Genesis 2:14

2:14 The name of the third river is Tigris; it runs along the east side of Assyria. ¹  The fourth river is the Euphrates.

Genesis 10:10-11

10:10 The primary regions ²  of his kingdom were Babel, ³  Erech, ⁴  Akkad, ⁵  and Calneh ⁶  in the land of Shinar. ⁷  10:11 From that land he went ⁸  to Assyria, ⁹  where he built Nineveh, ¹⁰  Rehoboth-Ir, ¹¹  Calah, ¹² 

Genesis 11:9

11:9 That is why its name was called ¹³  Babel ¹⁴  – 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.

Genesis 11:2

11:2 When the people ¹⁵  moved eastward, ¹⁶  they found a plain in Shinar ¹⁷  and settled there.

Genesis 17:24

17:24 Now Abraham was 99 years old ¹⁸  when he was circumcised; ¹⁹ 

Genesis 20:12

20:12 What’s more, ²⁰  she is indeed my sister, my father’s daughter, but not my mother’s daughter. She became my wife.

Genesis 20:2

20:2 Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent for Sarah and took her.

Genesis 33:11

33:11 Please take my present ²¹  that was brought to you, for God has been generous ²²  to me and I have all I need.” ²³  When Jacob urged him, he took it. ²⁴ 

Ezra 4:9-10

4:9 From ²⁵  Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their colleagues – the judges, the rulers, the officials, the secretaries, the Erechites, the Babylonians, the people of Susa (that is, ²⁶  the Elamites), 4:10 and the rest of nations whom the great and noble Ashurbanipal ²⁷  deported and settled in the cities ²⁸  of Samaria and other places in Trans-Euphrates. ²⁹ 

Daniel 4:30

4:30 The king uttered these words: “Is this not the great Babylon that I have built for a royal residence ³⁰  by my own mighty strength ³¹  and for my majestic honor?”

[2:14]  ¹ tn Heb “Asshur” (so NEB, NIV).

[10:10]  ² 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]  ³ tn Or “Babylon.”

[10:10]  ⁴ sn Erech (ancient Uruk, modern Warka), one of the most ancient civilizations, was located southeast of Babylon.

[10:10]  ⁵ sn Akkad, or ancient Agade, was associated with Sargon and located north of Babylon.

[10:10]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ sn Shinar is another name for Babylonia.

[10:11]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “Asshur.”

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

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

[10:11]  ¹² sn Calah (modern Nimrud) was located twenty miles north of Nineveh.

[11:9]  ¹³ tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.

[11:9]  ¹⁴ 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).

[11:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:2]  ¹⁶ tn Or perhaps “from the east” (NRSV) or “in the east.”

[11:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in the land of Shinar.”

[17:24]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the son of ninety-nine years.”

[17:24]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin” (also in v. 25).

[20:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “but also.”

[33:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “blessing.” It is as if Jacob is trying to repay what he stole from his brother twenty years earlier.

[33:11]  ²² tn Or “gracious,” but in the specific sense of prosperity.

[33:11]  ²³ tn Heb “all.”

[33:11]  ²⁴ 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.

[4:9]  ²⁵ tn Aram “then.” What follows in v. 9 seems to be the preface of the letter, serving to identify the senders of the letter. The word “from” is not in the Aramaic text but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[4:9]  ²⁶ tn For the qere of the MT (דֶּהָיֵא, dehaye’, a proper name) it seems better to retain the Kethib דִּהוּא (dihu’, “that is”). See F. Rosenthal, Grammar, 25, §35; E. Vogt, Lexicon linguae aramaicae, 36.

[4:10]  ²⁷ tn Aram “Osnappar” (so ASV, NASB, NRSV), another name for Ashurbanipal.

[4:10]  ²⁸ tc The translation reads with the ancient versions the plural בְּקֻרְיַהּ (bÿquryah, “in the cities”) rather than the singular (“in the city”) of the MT.

[4:10]  ²⁹ tn Aram “beyond the river.” In Ezra this term is a technical designation for the region west of the Euphrates river.

[4:30]  ³⁰ tn Aram “house.”

[4:30]  ³¹ tn Aram “by the might of my strength.”