Genesis 22:24

22:24 His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore him children – Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

Genesis 25:6

25:6 But while he was still alive, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines ¹  and sent them off to the east, away from his son Isaac. ² 

Genesis 25:2

25:2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

Genesis 3:7

3:7 Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Genesis 5:13

5:13 Kenan lived 840 years after he became the father of Mahalalel, and he had other sons and daughters.

Genesis 16:1

The Birth of Ishmael

16:1 Now Sarai, ³  Abram’s wife, had not given birth to any children, ⁴  but she had an Egyptian servant ⁵  named Hagar. ⁶ 

Genesis 19:5

19:5 They shouted to Lot, ⁷  “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sex ⁸  with them!”

Genesis 20:3

20:3 But God appeared ⁹  to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, “You are as good as dead ¹⁰  because of the woman you have taken, for she is someone else’s wife.” ¹¹ 

Genesis 20:1

Abraham and Abimelech

20:1 Abraham journeyed from there to the Negev ¹²  region and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he lived as a temporary resident ¹³  in Gerar,

Genesis 11:3

11:3 Then they said to one another, ¹⁴  “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” ¹⁵  (They had brick instead of stone and tar ¹⁶  instead of mortar.) ¹⁷ 

Genesis 11:2

11:2 When the people ¹⁸  moved eastward, ¹⁹  they found a plain in Shinar ²⁰  and settled there.

Genesis 11:21

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

Esther 2:14

2:14 In the evening she went, and in the morning she returned to a separate part ²¹  of the harem, to the authority of Shaashgaz the king’s eunuch who was overseeing the concubines. She would not go back to the king unless the king was pleased with her ²²  and she was requested by name.

The Song of Songs 6:8-9

6:8 There may be sixty ²³  queens,

and eighty concubines,

and young women ²⁴  without number.

6:9 But she is unique! ²⁵ 

My dove, my perfect one!

She is the special daughter ²⁶  of her mother,

she is the favorite ²⁷  of the one who bore her.

The maidens ²⁸  saw her and complimented her; ²⁹ 

the queens and concubines praised her:

Daniel 5:3

5:3 So they brought the gold and silver ³⁰  vessels that had been confiscated from the temple, the house of God ³¹  in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, together with his wives and concubines, drank from them.

Malachi 2:15

2:15 No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this. ³²  What did our ancestor ³³  do when seeking a child from God? Be attentive, then, to your own spirit, for one should not be disloyal to the wife he took in his youth. ³⁴ 

[25:6]  ¹ tn Heb “the sons of the concubines who [belonged] to Abraham.”

[25:6]  ² tn Heb “And he sent them away from upon Isaac his son, while he was still living, eastward to the land of the east.”

[16:1]  ³ tn The disjunctive clause signals the beginning of a new episode in the story.

[16:1]  ⁴ sn On the cultural background of the story of Sarai’s childlessness see J. Van Seters, “The Problem of Childlessness in Near Eastern Law and the Patriarchs of Israel,” JBL 87 (1968): 401-8.

[16:1]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term שִׁפְחָה (shifkhah, translated “servant” here and in vv. 2, 3, 5, 6, and 8) refers to a menial female servant.

[16:1]  ⁶ sn The passage records the birth of Ishmael to Abram through an Egyptian woman. The story illustrates the limits of Abram’s faith as he tries to obtain a son through social custom. The barrenness of Sarai poses a challenge to Abram’s faith, just as the famine did in chap. 12. As in chap. 12, an Egyptian figures prominently. (Perhaps Hagar was obtained as a slave during Abram’s stay in Egypt.)

[19:5]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to him.” This is redundant in English and has not been translated for stylistic reasons.

[19:5]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew verb יָדַע (yada’, “to know”) is used here in the sense of “to lie with” or “to have sex with” (as in Gen 4:1). That this is indeed the meaning is clear from Lot’s warning that they not do so wickedly, and his willingness to give them his daughters instead.

[20:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “came.”

[20:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Look, you [are] dead.” The Hebrew construction uses the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with a second person pronominal particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with by the participle. It is a highly rhetorical expression.

[20:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and she is owned by an owner.” The disjunctive clause is causal or explanatory in this case.

[20:1]  ¹² tn Or “the South [country]”; Heb “the land of the Negev.”

[20:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “and he sojourned.”

[11:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.” The Hebrew idiom may be translated “to each other” or “one to another.”

[11:3]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Or “bitumen” (cf. NEB, NRSV).

[11:3]  ¹⁷ tn The disjunctive clause gives information parenthetical to the narrative.

[11:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:2]  ¹⁹ tn Or perhaps “from the east” (NRSV) or “in the east.”

[11:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in the land of Shinar.”

[2:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “second.” The numerical adjective שֵׁנִי (sheniy, “second”) is difficult here. As a modifier for “house” in v. 14 the word would presumably refer to a second part of the harem, one which was under the supervision of a separate official. But in this case the definite article would be expected before “second” (cf. LXX τὸν δεύτερον, ton deuteron). Some scholars emend the text to שֵׁנִית (shenit, “a second time”), but this does not completely resolve the difficulty since the meaning remains unclear. The translation adopted above follows the LXX and understands the word to refer to a separate group of women in the king’s harem, a group housed apparently in a distinct part of the residence complex.

[2:14]  ²² tc The LXX does not include the words “was pleased with her.”

