Genesis 24:31-33

24:31 Laban said to him, ¹  “Come, you who are blessed by the Lord! ²  Why are you standing out here when I have prepared ³  the house and a place for the camels?”

24:32 So Abraham’s servant ⁴  went to the house and unloaded ⁵  the camels. Straw and feed were given ⁶  to the camels, and water was provided so that he and the men who were with him could wash their feet. ⁷  24:33 When food was served, ⁸  he said, “I will not eat until I have said what I want to say.” ⁹  “Tell us,” Laban said. ¹⁰ 

Genesis 18:5

18:5 And let me get ¹¹  a bit of food ¹²  so that you may refresh yourselves ¹³  since you have passed by your servant’s home. After that you may be on your way.” ¹⁴  “All right,” they replied, “you may do as you say.”

Genesis 19:2-3

19:2 He said, “Here, my lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house. Stay the night ¹⁵  and wash your feet. Then you can be on your way early in the morning.” ¹⁶  “No,” they replied, “we’ll spend the night in the town square.” ¹⁷ 

19:3 But he urged ¹⁸  them persistently, so they turned aside with him and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them, including bread baked without yeast, and they ate.

Genesis 29:13

29:13 When Laban heard this news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he rushed out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob ¹⁹  told Laban how he was related to him. ²⁰ 

Genesis 31:54

31:54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice ²¹  on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat the meal. ²²  They ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain.

Genesis 43:25

43:25 They got their gifts ready for Joseph’s arrival ²³  at noon, for they had heard ²⁴  that they were to have a meal ²⁵  there.

Job 31:32

31:32 But ²⁶  no stranger had to spend the night outside,

for I opened my doors to the traveler ²⁷  –

Job 42:11

42:11 So they came to him, all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and they dined ²⁸  with him in his house. They comforted him and consoled him for all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver ²⁹  and a gold ring. ³⁰ 

Job 42:1

Job’s Confession

42:1 Then Job answered the Lord:

Job 5:10

5:10 he gives ³¹  rain on the earth, ³² 

and sends ³³  water on the fields; ³⁴ 

Hebrews 13:2

13:2 Do not neglect hospitality, because through it some have entertained angels without knowing it. ³⁵ 

[24:31]  ¹ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent (Laban) has been specified and the words “to him” supplied in the translation for clarity.

[24:31]  ² sn Laban’s obsession with wealth is apparent; to him it represents how one is blessed by the Lord. Already the author is laying the foundation for subsequent events in the narrative, where Laban’s greed becomes his dominant characteristic.

[24:31]  ³ tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial.

[24:32]  ⁴ tn Heb “the man”; the referent (Abraham’s servant) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:32]  ⁵ tn Some translations (e.g., NEB, NASB, NRSV) understand Laban to be the subject of this and the following verbs or take the subject of this and the following verbs as indefinite (referring to an unnamed servant; e.g., NAB, NIV).

[24:32]  ⁶ tn Heb “and [one] gave.” The verb without an expressed subject may be translated as passive.

[24:32]  ⁷ tn Heb “and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.”

[24:33]  ⁸ tn Heb “and food was placed before him.”

[24:33]  ⁹ tn Heb “my words.”

[24:33]  ¹⁰ tc Some ancient textual witnesses have a plural verb, “and they said.”

[18:5]  ¹¹ tn The Qal cohortative here probably has the nuance of polite request.

[18:5]  ¹² tn Heb “a piece of bread.” The Hebrew word לֶחֶם (lekhem) can refer either to bread specifically or to food in general. Based on Abraham’s directions to Sarah in v. 6, bread was certainly involved, but v. 7 indicates that Abraham had a more elaborate meal in mind.

[18:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “strengthen your heart.” The imperative after the cohortative indicates purpose here.

[18:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “so that you may refresh yourselves, after [which] you may be on your way – for therefore you passed by near your servant.”

[19:2]  ¹⁵ tn The imperatives have the force of invitation.

[19:2]  ¹⁶ tn These two verbs form a verbal hendiadys: “you can rise up early and go” means “you can go early.”

[19:2]  ¹⁷ sn The town square refers to the wide street area at the gate complex of the city.

[19:3]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew verb פָּצַר (patsar, “to press, to insist”) ironically foreshadows the hostile actions of the men of the city (see v. 9, where the verb also appears). The repetition of the word serves to contrast Lot to his world.

[29:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and he told to Laban all these things.” This might mean Jacob told Laban how he happened to be there, but Laban’s response (see v. 14) suggests “all these things” refers to what Jacob had previously told Rachel (see v. 12).

[31:54]  ²¹ tn The construction is a cognate accusative with the verb, expressing a specific sacrifice.

[31:54]  ²² tn Heb “bread, food.” Presumably this was a type of peace offering, where the person bringing the offering ate the animal being sacrificed.

[43:25]  ²³ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct after the preposition, followed by the subjective genitive.

[43:25]  ²⁴ tn The action precedes the action of preparing the gift, and so must be translated as past perfect.

[43:25]  ²⁵ tn Heb “eat bread.” The imperfect verbal form is used here as a historic future (future from the perspective of the past).

[31:32]  ²⁶ tn This verse forms another parenthesis. Job stops almost at every point now in the conditional clauses to affirm his purity and integrity.

[31:32]  ²⁷ tn The word in the MT, אֹרחַ (’orakh, “way”), is a contraction from אֹרֵחַ (’oreakh, “wayfarer”); thus, “traveler.” The same parallelism is found in Jer 14:8. The reading here “on/to the road” is meaningless otherwise.

[42:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “ate bread.”

[42:11]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew word קְשִׂיטָה (qÿsitah) is generally understood to refer to a unit of money, but the value is unknown.

[42:11]  ³⁰ sn This gold ring was worn by women in the nose, or men and women in the ear.

[5:10]  ³¹ tn Heb “who gives.” The participle continues the doxology here. But the article is necessary because of the distance between this verse and the reference to God.

[5:10]  ³² tn In both halves of the verse the literal rendering would be “upon the face of the earth” and “upon the face of the fields.”

[5:10]  ³³ tn The second participle is simply coordinated to the first and therefore does not need the definite article repeated (see GKC 404 §126.b).

[5:10]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew term חוּצוֹת (khutsot) basically means “outside,” or what is outside. It could refer to streets if what is meant is outside the house; but it refers to fields here (parallel to the more general word) because it is outside the village. See Ps 144:13 for the use of the expression for “countryside.” The LXX gives a much wider interpretation: “what is under heaven.”

[13:2]  ³⁵ sn This is a vague allusion to people described in scripture and extra-biblical literature and may include Abraham and Sarah (Gen 18:2-15), Lot (Gen 19:1-14), Gideon (Judg 6:11-18), Manoah (Judg 13:3-22), and possibly Tobit (Tob 12:1-20).