12:6]  ³⁵⁶ sn The Hebrew word Moreh (מוֹרֶה, moreh) means “teacher.” It may well be that the place of this great oak tree was a Canaanite shrine where instruction took place.

[12:6]  ³⁵⁷ tn Heb “as far as the place of Shechem, as far as the oak of Moreh.”

[12:6]  ³⁵⁸ tn The disjunctive clause gives important information parenthetical in nature – the promised land was occupied by Canaanites.

[12:7]  ³⁵⁹ tn The same Hebrew term זֶרַע (zera’) may mean “seed” (for planting), “offspring” (occasionally of animals, but usually of people), or “descendants” depending on the context.

[12:7]  ³⁶⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[12:8]  ³⁶¹ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[12:8]  ³⁶² tn Heb “he called in the name of the Lord.” The expression refers to worshiping the Lord through prayer and sacrifice (see Gen 4:26; 13:4; 21:33; 26:25). See G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:116, 281.

[12:9]  ³⁶³ tn The Hebrew verb נָסַע (nasa’) means “to journey”; more specifically it means to pull up the tent and move to another place. The construction here uses the preterite of this verb with its infinitive absolute to stress the activity of traveling. But it also adds the infinitive absolute of הָלַךְ (halakh) to stress that the traveling was continually going on. Thus “Abram journeyed, going and journeying” becomes “Abram continually journeyed by stages.”

[12:9]  ³⁶⁴ tn Or “the South [country].”

[12:10]  ³⁶⁵ sn Abram went down to Egypt. The Abrahamic narrative foreshadows some of the events in the life of the nation of Israel. This sojourn in Egypt is typological of Israel’s bondage there. In both stories there is a famine that forces the family to Egypt, death is a danger to the males while the females are preserved alive, great plagues bring about their departure, there is a summons to stand before Pharaoh, and there is a return to the land of Canaan with great wealth.

[12:10]  ³⁶⁶ tn The Hebrew verb גּוּר (gur), traditionally rendered “to sojourn,” means “to stay for a while.” The “stranger” (traditionally “sojourner”) is one who is a temporary resident, a visitor, one who is passing through. Abram had no intention of settling down in Egypt or owning property. He was only there to wait out the famine.

[12:10]  ³⁶⁷ tn Heb “heavy in the land.” The words “in the land,” which also occur at the beginning of the verse in the Hebrew text, have not been repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[12:11]  ³⁶⁸ tn Heb “drew near to enter.”

[12:11]  ³⁶⁹ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) is deictic here; it draws attention to the following fact.

[12:11]  ³⁷⁰ tn Heb “a woman beautiful of appearance are you.”

[12:12]  ³⁷¹ tn The Piel of the verb חָיָה (khayah, “to live”) means “to keep alive, to preserve alive,” and in some places “to make alive.” See D. Marcus, “The Verb ‘to Live’ in Ugaritic,” JSS 17 (1972): 76-82.

[12:13]  ³⁷² tn Heb “say.”

[12:13]  ³⁷³ sn Tell them you are my sister. Abram’s motives may not be as selfish as they appear. He is aware of the danger to the family. His method of dealing with it is deception with a half truth, for Sarai really was his sister – but the Egyptians would not know that. Abram presumably thought that there would be negotiations for a marriage by anyone interested (as Laban does later for his sister Rebekah), giving him time to react. But the plan backfires because Pharaoh does not take the time to negotiate. There is a good deal of literature on the wife-sister issue. See (among others) E. A. Speiser, “The Wife-Sister Motif in the Patriarchal Narratives,” Oriental and Biblical Studies, 62-81; C. J. Mullo-Weir, “The Alleged Hurrian Wife-Sister Motif in Genesis,” GOT 22 (1967-1970): 14-25.

[12:13]  ³⁷⁴ tn The Hebrew verb translated “go well” can encompass a whole range of favorable treatment, but the following clause indicates it means here that Abram’s life will be spared.

[12:13]  ³⁷⁵ tn Heb “and my life will live.”

[12:15]  ³⁷⁶ tn Heb “and the woman.” The word also means “wife”; the Hebrew article can express the possessive pronoun (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 19, §86). Here the proper name (Abram) has been used in the translation instead of a possessive pronoun (“his”) for clarity.

[12:15]  ³⁷⁷ tn The Hebrew term וַתֻּקַּח (vattuqqakh, “was taken”) is a rare verbal form, an old Qal passive preterite from the verb “to take.” It is pointed as a Hophal would be by the Masoretes, but does not have a Hophal meaning.

[12:15]  ³⁷⁸ tn The Hebrew text simply has “house of Pharaoh.” The word “house” refers to the household in general, more specifically to the royal harem.

[12:16]  ³⁷⁹ sn He did treat Abram well. The construction of the parenthetical disjunctive clause, beginning with the conjunction on the prepositional phrase, draws attention to the irony of the story. Abram wanted Sarai to lie “so that it would go well” with him. Though he lost Sarai to Pharaoh, it did go well for him – he received a lavish bride price. See also G. W. Coats, “Despoiling the Egyptians,” VT 18 (1968): 450-57.

[12:16]  ³⁸⁰ tn Heb “and there was to him.”

[12:17]  ³⁸¹ tn The cognate accusative adds emphasis to the verbal sentence: “he plagued with great plagues,” meaning the Lord inflicted numerous plagues, probably diseases (see Exod 15:26). The adjective “great” emphasizes that the plagues were severe and overwhelming.

[12:18]  ³⁸² tn The demonstrative pronoun translated “this” adds emphasis: “What in the world have you done to me?” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).

[12:19]  ³⁸³ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive here expresses consequence.

[12:19]  ³⁸⁴ tn Heb “to me for a wife.”

[12:19]  ³⁸⁵ tn Heb “Look, your wife!”

[12:19]  ³⁸⁶ tn Heb “take and go.”

[12:20]  ³⁸⁷ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:1]  ³⁸⁸ tn Or “the South [country]” (also in v. 3).

[13:1]  ³⁸⁹ tn Heb “And Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all which was his, and Lot with him, to the Negev.”

[13:2]  ³⁹⁰ tn Heb “heavy.”

[13:2]  ³⁹¹ tn This parenthetical clause, introduced by the vav (ו) disjunctive (translated “now”), provides information necessary to the point of the story.

[13:3]  ³⁹² tn Heb “on his journeys”; the verb and noun combination means to pick up the tents and move from camp to camp.

[13:3]  ³⁹³ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[13:3]  ³⁹⁴ tn The words “he returned” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[13:3]  ³⁹⁵ tn Heb “where his tent had been.”

[13:4]  ³⁹⁶ tn Heb “to the place of the altar which he had made there in the beginning” (cf. Gen 12:7-8).

[13:4]  ³⁹⁷ tn Heb “he called in the name of the Lord.” The expression refers to worshiping the Lord through prayer and sacrifice (see Gen 4:26; 12:8; 21:33; 26:25). See G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:116, 281.

[13:5]  ³⁹⁸ tn Heb “was going.”

[13:5]  ³⁹⁹ tn The Hebrew idiom is “to Lot…there was,” the preposition here expressing possession.

[13:6]  ⁴⁰⁰ tn The potential nuance for the perfect tense is necessary here, and supported by the parallel clause that actually uses “to be able.”

[13:6]  ⁴⁰¹ tn The infinitive construct לָשֶׁבֶת (lashevet, from יָשַׁב, yashav) explains what it was that the land could not support: “the land could not support them to live side by side.” See further J. C. de Moor, “Lexical Remarks Concerning Yahad and Yahdaw,” VT 7 (1957): 350-55.

[13:6]  ⁴⁰² tn The same infinitive occurs here, serving as the object of the verb.

[13:7]  ⁴⁰³ tn The Hebrew term רִיב (riv) means “strife, conflict, quarreling.” In later texts it has the meaning of “legal controversy, dispute.” See B. Gemser, “The rîb – or Controversy – Pattern in Hebrew Mentality,” Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient Near East [VTSup], 120-37.

[13:7]  ⁴⁰⁴ sn Since the quarreling was between the herdsmen, the dispute was no doubt over water and vegetation for the animals.

[13:7]  ⁴⁰⁵ tn This parenthetical clause, introduced with the vav (ו) disjunctive (translated “now”), again provides critical information. It tells in part why the land cannot sustain these two bedouins, and it also hints of the danger of weakening the family by inner strife.

[13:8]  ⁴⁰⁶ tn Heb “men, brothers [are] we.” Here “brothers” describes the closeness of the relationship, but could be misunderstood if taken literally, since Abram was Lot’s uncle.

[13:9]  ⁴⁰⁷ tn The words “you go” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons both times in this verse.

[13:10]  ⁴⁰⁸ tn Heb “lifted up his eyes and saw.” The expression draws attention to the act of looking, indicating that Lot took a good look. It also calls attention to the importance of what was seen.

[13:10]  ⁴⁰⁹ tn Or “plain”; Heb “circle.”

