Genesis 30:15

30:15 But Leah replied, ¹  “Wasn’t it enough that you’ve taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes too?” “All right,” ²  Rachel said, “he may sleep ³  with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

Genesis 30:1

30:1 When Rachel saw that she could not give Jacob children, she ⁴  became jealous of her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children ⁵  or I’ll die!”

Genesis 1:6-8

1:6 God said, “Let there be an expanse ⁶  in the midst of the waters and let it separate water ⁷  from water. 1:7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. ⁸  It was so. ⁹  1:8 God called the expanse “sky.” ¹⁰  There was evening, and there was morning, a second day.

Malachi 2:15

2:15 No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this. ¹¹  What did our ancestor ¹²  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. ¹³ 

[30:15]  ¹ tn Heb “and she said to her”; the referent of the pronoun “she” (Leah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[30:15]  ² tn Heb “therefore.”

[30:15]  ³ tn Heb “lie down.” The expression “lie down with” in this context (here and in the following verse) refers to sexual intercourse. The imperfect verbal form has a permissive nuance here.

[30:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “Rachel.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“she”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “sons.”

[1:6]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew word refers to an expanse of air pressure between the surface of the sea and the clouds, separating water below from water above. In v. 8 it is called “sky.”

[1:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “the waters from the waters.”

[1:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “the expanse.”

[1:7]  ⁹ tn This statement indicates that it happened the way God designed it, underscoring the connection between word and event.

[1:8]  ¹⁰ tn Though the Hebrew word can mean “heaven,” it refers in this context to “the sky.”

[2:15]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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”).