Genesis 34:30

34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin ¹  on me by making me a foul odor ²  among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I ³  am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”

Acts 7:5

7:5 He ⁴  did not give any of it to him for an inheritance, ⁵  not even a foot of ground, ⁶  yet God ⁷  promised to give it to him as his possession, and to his descendants after him, ⁸  even though Abraham ⁹  as yet had no child.

Hebrews 11:13

11:13 These all died in faith without receiving the things promised, ¹⁰  but they saw them in the distance and welcomed them and acknowledged that they were strangers and foreigners ¹¹  on the earth.

[34:30]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Jacob speaks in the first person as the head and representative of the entire family.

[7:5]  ⁴ tn Grk “And he.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[7:5]  ⁵ tn Grk “He did not give him an inheritance in it.” This could be understood to mean that God did not give something else to Abraham as an inheritance while he was living there. The point of the text is that God did not give any of the land to him as an inheritance, and the translation makes this clear.

[7:5]  ⁶ tn Grk “a step of a foot” (cf. Deut 2:5).

[7:5]  ⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:5]  ⁸ sn An allusion to Gen 12:7; 13:15; 15:2, 18; 17:8; 24:7; 48:4. On the theological importance of the promise and to his descendants after him, see Rom 4 and Gal 3.

[7:5]  ⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:13]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “the promises,” referring to the things God promised, not to the pledges themselves.

[11:13]  ¹¹ tn Or “sojourners.”