[13:10]  ⁴¹⁰ tn The words “he noticed” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[13:10]  ⁴¹¹ sn Obliterated. The use of the term “destroy” (שַׁחֵת, shakhet) is reminiscent of the Noahic flood (Gen 6:13). Both at the flood and in Sodom the place was obliterated by catastrophe and only one family survived (see C. Westermann, Genesis, 2:178).

[13:10]  ⁴¹² tn This short temporal clause (preposition + Piel infinitive construct + subjective genitive + direct object) is strategically placed in the middle of the lavish descriptions to sound an ominous note. The entire clause is parenthetical in nature. Most English translations place the clause at the end of v. 10 for stylistic reasons.

[13:10]  ⁴¹³ sn The narrative places emphasis on what Lot saw so that the reader can appreciate how it aroused his desire for the best land. It makes allusion to the garden of the Lord and to the land of Egypt for comparison. Just as the tree in the garden of Eden had awakened Eve’s desire, so the fertile valley attracted Lot. And just as certain memories of Egypt would cause the Israelites to want to turn back and abandon the trek to the promised land, so Lot headed for the good life.

[13:11]  ⁴¹⁴ tn Heb “Lot traveled.” The proper name has not been repeated in the translation at this point for stylistic reasons.

[13:11]  ⁴¹⁵ tn Heb “a man from upon his brother.”

[13:12]  ⁴¹⁶ tn Or “the cities of the plain”; Heb “[the cities of] the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

[13:13]  ⁴¹⁷ tn Here is another significant parenthetical clause in the story, signaled by the vav (וו) disjunctive (translated “now”) on the noun at the beginning of the clause.

[13:13]  ⁴¹⁸ tn Heb “men.” However, this is generic in sense; it is unlikely that only the male residents of Sodom were sinners.

[13:13]  ⁴¹⁹ tn Heb “wicked and sinners against the Lord exceedingly.” The description of the sinfulness of the Sodomites is very emphatic. First, two nouns are used to form a hendiadys: “wicked and sinners” means “wicked sinners,” the first word becoming adjectival. The text is saying these were no ordinary sinners; they were wicked sinners, the type that cause pain for others. Then to this phrase is added “against the Lord,” stressing their violation of the laws of heaven and their culpability. Finally, to this is added מְאֹד (mÿ’od, “exceedingly,” translated here as “extremely”).

[13:14]  ⁴²⁰ tn Heb “and the Lord said to Abram after Lot separated himself from with him.” The disjunctive clause at the beginning of the verse signals a new scene.

[13:14]  ⁴²¹ tn Heb “lift up your eyes and see.”

[13:15]  ⁴²² tn Heb “for all the land which you see to you I will give it and to your descendants.”

[13:16]  ⁴²³ tn The translation “can be counted” (potential imperfect) is suggested by the use of יוּכַל (yukhal, “is able”) in the preceding clause.

[13:17]  ⁴²⁴ tn The connective “and” is not present in the Hebrew text; it has been supplied for purposes of English style.

[13:17]  ⁴²⁵ tn The Hitpael form הִתְהַלֵּךְ (hithallekh) means “to walk about”; it also can carry the ideas of moving about, traversing, going back and forth, or living in an area. It here has the connotation of traversing the land to survey it, to look it over.

[13:17]  ⁴²⁶ tn Heb “the land to its length and to its breadth.” This phrase has not been included in the translation because it is somewhat redundant (see the note on the word “throughout” in this verse).

[13:18]  ⁴²⁷ tn Heb “he came and lived.”

[13:18]  ⁴²⁸ tn Or “terebinths.”

[14:1]  ⁴²⁹ tn The sentence begins with the temporal indicator וַיְהִי (vayÿhi) followed by “in the days of.”

[14:1]  ⁴³⁰ sn Shinar (also in v. 9) is the region of Babylonia.

[14:1]  ⁴³¹ tn Or “king of Goyim.” The Hebrew term גּוֹיִם (goyim) means “nations,” but a number of modern translations merely transliterate the Hebrew (cf. NEB “Goyim”; NIV, NRSV “Goiim”).

[14:2]  ⁴³² tn Heb “made war.”

[14:2]  ⁴³³ sn On the geographical background of vv. 1-2 see J. P. Harland, “Sodom and Gomorrah,” The Biblical Archaeologist Reader, 1:41-75; and D. N. Freedman, “The Real Story of the Ebla Tablets, Ebla and the Cities of the Plain,” BA 41 (1978): 143-64.

[14:3]  ⁴³⁴ tn Heb “all these,” referring only to the last five kings named. The referent has been specified as “these last five kings” in the translation for clarity.

[14:3]  ⁴³⁵ tn The Hebrew verb used here means “to join together; to unite; to be allied.” It stresses close associations, especially of friendships, marriages, or treaties.

[14:3]  ⁴³⁶ sn The Salt Sea is the older name for the Dead Sea.

[14:4]  ⁴³⁷ tn The sentence simply begins with “twelve years”; it serves as an adverbial accusative giving the duration of their bondage.

[14:4]  ⁴³⁸ tn This is another adverbial accusative of time.

[14:4]  ⁴³⁹ sn The story serves as a foreshadowing of the plight of the kingdom of Israel later. Eastern powers came and forced the western kingdoms into submission. Each year, then, they would send tribute east – to keep them away. Here, in the thirteenth year, they refused to send the tribute (just as later Hezekiah rebelled against Assyria). And so in the fourteenth year the eastern powers came to put them down again. This account from Abram’s life taught future generations that God can give victory over such threats – that people did not have to live in servitude to tyrants from the east.

[14:5]  ⁴⁴⁰ tn The Hebrew verb נָכָה (nakhah) means “to attack, to strike, to smite.” In this context it appears that the strike was successful, and so a translation of “defeated” is preferable.

[14:6]  ⁴⁴¹ sn The line of attack ran down the eastern side of the Jordan Valley into the desert, and then turned and came up the valley to the cities of the plain.

[14:7]  ⁴⁴² tn Heb “they returned and came to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh).” The two verbs together form a verbal hendiadys, the first serving as the adverb: “they returned and came” means “they came again.” Most English translations do not treat this as a hendiadys, but translate “they turned back” or something similar. Since in the context, however, “came again to” does not simply refer to travel but an assault against the place, the present translation expresses this as “attacked…again.”

[14:8]  ⁴⁴³ tn Heb “against.”

[14:9]  ⁴⁴⁴ tn Or “Goyim.” See the note on the word “nations” in 14:1.

[14:9]  ⁴⁴⁵ tn The Hebrew text has simply “against.” The word “fought” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[14:10]  ⁴⁴⁶ tn Heb “Now the Valley of Siddim [was] pits, pits of tar.” This parenthetical disjunctive clause emphasizes the abundance of tar pits in the area through repetition of the noun “pits.”

[14:10]  ⁴⁴⁷ tn Or “they were defeated there.” After a verb of motion the Hebrew particle שָׁם (sham) with the directional heh (שָׁמָּה, shammah) can mean “into it, therein” (BDB 1027 s.v. שָׁם).

[14:10]  ⁴⁴⁸ tn Heb “the rest.”

[14:10]  ⁴⁴⁹ sn The reference to the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah must mean the kings along with their armies. Most of them were defeated in the valley, but some of them escaped to the hills.

[14:11]  ⁴⁵⁰ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the four victorious kings, see v. 9) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[14:12]  ⁴⁵¹ tn Heb “Lot the son of his brother.”

[14:12]  ⁴⁵² tn Heb “and.”

[14:12]  ⁴⁵³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Lot) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:12]  ⁴⁵⁴ tn This disjunctive clause is circumstantial/causal, explaining that Lot was captured because he was living in Sodom at the time.

[14:13]  ⁴⁵⁵ tn Heb “the fugitive.” The article carries a generic force or indicates that this fugitive is definite in the mind of the speaker.

[14:13]  ⁴⁵⁶ sn E. A. Speiser (Genesis [AB], 103) suggests that part of this chapter came from an outside source since it refers to Abram the Hebrew. That is not impossible, given that the narrator likely utilized traditions and genealogies that had been collected and transmitted over the years. The meaning of the word “Hebrew” has proved elusive. It may be related to the verb “to cross over,” perhaps meaning “immigrant.” Or it might be derived from the name of Abram’s ancestor Eber (see Gen 11:14-16).

[14:13]  ⁴⁵⁷ tn Or “terebinths.”

[14:13]  ⁴⁵⁸ tn Or “a brother”; or “a relative”; or perhaps “an ally.”

[14:13]  ⁴⁵⁹ tn Heb “possessors of a treaty with.” Since it is likely that the qualifying statement refers to all three (Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner) the words “all these” have been supplied in the translation to make this clear.

[14:13]  ⁴⁶⁰ tn This parenthetical disjunctive clause explains how Abram came to be living in their territory, but it also explains why they must go to war with Abram.

[14:14]  ⁴⁶¹ tn Heb “his brother,” by extension, “relative.” Here and in v. 16 the more specific term “nephew” has been used in the translation for clarity. Lot was the son of Haran, Abram’s brother (Gen 11:27).