[6:8]  ²³ sn The sequence “sixty…eighty…beyond number” is an example of a graded numerical sequence and is not intended to be an exact numeration (see W. G. E. Watson, Classical Hebrew Poetry [JSOTSup], 144-50).

[6:8]  ²⁴ sn The term עַלְמָה (’almah, “young woman”) refers to a young woman who is of marriageable age or a newly married young woman, usually before the birth of her first child (HALOT 835-36 s.v. עַלְמָה; BDB 761 s.v. עַלְמָה) (e.g., Gen 24:43; Exod 2:8; Ps 68:26; Prov 30:19; Song 1:3; 6:8; Isa 7:14). The only other use of the term “young women” (עֲלָמוֹת) in the Song refers to the young women of Solomon’s harem (Song 6:8). The root עלם denotes the basic idea of “youthful, strong, passionate” (HALOT 835 s.v. III). While the term עַלְמָה may be used in reference to a young woman who is a virgin, the term itself does not explicitly denote “virgin.” The Hebrew term which explicitly denotes “virgin” is בְּתוּלָה (bÿtulah) which refers to a mature young woman without any sexual experience with men (e.g., Gen 24:16; Exod 22:15-16; Lev 21:3; Deut 22:23, 28; 32:25; Judg 12:12; 19:24; 2 Sam 13:2, 18; 1 Kgs 1:2; 2 Chr 36:17; Esth 2:2-3, 17, 19; Job 31:1; Pss 45:15; 78:63; 148:12; Isa 23:4; 62:5; Jer 2:32; 31:3; 51:22; Lam 1:4, 18; 2:10, 21; 5:11; Ezek 9:6; Joel 1:8; Amos 9:13; Zech 9:17; HALOT 166-7 s.v. בְּתוּלָה; BDB 143 s.v. בְּתוּלָה). The related noun בְּתוּלִים (bÿtulim) means “state of virginity” (Lev 21:13; Judg 11:37-38; Ezek 23:3, 8; Sir 42:10) and “evidence of virginity” (Deut 22:14-15, 17, 20) (HALOT 167 s.v. בְּתוּלִים).

[6:9]  ²⁵ tn Alternately, “She alone is my dove, my perfect one.” The term אַחַת (’akhat) is used here as an adjective of quality: “unique, singular, the only one” (DCH 1:180 s.v. אֶחָד 1b). The masculine form is used elsewhere to describe Yahweh as the “only” or “unique” God of Israel who demands exclusive love and loyalty (Deut 6:4; Zech 14:9). Although Solomon possessed a large harem, she was the only woman for him.

[6:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the only daughter of her mother.” The phrase אַחַת לְאִמָּה (’akhat lÿ’immah) is sometimes translated as “the only daughter of her mother” (NIV, NASB) or “the only one of her mother” (KJV). K&D 18:112 suggests that she was not her mother’s only daughter, but her most special daughter. This is supported by the parallelism with בָּרָה (barah, “favorite”) in the following line. Similarly, Gen 22:2 and Prov 4:3 use the masculine term אֶחָד (’ekhad, “the only one”) to refer to the specially favored son, that is, the heir.

[6:9]  ²⁷ tn The term בָּרָה (barah) is sometimes nuanced “pure” (NASB) because the root ברר I denotes “to purify, purge out” (BDB 140-41 s.v. בָּרַר). However, the root בָּרַר also denotes “to choose, select” (BDB 141 s.v. 2) (Neh 5:18; 1 Chr 7:40; 9:22; 16:41). Most translations adopt the second root, e.g., “the choice one” (KJV), “the favorite” (NIV), “favorite” (JB). This is supported by the exegetical tradition of LXX, which translates בָּרָה as ἐκλεκτή (eklekth, “the chosen one”).

[6:9]  ²⁸ tn Heb “daughters.”

[6:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “to call blessed.” The verb אָשַׁר (’ashar) is used of people whom others consider fortunate because they have prospered or are to be commended (Gen 30:13; Ps 72:17; Mal 3:12, 15). Likewise, the verb הָלַל (halal, “to praise”) is used elsewhere of people who are held in high esteem by others either due to a commendable moral quality (Prov 31:28, 31) or due to one’s physical beauty (Gen 12:15; 2 Sam 14:25). The actual content of their praise of her appears in Song 6:10 in which they compare her beauty to that of the dawn, moon, sun, and stars.

[5:3]  ³⁰ tc The present translation reads וְכַסְפָּא (vÿkhaspa’, “and the silver”) with Theodotion and the Vulgate. Cf. v. 2. The form was probably accidentally dropped from the Aramaic text by homoioteleuton.

[5:3]  ³¹ tn Aram “the temple of the house of God.” The phrase seems rather awkward. The Vulgate lacks “of the house of God,” while Theodotion and the Syriac lack “the house.”

[2:15]  ³² tn Heb “and not one has done, and a remnant of the spirit to him.” The very elliptical nature of the statement suggests it is proverbial. The present translation represents an attempt to clarify the meaning of the statement (cf. NASB).

[2:15]  ³³ tn Heb “the one.” This is an oblique reference to Abraham who sought to obtain God’s blessing by circumventing God’s own plan for him by taking Hagar as wife (Gen 16:1-6). The result of this kind of intermarriage was, of course, disastrous (Gen 16:11-12).

[2:15]  ³⁴ sn The wife he took in his youth probably refers to the first wife one married (cf. NCV “the wife you married when you were young”).