[14:14]  ⁴⁶² tn The verb וַיָּרֶק (vayyareq) is a rare form, probably related to the word רֵיק (req, “to be empty”). If so, it would be a very figurative use: “he emptied out” (or perhaps “unsheathed”) his men. The LXX has “mustered” (cf. NEB). E. A. Speiser (Genesis [AB], 103-4) suggests reading with the Samaritan Pentateuch a verb diq, cognate with Akkadian deku, “to mobilize” troops. If this view is accepted, one must assume that a confusion of the Hebrew letters ד (dalet) and ר (resh) led to the error in the traditional Hebrew text. These two letters are easily confused in all phases of ancient Hebrew script development. The present translation is based on this view.

[14:14]  ⁴⁶³ tn The words “the invaders” have been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[14:14]  ⁴⁶⁴ sn The use of the name Dan reflects a later perspective. The Danites did not migrate to this northern territory until centuries later (see Judg 18:29). Furthermore Dan was not even born until much later. By inserting this name a scribe has clarified the location of the region.

[14:15]  ⁴⁶⁵ tn The Hebrew text simply has “night” as an adverbial accusative.

[14:15]  ⁴⁶⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:15]  ⁴⁶⁷ tn Heb “he divided himself…he and his servants.”

[14:15]  ⁴⁶⁸ tn Heb “left.” Directions in ancient Israel were given in relation to the east rather than the north.

[14:16]  ⁴⁶⁹ tn The word “stolen” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[14:16]  ⁴⁷⁰ tn The phrase “the rest of “ has been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[14:17]  ⁴⁷¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:17]  ⁴⁷² tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:17]  ⁴⁷³ sn The King’s Valley is possibly a reference to what came to be known later as the Kidron Valley.

[14:18]  ⁴⁷⁴ sn Salem is traditionally identified as the Jebusite stronghold of old Jerusalem. Accordingly, there has been much speculation about its king. Though some have identified him with the preincarnate Christ or with Noah’s son Shem, it is far more likely that Melchizedek was a Canaanite royal priest whom God used to renew the promise of the blessing to Abram, perhaps because Abram considered Melchizedek his spiritual superior. But Melchizedek remains an enigma. In a book filled with genealogical records he appears on the scene without a genealogy and then disappears from the narrative. In Psalm 110 the Lord declares that the Davidic king is a royal priest after the pattern of Melchizedek.

[14:18]  ⁴⁷⁵ tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause significantly identifies Melchizedek as a priest as well as a king.

[14:19]  ⁴⁷⁶ tn The preposition לְ (lamed) introduces the agent after the passive participle.

[14:19]  ⁴⁷⁷ 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.”

[14:19]  ⁴⁷⁸ tn The terms translated “heaven” and “earth” are both objective genitives after the participle in construct.

[14:20]  ⁴⁷⁹ tn Heb “blessed be.” For God to be “blessed” means that is praised. His reputation is enriched in the world as his name is praised.

[14:20]  ⁴⁸⁰ sn Who delivered. The Hebrew verb מִגֵּן (miggen, “delivered”) foreshadows the statement by God to Abram in Gen 15:1, “I am your shield” (מָגֵן, magen). Melchizedek provided a theological interpretation of Abram’s military victory.

[14:20]  ⁴⁸¹ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Melchizedek) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:22]  ⁴⁸² tn Abram takes an oath, raising his hand as a solemn gesture. The translation understands the perfect tense as having an instantaneous nuance: “Here and now I raise my hand.”

[14:22]  ⁴⁸³ tn The words “and vow” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[14:23]  ⁴⁸⁴ tn The oath formula is elliptical, reading simply: “…if I take.” It is as if Abram says, “[May the Lord deal with me] if I take,” meaning, “I will surely not take.” The positive oath would add the negative adverb and be the reverse: “[God will deal with me] if I do not take,” meaning, “I certainly will.”

[14:23]  ⁴⁸⁵ tn The Hebrew text adds the independent pronoun (“I”) to the verb form for emphasis.

[14:24]  ⁴⁸⁶ tn The words “I will take nothing” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[14:24]  ⁴⁸⁷ tn Heb “except only what the young men have eaten.”

[15:1]  ⁴⁸⁸ sn The noun “shield” recalls the words of Melchizedek in 14:20. If God is the shield, then God will deliver. Abram need not fear reprisals from those he has fought.

[15:1]  ⁴⁸⁹ tn Heb “your reward [in] great abundance.” When the phrase הַרְבּה מְאֹדֵ (harbeh mÿod) follows a noun it invariably modifies the noun and carries the nuance “very great” or “in great abundance.” (See its use in Gen 41:49; Deut 3:5; Josh 22:8; 2 Sam 8:8; 12:2; 1 Kgs 4:29; 10:10-11; 2 Chr 14:13; 32:27; Jer 40:12.) Here the noun “reward” is in apposition to “shield” and refers by metonymy to God as the source of the reward. Some translate here “your reward will be very great” (cf. NASB, NRSV), taking the statement as an independent clause and understanding the Hiphil infinitive absolute as a substitute for a finite verb. However, the construction הַרְבּה מְאֹדֵ is never used this way elsewhere, where it either modifies a noun (see the texts listed above) or serves as an adverb in relation to a finite verb (see Josh 13:1; 1 Sam 26:21; 2 Sam 12:30; 2 Kgs 21:16; 1 Chr 20:2; Neh 2:2).

[15:2]  ⁴⁹⁰ tn The Hebrew text has אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה (’adonay yehvih, “Master, Lord”). Since the tetragrammaton (YHWH) usually is pointed with the vowels for the Hebrew word אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “master”) to avoid pronouncing the divine name, that would lead in this place to a repetition of אֲדֹנָי. So the tetragrammaton is here pointed with the vowels for the word אֱלֹהִים (’elohim, “God”) instead. That would produce the reading of the Hebrew as “Master, God” in the Jewish textual tradition. But the presence of “Master” before the holy name is rather compelling evidence that the original would have been “Master, Lord,” which is rendered here “sovereign Lord.”

[15:2]  ⁴⁹¹ tn The vav (ו) disjunctive at the beginning of the clause is circumstantial, expressing the cause or reason.

[15:2]  ⁴⁹² tn Heb “I am going.”

[15:2]  ⁴⁹³ tn Heb “the son of the acquisition of my house.”

[15:2]  ⁴⁹⁴ tn The pronoun is anaphoric here, equivalent to the verb “to be” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 23, §115).

[15:2]  ⁴⁹⁵ sn The sentence in the Hebrew text employs a very effective wordplay on the name Damascus: “The son of the acquisition (בֶּן־מֶשֶׁק, ben-mesheq) of my house is Eliezer of Damascus (דַּמֶּשֶׁק, dammesheq).” The words are not the same; they have different sibilants. But the sound play gives the impression that “in the nomen is the omen.” Eliezer the Damascene will be Abram’s heir if Abram dies childless because “Damascus” seems to mean that. See M. F. Unger, “Some Comments on the Text of Genesis 15:2-3,” JBL 72 (1953): 49-50; H. L. Ginsberg, “Abram’s ‘Damascene’ Steward,” BASOR 200 (1970): 31-32.

[15:3]  ⁴⁹⁶ tn Heb “And Abram said.”

[15:3]  ⁴⁹⁷ tn The construction uses הֵן (hen) to introduce the foundational clause (“since…”), and וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh) to introduce the main clause (“then look…”).

[15:3]  ⁴⁹⁸ tn Heb “is inheriting me.”

[15:4]  ⁴⁹⁹ tn The disjunctive draws attention to God’s response and the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, translated “look”) mirrors Abram’s statement in v. 3 and highlights the fact that God responded to Abram.

[15:4]  ⁵⁰⁰ tn The subject of the verb is the demonstrative pronoun, which can be translated “this one” or “this man.” That the Lord does not mention him by name is significant; often in ancient times the use of the name would bring legitimacy to inheritance and adoption cases.

[15:4]  ⁵⁰¹ tn Heb “inherit you.”

[15:4]  ⁵⁰² tn The Hebrew כִּי־אִם (ki-’im) forms a very strong adversative.

[15:4]  ⁵⁰³ tn Heb “he who”; the implied referent (Abram’s unborn son who will be his heir) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:4]  ⁵⁰⁴ tn The pronoun could also be an emphatic subject: “whoever comes out of your body, he will inherit you.”

[15:4]  ⁵⁰⁵ tn Heb “will inherit you.”

[15:5]  ⁵⁰⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:6]  ⁵⁰⁷ tn The nonconsecutive vav (ו) is on a perfect verbal form. If the composer of the narrative had wanted to show simple sequence, he would have used the vav consecutive with the preterite. The perfect with vav conjunctive (where one expects the preterite with vav consecutive) in narrative contexts can have a variety of discourse functions, but here it probably serves to highlight Abram’s response to God’s promise. For a detailed discussion of the vav + perfect construction in Hebrew narrative, see R. Longacre, “Weqatal Forms in Biblical Hebrew Prose: A Discourse-modular Approach,” Biblical Hebrew and Discourse Linguistics, 50-98. The Hebrew verb אָמַן (’aman) means “to confirm, to support” in the Qal verbal stem. Its derivative nouns refer to something or someone that/who provides support, such as a “pillar,” “nurse,” or “guardian, trustee.” In the Niphal stem it comes to mean “to be faithful, to be reliable, to be dependable,” or “to be firm, to be sure.” In the Hiphil, the form used here, it takes on a declarative sense: “to consider something reliable [or “dependable”].” Abram regarded the God who made this promise as reliable and fully capable of making it a reality.

[15:6]  ⁵⁰⁸ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:6]  ⁵⁰⁹ tn Heb “and he reckoned it to him.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix refers back to Abram’s act of faith, mentioned in the preceding clause. On third feminine singular pronouns referring back to verbal ideas see GKC 440-41 §135.p. Some propose taking the suffix as proleptic, anticipating the following feminine noun (“righteousness”). In this case one might translate: “and he reckoned it to him – [namely] righteousness.” See O. P. Robertson, “Genesis 15:6: A New Covenant Exposition of an Old Covenant Text,” WTJ 42 (1980): 259-89.

[15:6]  ⁵¹⁰ tn Or “righteousness”; or “evidence of steadfast commitment.” The noun is an adverbial accusative. The verb translated “considered” (Heb “reckoned”) also appears with צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “righteousness”) in Ps 106:31. Alluding to the events recorded in Numbers 25, the psalmist notes that Phinehas’ actions were “credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.” Reference is made to the unconditional, eternal covenant with which God rewarded Phinehas’ loyalty (Num 25:12-13). So צְדָקָה seems to carry by metonymy the meaning “loyal, rewardable behavior” here, a nuance that fits nicely in Genesis 15, where God responds to Abram’s faith by formally ratifying his promise to give Abram and his descendants the land. (See R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 40.) In Phoenician and Old Aramaic inscriptions cognate nouns glossed as “correct, justifiable conduct” sometimes carry this same semantic nuance (DNWSI 2:962).

[15:7]  ⁵¹¹ tn Heb “And he said.”

[15:7]  ⁵¹² sn I am the Lord. The Lord initiates the covenant-making ceremony with a declaration of who he is and what he has done for Abram. The same form appears at the beginning of the covenant made at Sinai (see Exod 20:1).

[15:7]  ⁵¹³ sn The phrase of the Chaldeans is a later editorial clarification for the readers, designating the location of Ur. From all evidence there would have been no Chaldeans in existence at this early date; they are known in the time of the neo-Babylonian empire in the first millennium b.c.

[15:8]  ⁵¹⁴ tn Here the vav carries adversative force and is translated “but.”

[15:8]  ⁵¹⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:8]  ⁵¹⁶ tn See note on the phrase “sovereign Lord” in 15:2.

[15:8]  ⁵¹⁷ tn Or “how.”

[15:9]  ⁵¹⁸ tn Heb “He”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:10]  ⁵¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:10]  ⁵²⁰ tn Heb “in the middle.”

[15:10]  ⁵²¹ tn Heb “to meet its neighbor.”

[15:12]  ⁵²² tn Heb “a deep sleep fell on Abram.”

[15:12]  ⁵²³ tn Heb “and look, terror, a great darkness was falling on him.”

[15:13]  ⁵²⁴ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, with the Qal infinitive absolute followed by the imperfect from יָדַע (yada’, “know”). The imperfect here has an obligatory or imperatival force.

[15:13]  ⁵²⁵ tn The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger, “sojourner, stranger”) is related to the verb גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to stay for awhile”). Abram’s descendants will stay in a land as resident aliens without rights of citizenship.

[15:13]  ⁵²⁶ tn Heb “in a land not theirs.”

[15:13]  ⁵²⁷ tn Heb “and they will serve them and they will oppress them.” The verb עִנּוּ, (’innu, a Piel form from עָנָה, ’anah, “to afflict, to oppress, to treat harshly”), is used in Exod 1:11 to describe the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt.

[15:14]  ⁵²⁸ tn The participle דָּן (dan, from דִּין, din) is used here for the future: “I am judging” = “I will surely judge.” The judgment in this case will be condemnation and punishment. The translation “execute judgment on” implies that the judgment will certainly be carried out.

[15:15]  ⁵²⁹ tn The vav with the pronoun before the verb calls special attention to the subject in contrast to the preceding subject.

[15:15]  ⁵³⁰ sn You will go to your ancestors. This is a euphemistic expression for death.

[15:15]  ⁵³¹ tn Heb “in a good old age.”

[15:16]  ⁵³² sn The term generation is being used here in its widest sense to refer to a full life span. When the chronological factors are considered and the genealogies tabulated, there are four hundred years of bondage. This suggests that in this context a generation is equivalent to one hundred years.

[15:16]  ⁵³³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (“your descendants”) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[15:16]  ⁵³⁴ tn Heb “is not yet complete.”

[15:17]  ⁵³⁵ sn A smoking pot with a flaming torch. These same implements were used in Mesopotamian rituals designed to ward off evil (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 113-14).

[15:17]  ⁵³⁶ tn Heb “these pieces.”

[15:18]  ⁵³⁷ tn Heb “cut a covenant.”

[15:18]  ⁵³⁸ tn The perfect verbal form is understood as instantaneous (“I here and now give”). Another option is to understand it as rhetorical, indicating certitude (“I have given” meaning it is as good as done, i.e., “I will surely give”).

[15:18]  ⁵³⁹ sn The river of Egypt is a wadi (a seasonal stream) on the northeastern border of Egypt, not to the River Nile.

[15:19]  ⁵⁴⁰ tn The words “the land” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[15:21]  ⁵⁴¹ tn Each of the names in the list has the Hebrew definite article, which is used here generically for the class of people identified.

[32:1]  ⁵⁴² sn The phrase angels of God occurs only here and in Gen 28:12 in the OT. Jacob saw a vision of angels just before he left the promised land. Now he encounters angels as he prepares to return to it. The text does not give the details of the encounter, but Jacob’s response suggests it was amicable. This location was a spot where heaven made contact with earth, and where God made his presence known to the patriarch. See C. Houtman, “Jacob at Mahanaim: Some Remarks on Genesis XXXII 2-3,” VT 28 (1978): 37-44.

[32:2]  ⁵⁴³ tn Heb “and Jacob said when he saw them.”

[32:2]  ⁵⁴⁴ sn The name Mahanaim apparently means “two camps.” Perhaps the two camps were those of God and of Jacob.

[32:3]  ⁵⁴⁵ tn Heb “before him.”

[32:3]  ⁵⁴⁶ tn Heb “field.”

[32:4]  ⁵⁴⁷ sn Your servant. The narrative recounts Jacob’s groveling in fear before Esau as he calls his brother his “lord,” as if to minimize what had been done twenty years ago.

[32:5]  ⁵⁴⁸ tn Or “I am sending.” The form is a preterite with the vav consecutive; it could be rendered as an English present tense – as the Hebrew perfect/preterite allows – much like an epistolary aorist in Greek. The form assumes the temporal perspective of the one who reads the message.

[32:5]  ⁵⁴⁹ tn The words “this message” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:8]  ⁵⁵⁰ tn Heb “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it.”

[32:8]  ⁵⁵¹ tn Heb “and he said, ‘If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it.” The Hebrew verb אָמַר (’amar) here represents Jacob’s thought or reasoning, and is therefore translated “he thought.” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:8]  ⁵⁵² tn Heb “the surviving camp will be for escape.” The word “escape” is a feminine noun. The term most often refers to refugees from war.

[32:9]  ⁵⁵³ tn Heb “said.”

[32:9]  ⁵⁵⁴ tn Heb “the one who said.”

[32:9]  ⁵⁵⁵ tn Heb “I will cause good” or “I will treat well [or “favorably”].” The idea includes more than prosperity, though that is its essential meaning. Here the form is subordinated to the preceding imperative and indicates purpose or result. Jacob is reminding God of his promise in the hope that God will honor his word.

[32:10]  ⁵⁵⁶ tn Heb “the loving deeds and faithfulness” (see 24:27, 49).

[32:10]  ⁵⁵⁷ tn Heb “you have done with.”

[32:10]  ⁵⁵⁸ tn Heb “for with my staff.” The Hebrew word מַקֵל (maqel), traditionally translated “staff,” has been rendered as “walking stick” because a “staff” in contemporary English refers typically to the support personnel in an organization.

[32:10]  ⁵⁵⁹ tn Heb “this Jordan.”

[32:11]  ⁵⁶⁰ tn The imperative has the force of a prayer here, not a command.

[32:11]  ⁵⁶¹ tn The “hand” here is a metonymy for “power.”

[32:11]  ⁵⁶² tn Heb “from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.”

[32:11]  ⁵⁶³ tn Heb “for I am afraid of him, lest he come.”

[32:11]  ⁵⁶⁴ sn Heb “me, [the] mother upon [the] sons.” The first person pronoun “me” probably means here “me and mine,” as the following clause suggests.

[32:12]  ⁵⁶⁵ tn Heb “But you, you said.” One of the occurrences of the pronoun “you” has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.

[32:12]  ⁵⁶⁶ tn Or “will certainly deal well with you.” The infinitive absolute appears before the imperfect, underscoring God’s promise to bless. The statement is more emphatic than in v. 9.

[32:12]  ⁵⁶⁷ tn The form is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the nuance of the preceding verb forward.

[32:12]  ⁵⁶⁸ tn Heb “which cannot be counted because of abundance.” The imperfect verbal form indicates potential here.

[32:13]  ⁵⁶⁹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:13]  ⁵⁷⁰ tn Heb “and he took from that which was going into his hand,” meaning that he took some of what belonged to him.

[32:13]  ⁵⁷¹ sn The Hebrew noun translated gift can in some contexts refer to the tribute paid by a subject to his lord. Such a nuance is possible here, because Jacob refers to Esau as his lord and to himself as Esau’s servant (v. 4).

[32:16]  ⁵⁷² tn Heb “and he put them in the hand of.”

[32:16]  ⁵⁷³ tn Heb “a herd, a herd, by itself,” or “each herd by itself.” The distributive sense is expressed by repetition.

[32:17]  ⁵⁷⁴ tn Heb “the first”; this has been specified as “the servant leading the first herd” in the translation for clarity.

[32:17]  ⁵⁷⁵ tn Heb “to whom are you?”

[32:17]  ⁵⁷⁶ tn Heb “and to whom are these before you?”

[32:18]  ⁵⁷⁷ tn The form is the perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive; it has the nuance of an imperfect of instruction.

[32:18]  ⁵⁷⁸ tn The words “they belong” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:18]  ⁵⁷⁹ tn Heb “to your servant, to Jacob.”

[32:18]  ⁵⁸⁰ tn Heb “to my lord, to Esau.”

[32:18]  ⁵⁸¹ tn Heb “and look, also he [is] behind us.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:19]  ⁵⁸² tn Heb “And he commanded also the second, also the third, also all the ones going after the herds, saying: ‘According to this word you will speak when you find him.’”

[32:20]  ⁵⁸³ tn Heb “and look, your servant Jacob [is] behind us.”

[32:20]  ⁵⁸⁴ tn Heb “for he said.” The referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew word מַקֵל (maqel), traditionally represents Jacob’s thought or reasoning, and is therefore translated “thought.”

[32:20]  ⁵⁸⁵ tn Heb “I will appease his face.” The cohortative here expresses Jacob’s resolve. In the Book of Leviticus the Hebrew verb translated “appease” has the idea of removing anger due to sin or guilt, a nuance that fits this passage very well. Jacob wanted to buy Esau off with a gift of more than five hundred and fifty animals.

[32:20]  ⁵⁸⁶ tn Heb “with a gift going before me.”

[32:20]  ⁵⁸⁷ tn Heb “I will see his face.”

[32:20]  ⁵⁸⁸ tn Heb “Perhaps he will lift up my face.” In this context the idiom refers to acceptance.

[32:21]  ⁵⁸⁹ tn Heb “and the gift passed over upon his face.”

[32:21]  ⁵⁹⁰ tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial/temporal.

[32:22]  ⁵⁹¹ tn Heb “and he arose in that night and he took.” The first verb is adverbial, indicating that he carried out the crossing right away.

[32:22]  ⁵⁹² tn The Hebrew term used here is יֶלֶד (yeled) which typically describes male offspring. Some translations render the term “children” but this is a problem because by this time Jacob had twelve children in all, including one daughter, Dinah, born to Leah (Gen 30:21). Benjamin, his twelfth son and thirteenth child, was not born until later (Gen 35:16-19).

[32:22]  ⁵⁹³ sn Hebrew narrative style often includes a summary statement of the whole passage followed by a more detailed report of the event. Here v. 22 is the summary statement, while v. 23 begins the detailed account.

[32:23]  ⁵⁹⁴ tn Heb “and he sent across what he had.”

[32:24]  ⁵⁹⁵ sn Reflecting Jacob’s perspective at the beginning of the encounter, the narrator calls the opponent simply “a man.” Not until later in the struggle does Jacob realize his true identity.

[32:24]  ⁵⁹⁶ sn The verb translated “wrestled” (וַיֵּאָבֵק, vayye’aveq) sounds in Hebrew like the names “Jacob” (יַעֲקֹב, ya’aqov) and “Jabbok” (יַבֹּק, yabboq). In this way the narrator links the setting, the main action, and the main participant together in the mind of the reader or hearer.

[32:24]  ⁵⁹⁷ tn Heb “until the rising of the dawn.”

[32:25]  ⁵⁹⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:25]  ⁵⁹⁹ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:25]  ⁶⁰⁰ tn Or “injured”; traditionally “touched.” The Hebrew verb translated “struck” has the primary meanings “to touch; to reach; to strike.” It can, however, carry the connotation “to harm; to molest; to injure.” God’s “touch” cripples Jacob – it would be comparable to a devastating blow.

[32:26]  ⁶⁰¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:26]  ⁶⁰² tn Heb “dawn has arisen.”

[32:26]  ⁶⁰³ tn Heb “and he said, ‘I will not let you go.’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:26]  ⁶⁰⁴ sn Jacob wrestled with a man thinking him to be a mere man, and on that basis was equal to the task. But when it had gone on long enough, the night visitor touched Jacob and crippled him. Jacob’s request for a blessing can only mean that he now knew that his opponent was supernatural. Contrary to many allegorical interpretations of the passage that make fighting equivalent to prayer, this passage shows that Jacob stopped fighting, and then asked for a blessing.

[32:27]  ⁶⁰⁵ tn Heb “and he said to him.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:27]  ⁶⁰⁶ sn What is your name? The question is rhetorical, since the Lord obviously knew Jacob’s identity. But since the Lord is going to change Jacob’s name, this question is designed to bring focus Jacob’s attention on all that his name had come to signify.

[32:28]  ⁶⁰⁷ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:28]  ⁶⁰⁸ sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the Lord was saying that Jacob would have victory and receive the promises because God would fight for him.

[32:28]  ⁶⁰⁹ sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).

[32:29]  ⁶¹⁰ sn Tell me your name. In primitive thought to know the name of a deity or supernatural being would enable one to use it for magical manipulation or power (A. S. Herbert, Genesis 12-50 [TBC], 108). For a thorough structural analysis of the passage discussing the plays on the names and the request of Jacob, see R. Barthes, “The Struggle with the Angel: Textual Analysis of Genesis 32:23-33,” Structural Analysis and Biblical Exegesis (PTMS), 21-33.

[32:29]  ⁶¹¹ tn The question uses the enclitic pronoun “this” to emphasize the import of the question.

[32:29]  ⁶¹² tn Heb “and he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:29]  ⁶¹³ tn The verb here means that the Lord endowed Jacob with success; he would be successful in everything he did, including meeting Esau.

[32:29]  ⁶¹⁴ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:30]  ⁶¹⁵ sn The name Peniel means “face of God.” Since Jacob saw God face to face here, the name is appropriate.

[32:30]  ⁶¹⁶ tn The word “explaining” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:30]  ⁶¹⁷ tn Or “because.”

[32:30]  ⁶¹⁸ sn I have seen God face to face. See the note on the name “Peniel” earlier in the verse.

[32:30]  ⁶¹⁹ tn Heb “and my soul [= life] has been preserved.”

[32:31]  ⁶²⁰ tn Heb “shone.”

[32:31]  ⁶²¹ sn The name is spelled Penuel here, apparently a variant spelling of Peniel (see v. 30).

[32:31]  ⁶²² tn The disjunctive clause draws attention to an important fact: He may have crossed the stream, but he was limping.

[32:32]  ⁶²³ sn On the use of the expression to this day, see B. S. Childs, “A Study of the Formula ‘Until This Day’,” JBL 82 (1963): 279-92.

[32:32]  ⁶²⁴ tn Or “because the socket of Jacob’s hip was struck.” Some translations render this as an impersonal passive. On the translation of the word “struck” see the note on this term in v. 25.

[33:1]  ⁶²⁵ tn Heb “and Jacob lifted up his eyes.”

[33:1]  ⁶²⁶ tn Or “and look, Esau was coming.” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator invites the reader to view the scene through Jacob’s eyes.

[33:2]  ⁶²⁷ sn This kind of ranking according to favoritism no doubt fed the jealousy over Joseph that later becomes an important element in the narrative. It must have been painful to the family to see that they were expendable.

[33:3]  ⁶²⁸ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:3]  ⁶²⁹ tn Heb “until his drawing near unto his brother.” The construction uses the preposition with the infinitive construct to express a temporal clause.

[33:5]  ⁶³⁰ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:5]  ⁶³¹ tn Heb “lifted up his eyes.”

[33:5]  ⁶³² tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:5]  ⁶³³ tn The Hebrew verb means “to be gracious; to show favor”; here it carries the nuance “to give graciously.”

[33:6]  ⁶³⁴ tn Heb “and the female servants drew near, they and their children and they bowed down.”

[33:8]  ⁶³⁵ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:8]  ⁶³⁶ tn Heb “Who to you?”

[33:8]  ⁶³⁷ tn Heb “all this camp which I met.”

[33:8]  ⁶³⁸ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:10]  ⁶³⁹ tn Heb “and Jacob said, ‘No, please.’” The words “take them” have been supplied in the translation for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse rearranged for stylistic reasons.

[33:10]  ⁶⁴⁰ tn The form is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, expressing a contingent future nuance in the “then” section of the conditional sentence.

[33:10]  ⁶⁴¹ tn The verbal form is the preterite with a vav (ו) consecutive, indicating result here.

[33:10]  ⁶⁴² tn Heb “for therefore I have seen your face like seeing the face of God and you have accepted me.”

[33:11]  ⁶⁴³ tn Heb “blessing.” It is as if Jacob is trying to repay what he stole from his brother twenty years earlier.

[33:11]  ⁶⁴⁴ tn Or “gracious,” but in the specific sense of prosperity.

[33:11]  ⁶⁴⁵ tn Heb “all.”

[33:11]  ⁶⁴⁶ tn Heb “and he urged him and he took.” The referent of the first pronoun in the sequence (“he”) has been specified as “Jacob” in the translation for clarity.

[33:12]  ⁶⁴⁷ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:12]  ⁶⁴⁸ tn Heb “let us travel and let us go.” The two cohortatives are used in combination with the sense, “let’s travel along, get going, be on our way.”

[33:13]  ⁶⁴⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:13]  ⁶⁵⁰ tn Heb “weak.”

[33:13]  ⁶⁵¹ tn Heb “and the sheep and the cattle nursing [are] upon me.”

[33:14]  ⁶⁵² 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.”

[33:15]  ⁶⁵³ tn The cohortative verbal form here indicates a polite offer of help.

[33:15]  ⁶⁵⁴ tn Heb “and he said, ‘Why this?’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[33:15]  ⁶⁵⁵ tn Heb “I am finding favor in the eyes of my lord.”

[33:16]  ⁶⁵⁶ tn Heb “returned on his way.”

[33:17]  ⁶⁵⁷ tn The disjunctive clause contrasts Jacob’s action with Esau’s.

[33:17]  ⁶⁵⁸ sn But Jacob traveled to Succoth. There are several reasons why Jacob chose not to go to Mt. Seir after Esau. First, as he said, his herds and children probably could not keep up with the warriors. Second, he probably did not fully trust his brother. The current friendliness could change, and he could lose everything. And third, God did tell him to return to his land, not Seir. But Jacob is still not able to deal truthfully, probably because of fear of Esau.

[33:17]  ⁶⁵⁹ tn Heb “why he called.” One could understand “Jacob” as the subject of the verb, but it is more likely that the subject is indefinite, in which case the verb is better translated as passive.

[33:17]  ⁶⁶⁰ sn The name Succoth means “shelters,” an appropriate name in light of the shelters Jacob built there for his livestock.

[33:18]  ⁶⁶¹ tn Heb “in front of.”

[33:19]  ⁶⁶² tn The words “he bought it” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text v. 19 is one long sentence.

[33:19]  ⁶⁶³ tn The Hebrew word קְשִׂיטָה (qÿsitah) is generally understood to refer to a unit of money, but the value is unknown. (However, cf. REB, which renders the term as “sheep”).

[33:20]  ⁶⁶⁴ tn Heb “God, the God of Israel.” Rather than translating the name, a number of modern translations merely transliterate it from the Hebrew as “El Elohe Israel” (cf. NIV, NRSV, REB). It is not entirely clear how the name should be interpreted grammatically. One option is to supply an equative verb, as in the translation: “The God of Israel [is] God.” Another interpretive option is “the God of Israel [is] strong [or “mighty”].” Buying the land and settling down for a while was a momentous step for the patriarch, so the commemorative naming of the altar is significant.

[34:1]  ⁶⁶⁵ tn Heb “went out to see.” The verb “to see,” followed by the preposition בְּ (bÿ), here has the idea of “look over.” The young girl wanted to meet these women and see what they were like.

[34:1]  ⁶⁶⁶ tn Heb “daughters.”

[34:2]  ⁶⁶⁷ tn Heb “and he took her and lay with her.” The suffixed form following the verb appears to be the sign of the accusative instead of the preposition, but see BDB 1012 s.v. שָׁכַב.

[34:2]  ⁶⁶⁸ tn The verb עָנָה (’anah) in the Piel stem can have various shades of meaning, depending on the context: “to defile; to mistreat; to violate; to rape; to shame; to afflict.” Here it means that Shechem violated or humiliated Dinah by raping her.

[34:3]  ⁶⁶⁹ tn Heb “his soul stuck to [or “joined with”],” meaning Shechem became very attached to Dinah emotionally.

[34:3]  ⁶⁷⁰ tn Heb “and he spoke to the heart of the young woman,” which apparently refers in this context to tender, romantic speech (Hos 2:14). Another option is to translate the expression “he reassured the young woman” (see Judg 19:3, 2 Sam 19:7; cf. NEB “comforted her”).

[34:4]  ⁶⁷¹ tn Heb “Take for me this young woman for a wife.”

[34:5]  ⁶⁷² tn The two disjunctive clauses in this verse (“Now Jacob heard…and his sons were”) are juxtaposed to indicate synchronic action.

[34:5]  ⁶⁷³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Shechem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:5]  ⁶⁷⁴ sn The expected response would be anger or rage; but Jacob remained silent. He appears too indifferent or confused to act decisively. When the leader does not act decisively, the younger zealots will, and often with disastrous results.

[34:6]  ⁶⁷⁵ tn Heb “went out to Jacob to speak with him.” The words “about Dinah” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[34:7]  ⁶⁷⁶ tn Heb “when they heard.” The words “the news” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:7]  ⁶⁷⁷ tn Heb “the men.” This sounds as if a new group has been introduced into the narrative, so it has been translated as “they” to indicate that it refers to Jacob’s sons, mentioned in the first part of the verse.

[34:7]  ⁶⁷⁸ tn The Hebrew verb עָצַב (’atsav) can carry one of three semantic nuances depending on the context: (1) “to be injured” (Ps 56:5; Eccl 10:9; 1 Chr 4:10); (2) “to experience emotional pain; to be depressed emotionally; to be worried” (2 Sam 19:2; Isa 54:6; Neh 8:10-11); (3) “to be embarrassed; to be insulted; to be offended” (to the point of anger at another or oneself; Gen 6:6; 45:5; 1 Sam 20:3, 34; 1 Kgs 1:6; Isa 63:10; Ps 78:40). This third category develops from the second by metonymy. In certain contexts emotional pain leads to embarrassment and/or anger. In this last use the subject sometimes directs his anger against the source of grief (see especially Gen 6:6). The third category fits best in Gen 34:7 because Jacob’s sons were not merely wounded emotionally. On the contrary, Shechem’s action prompted them to strike out in judgment against the source of their distress.

[34:7]  ⁶⁷⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Shechem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:7]  ⁶⁸⁰ tn Heb “a disgraceful thing he did against Israel.”

[34:7]  ⁶⁸¹ tn Heb “by lying with the daughter of Jacob.” The infinitive here explains the preceding verb, indicating exactly how he had disgraced Jacob. The expression “to lie with” is a euphemism for sexual relations, or in this case, sexual assault.

[34:7]  ⁶⁸² tn Heb “and so it should not be done.” The negated imperfect has an obligatory nuance here, but there is also a generalizing tone. The narrator emphasizes that this particular type of crime (sexual assault) is especially reprehensible.

[34:8]  ⁶⁸³ tn Heb “Shechem my son, his soul is attached to your daughter.” The verb means “to love” in the sense of being emotionally attached to or drawn to someone. This is a slightly different way of saying what was reported earlier (v. 3). However, there is no mention here of the offense. Even though Hamor is speaking to Dinah’s brothers, he refers to her as their daughter (see v. 17).

[34:9]  ⁶⁸⁴ tn Heb “form marriage alliances with us.”

[34:9]  ⁶⁸⁵ tn Heb “Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.” In the translation the words “let…marry” and “as wives” are supplied for clarity.

[34:10]  ⁶⁸⁶ tn The imperfect verbal form has a permissive nuance here.

[34:10]  ⁶⁸⁷ tn Heb “before you.”

[34:10]  ⁶⁸⁸ tn The verb seems to carry the basic meaning “travel about freely,” although the substantival participial form refers to a trader (see E. A. Speiser, “The Verb sh£r in Genesis and Early Hebrew Movements,” BASOR 164 [1961]: 23-28); cf. NIV, NRSV “trade in it.”

[34:11]  ⁶⁸⁹ tn Heb “her”; the referent (Dinah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:11]  ⁶⁹⁰ tn Heb “whatever you say.”

[34:11]  ⁶⁹¹ tn Or “pay.”

[34:12]  ⁶⁹² tn Heb “Make very great upon me the bride price and gift.” The imperatives are used in a rhetorical manner. Shechem’s point is that he will pay the price, no matter how expensive it might be.

[34:12]  ⁶⁹³ tn The cohortative expresses Shechem’s resolve to have Dinah as his wife.

[34:12]  ⁶⁹⁴ tn Heb “say.”

[34:13]  ⁶⁹⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Shechem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:14]  ⁶⁹⁶ tn Heb “we are not able to do this thing, to give.” The second infinitive is in apposition to the first, explaining what they are not able to do.

[34:14]  ⁶⁹⁷ tn The Hebrew word translated “disgrace” usually means “ridicule; taunt; reproach.” It can also refer to the reason the condition of shame or disgrace causes ridicule or a reproach.

[34:15]  ⁶⁹⁸ tn Heb “if you are like us.”

[34:15]  ⁶⁹⁹ tn The infinitive here explains how they would become like them.

[34:16]  ⁷⁰⁰ tn The perfect verbal form with the vav (ו) consecutive introduces the apodosis of the conditional sentence.

[34:16]  ⁷⁰¹ tn The words “to marry” (and the words “as wives” in the following clause) are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[34:17]  ⁷⁰² tn Heb “listen to us.”

[34:17]  ⁷⁰³ tn The perfect verbal form with the vav (ו) consecutive introduces the apodosis of the conditional sentence.

[34:17]  ⁷⁰⁴ tn Heb “daughter.” Jacob’s sons call Dinah their daughter, even though she was their sister (see v. 8). This has been translated as “sister” for clarity.

[34:18]  ⁷⁰⁵ tn Heb “and their words were good in the eyes of Hamor and in the eyes of Shechem son of Hamor.”

[34:19]  ⁷⁰⁶ tn Heb “doing the thing.”

[34:19]  ⁷⁰⁷ tn Heb “Jacob’s daughter.” The proper name “Dinah” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[34:19]  ⁷⁰⁸ tn The Hebrew verb כָּבֵד (kaved), translated “was…important,” has the primary meaning “to be heavy,” but here carries a secondary sense of “to be important” (that is, “heavy” in honor or respect).

[34:19]  ⁷⁰⁹ tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause explains why the community would respond to him (see vv. 20-24).

[34:20]  ⁷¹⁰ sn The gate. In an ancient Near Eastern city the gate complex was the location for conducting important public business.

[34:21]  ⁷¹¹ tn Heb “wide on both hands,” that is, in both directions.

[34:21]  ⁷¹² tn The words “to marry” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[34:22]  ⁷¹³ tn Heb “when every one of our males is circumcised.”

[34:23]  ⁷¹⁴ tn The words “If we do so” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

[34:24]  ⁷¹⁵ tn Heb “all those going out the gate of his city.”

[34:24]  ⁷¹⁶ tn Heb “listened to.”

[34:24]  ⁷¹⁷ tn Heb “all those going out the gate of his city.”

[34:25]  ⁷¹⁸ tn Heb “a man his sword.”

[34:25]  ⁷¹⁹ tn Heb “and they came upon the city, [which was] secure.” In this case “secure” means the city was caught unprepared and at peace, not expecting an attack.

[34:27]  ⁷²⁰ tn Heb “came upon the slain.” Because of this statement the preceding phrase “Jacob’s sons” is frequently taken to mean the other sons of Jacob besides Simeon and Levi, but the text does not clearly affirm this.

[34:27]  ⁷²¹ tn Heb “because they violated their sister.” The plural verb is active in form, but with no expressed subject, it may be translated passive.

[34:28]  ⁷²² tn Heb “and what was in the city and what was in the field they took.”

[34:29]  ⁷²³ tn Heb “they took captive and they plundered,” that is, “they captured as plunder.”

[34:30]  ⁷²⁴ 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.

[34:30]  ⁷²⁵ 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.

[34:30]  ⁷²⁶ tn Jacob speaks in the first person as the head and representative of the entire family.

[34:31]  ⁷²⁷ tn Heb “but they said.” The referent of “they” (Simeon and Levi) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[35:1]  ⁷²⁸ tn Heb “arise, go up.” The first imperative gives the command a sense of urgency.

[35:1]  ⁷²⁹ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[35:1]  ⁷³⁰ sn God is calling on Jacob to fulfill his vow he made when he fled from…Esau (see Gen 28:20-22).

[35:2]  ⁷³¹ tn Heb “which are in your midst.”

[35:2]  ⁷³² sn The actions of removing false gods, becoming ritually clean, and changing garments would become necessary steps in Israel when approaching the Lord in worship.

[35:3]  ⁷³³ tn Heb “let us arise and let us go up.” The first cohortative gives the statement a sense of urgency.

[35:3]  ⁷³⁴ tn The cohortative with the prefixed conjunction here indicates purpose or consequence.

[35:3]  ⁷³⁵ tn Heb “day of distress.” See Ps 20:1 which utilizes similar language.

[35:3]  ⁷³⁶ tn Heb “in the way in which I went.” Jacob alludes here to God’s promise to be with him (see Gen 28:20).

[35:4]  ⁷³⁷ tn Heb “in their hand.”

[35:4]  ⁷³⁸ sn On the basis of a comparison with Gen 34 and Num 31, G. J. Wenham argues that the foreign gods and the rings could have been part of the plunder that came from the destruction of Shechem (Genesis [WBC], 2:324).

[35:4]  ⁷³⁹ sn Jacob buried them. On the burial of the gods, see E. Nielson, “The Burial of the Foreign Gods,” ST 8 (1954/55): 102-22.

[35:4]  ⁷⁴⁰ tn Or “terebinth.”

[35:5]  ⁷⁴¹ tn Heb “and they journeyed.”

[35:5]  ⁷⁴² tn Heb “and the fear of God was upon the cities which were round about them.” The expression “fear of God” apparently refers (1) to a fear of God (objective genitive; God is the object of their fear). (2) But it could mean “fear from God,” that is, fear which God placed in them (cf. NRSV “a terror from God”). Another option (3) is that the divine name is used as a superlative here, referring to “tremendous fear” (cf. NEB “were panic-stricken”; NASB “a great terror”).

[35:6]  ⁷⁴³ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[35:6]  ⁷⁴⁴ tn Heb “and Jacob came to Luz which is in the land of Canaan – it is Bethel – he and all the people who were with him.”

[35:7]  ⁷⁴⁵ sn The name El-Bethel means “God of Bethel.”

[35:7]  ⁷⁴⁶ tn Heb “revealed themselves.” The verb נִגְלוּ (niglu), translated “revealed himself,” is plural, even though one expects the singular form with the plural of majesty. Perhaps אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is here a numerical plural, referring both to God and the angelic beings that appeared to Jacob. See the note on the word “know” in Gen 3:5.

[35:8]  ⁷⁴⁷ sn Deborah. This woman had been Rebekah’s nurse, but later attached herself to Jacob. She must have been about one hundred and eighty years old when she died.

[35:8]  ⁷⁴⁸ tn “and he called its name.” There is no expressed subject, so the verb can be translated as passive.

[35:8]  ⁷⁴⁹ tn Or “Allon Bacuth,” if one transliterates the Hebrew name (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). An oak tree was revered in the ancient world and often designated as a shrine or landmark. This one was named for the weeping (mourning) occasioned by the death of Deborah.

[35:10]  ⁷⁵⁰ tn Heb “and he called his name Israel.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[35:11]  ⁷⁵¹ tn The name אֵל שַׁדַּי (’el shadday, “El Shaddai”) has often been translated “God Almighty,” primarily because Jerome translated it omnipotens (“all powerful”) in the Latin Vulgate. There has been much debate over the meaning of the name. For discussion see W. F. Albright, “The Names Shaddai and Abram,” JBL 54 (1935): 173-210; R. Gordis, “The Biblical Root sdy-sd,” JTS 41 (1940): 34-43; and especially T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 69-72. Shaddai/El Shaddai is the sovereign king of the world who grants, blesses, and judges. In the Book of Genesis he blesses the patriarchs with fertility and promises numerous descendants. Outside Genesis he both blesses/protects and takes away life/happiness. The patriarchs knew God primarily as El Shaddai (Exod 6:3). While the origin and meaning of this name are uncertain its significance is clear. The name is used in contexts where God appears as the source of fertility and life. For a fuller discussion see the note on “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.

[35:11]  ⁷⁵² tn Heb “A nation and a company of nations will be from you and kings from your loins will come out.”

[35:12]  ⁷⁵³ tn The Hebrew verb translated “gave” refers to the Abrahamic promise of the land. However, the actual possession of that land lay in the future. The decree of the Lord made it certain; but it has the sense “promised to give.”

[35:12]  ⁷⁵⁴ tn Heb “and to your offspring after you.”

[35:13]  ⁷⁵⁵ tn Heb “went up from upon him in the place.”

[35:14]  ⁷⁵⁶ tn Heb “and Jacob set up a sacred pillar in the place where he spoke with him, a sacred pillar of stone” (see the notes on the term “sacred stone” in Gen 28:18). This passage stands parallel to Gen 28:18-19, where Jacob set up a sacred stone, poured oil on it, and called the place Bethel. Some commentators see these as two traditions referring to the same event, but it is more likely that Jacob reconsecrated the place in fulfillment of the vow he had made here earlier. In support of this is the fact that the present narrative alludes to and is built on the previous one.

[35:14]  ⁷⁵⁷ tn The verb נָסַךְ (nasakh) means “to pour out, to make libations,” and the noun נֶסֶךְ (nesekh) is a “drink-offering,” usually of wine or of blood. The verb יָצַק (yatsaq) means “to pour out,” often of anointing oil, but of other elements as well.

[35:15]  ⁷⁵⁸ sn Called the name of the place. In view of the previous naming of Bethel in Gen 28:19, here Jacob was confirming or affirming the name through an official ritual marking the fulfillment of the vow. This place now did become Bethel, the house of God.

[35:15]  ⁷⁵⁹ tn The name Bethel means “house of God” in Hebrew.

[35:16]  ⁷⁶⁰ tn Heb “and there was still a stretch of the land to go to Ephrath.”

[35:16]  ⁷⁶¹ tn Normally the verb would be translated “she gave birth,” but because that obviously had not happened yet, it is better to translate the verb as ingressive, “began to give birth” (cf. NIV) or “went into labor.”

[35:17]  ⁷⁶² tn The construction uses a Hiphil infinitive, which E. A. Speiser classifies as an elative Hiphil. The contrast is with the previous Piel: there “she had hard labor,” and here, “her labor was at its hardest.” Failure to see this, Speiser notes, has led to redundant translations and misunderstandings (Genesis [AB], 273).

[35:17]  ⁷⁶³ sn Another son. The episode recalls and fulfills the prayer of Rachel at the birth of Joseph (Gen 30:24): “may he add” another son.

[35:18]  ⁷⁶⁴ tn Heb “in the going out of her life, for she was dying.” Rachel named the child with her dying breath.

[35:18]  ⁷⁶⁵ sn The name Ben-Oni means “son of my suffering.” It is ironic that Rachel’s words to Jacob in Gen 30:1, “Give me children or I’ll die,” take a different turn here, for it was having the child that brought about her death.

[35:18]  ⁷⁶⁶ tn The disjunctive clause is contrastive.

[35:19]  ⁷⁶⁷ sn This explanatory note links the earlier name Ephrath with the later name Bethlehem.

[35:20]  ⁷⁶⁸ tn Heb “standing stone.”

[35:20]  ⁷⁶⁹ tn Or perhaps “it is known as” (cf. NEB).

[35:21]  ⁷⁷⁰ sn The location of Migdal Eder is not given. It appears to be somewhere between Bethlehem and Hebron. Various traditions have identified it as at the shepherds’ fields near Bethlehem (the Hebrew name Migdal Eder means “tower of the flock”; see Mic 4:8) or located it near Solomon’s pools.

[35:22]  ⁷⁷¹ tn Heb “and Reuben went and lay with.” The expression “lay with” is a euphemism for having sexual intercourse.

[35:27]  ⁷⁷² tn This is an adverbial accusative of location.

[35:27]  ⁷⁷³ tn The name “Kiriath Arba” is in apposition to the preceding name, “Mamre.”

[35:27]  ⁷⁷⁴ tn The Hebrew verb גּוּר (gur), traditionally rendered “to sojourn,” refers to temporary settlement without ownership rights.

[35:28]  ⁷⁷⁵ tn Heb “And the days of Isaac were one hundred and eighty years.”

[35:29]  ⁷⁷⁶ tn Heb “and Isaac expired and died and he was gathered to his people.” In the ancient Israelite view he joined his deceased ancestors in Sheol, the land of the dead.

[35:29]  ⁷⁷⁷ tn Heb “old and full of years.”

[36:1]  ⁷⁷⁸ sn Chapter 36 records what became of Esau. It will list both his actual descendants as well as the people he subsumed under his tribal leadership, people who were aboriginal Edomites. The chapter is long and complicated (see further J. R. Bartlett, “The Edomite King-List of Genesis 36:31-39 and 1 Chronicles 1:43-50,” JTS 16 [1965]: 301-14; and W. J. Horowitz, “Were There Twelve Horite Tribes?” CBQ 35 [1973]: 69-71). In the format of the Book of Genesis, the line of Esau is “tidied up” before the account of Jacob is traced (37:2). As such the arrangement makes a strong contrast with Jacob. As F. Delitzsch says, “secular greatness in general grows up far more rapidly than spiritual greatness” (New Commentary on Genesis, 2:238). In other words, the progress of the world far out distances the progress of the righteous who are waiting for the promise.

[36:2]  ⁷⁷⁹ tn Heb “from the daughters of Canaan.”

[36:2]  ⁷⁸⁰ tn Heb “daughter,” but see Gen 36:24-25.

[36:6]  ⁷⁸¹ tn Heb “from before.”

[36:7]  ⁷⁸² tn Heb “land of their settlements.”

[36:8]  ⁷⁸³ tn Traditionally “Mount Seir,” but in this case the expression בְּהַר שֵׂעִיר (bÿhar se’ir) refers to the hill country or highlands of Seir.

[36:9]  ⁷⁸⁴ sn The term father in genealogical records needs to be carefully defined. It can refer to a literal father, a grandfather, a political overlord, or a founder.

[36:12]  ⁷⁸⁵ tn Or “grandsons” (NIV); “descendants” (NEB).

[36:13]  ⁷⁸⁶ tn Or “grandsons” (NIV); “descendants” (NEB).

[36:14]  ⁷⁸⁷ tn Heb “daughter,” but see Gen 36:24-25.

[36:15]  ⁷⁸⁸ tn Or “clan leaders” (so also throughout this chapter).

[36:15]  ⁷⁸⁹ tn Or “sons.”

[36:16]  ⁷⁹⁰ tc The Samaritan Pentateuch omits the name “Korah” (see v. 11 and 1 Chr 1:36).

[36:16]  ⁷⁹¹ tn Or “grandsons” (NIV); “descendants” (NEB).

[36:17]  ⁷⁹² tn Or “grandsons” (NIV); “descendants” (NEB).

[36:20]  ⁷⁹³ sn The same pattern of sons, grandsons, and chiefs is now listed for Seir the Horite. “Seir” is both the name of the place and the name of the ancestor of these tribes. The name “Horite” is probably not to be identified with “Hurrian.” The clan of Esau settled in this area, intermarried with these Horites and eventually dispossessed them, so that they all became known as Edomites (Deut 2:12 telescopes the whole development).

[36:21]  ⁷⁹⁴ tn Or “sons.”

[36:22]  ⁷⁹⁵ tn Heb “Hemam”; this is probably a variant spelling of “Homam” (1 Chr 1:39); cf. NRSV, NLT “Heman.”

[36:23]  ⁷⁹⁶ tn This name is given as “Shephi” in 1 Chr 1:40.

[36:24]  ⁷⁹⁷ tn The meaning of this Hebrew term is uncertain; Syriac reads “water” and Vulgate reads “hot water.”

[36:25]  ⁷⁹⁸ tn Heb “sons,” but since a daughter is included in the list, the word must be translated “children.”

[36:26]  ⁷⁹⁹ tn Heb “Dishan,” but this must be either a scribal error or variant spelling, since “Dishan” is mentioned in v. 28 (see also v. 21).

[36:31]  ⁸⁰⁰ tn Or perhaps “before any Israelite king ruled over [them].”

[36:37]  ⁸⁰¹ tn Typically the Hebrew expression “the River” refers to the Euphrates River, but it is not certain whether that is the case here. Among the modern English versions which take this as a reference to the Euphrates are NASB, NCV, NRSV, CEV, NLT. Cf. NAB, TEV “Rehoboth-on-the-River.”

[36:39]  ⁸⁰² tc Most mss of the MT read “Hadar” here; “Hadad” is the reading found in some Hebrew mss, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and Syriac (cf. also 1 Chr 1:50).

[36:39]  ⁸⁰³ tn The name of the city is given as “Pai” in 1 Chr 1:50.

[36:43]  ⁸⁰⁴ tn Or perhaps “territories”; Heb “dwelling places.”

[35:22]  ⁸⁰⁵ tn Heb “and Josiah did not turn his face from him.”

[35:22]  ⁸⁰⁶ tn Heb “listen to.”

[35:22]  ⁸⁰⁷ map For location see Map1 D4; Map2 C1; Map4 C2; Map5 F2; Map7 B1.