Genesis 37:26-28

37:26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 37:27 Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let’s not lay a hand on him, ¹  for after all, he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers agreed. ²  37:28 So when the Midianite ³  merchants passed by, Joseph’s brothers pulled ⁴  him ⁵  out of the cistern and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The Ishmaelites ⁶  then took Joseph to Egypt.

Genesis 37:2

37:2 This is the account of Jacob.

Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, ⁷  was taking care of ⁸  the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster ⁹  working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. ¹⁰  Joseph brought back a bad report about them ¹¹  to their father.

Genesis 4:1

The Story of Cain and Abel

4:1 Now ¹²  the man had marital relations with ¹³  his wife Eve, and she became pregnant ¹⁴  and gave birth to Cain. Then she said, “I have created ¹⁵  a man just as the Lord did!” ¹⁶ 

Nehemiah 5:8

5:8 I said to them, “To the extent possible we have bought back our fellow Jews ¹⁷  who had been sold to the Gentiles. But now you yourselves want to sell your own countrymen, ¹⁸  so that we can then buy them back!” They were utterly silent, and could find nothing to say.

Matthew 21:12-13

Cleansing the Temple

21:12 Then ¹⁹  Jesus entered the temple area ²⁰  and drove out all those who were selling and buying in the temple courts, ²¹  and turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. 21:13 And he said to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ ²²  but you are turning it into a den ²³  of robbers!” ²⁴ 

Matthew 21:2

21:2 telling them, “Go to the village ahead of you. ²⁵  Right away you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.

Matthew 2:3

2:3 When King Herod ²⁶  heard this he was alarmed, and all Jerusalem with him.

Revelation 18:13

18:13 cinnamon, spice, ²⁷  incense, perfumed ointment, ²⁸  frankincense, ²⁹  wine, olive oil and costly flour, ³⁰  wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and four-wheeled carriages, ³¹  slaves and human lives. ³² 

[37:27]  ¹ tn Heb “let not our hand be upon him.”

[37:27]  ² tn Heb “listened.”

[37:28]  ³ sn On the close relationship between Ishmaelites (v. 25) and Midianites, see Judg 8:24.

[37:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “they drew and they lifted up.” The referent (Joseph’s brothers) has been specified in the translation for clarity; otherwise the reader might assume the Midianites had pulled Joseph from the cistern (but cf. NAB).

[37:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “Joseph” (both here and in the following clause); the proper name has been replaced both times by the pronoun “him” in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[37:28]  ⁶ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Ishmaelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[37:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “a son of seventeen years.” The word “son” is in apposition to the name “Joseph.”

[37:2]  ⁸ tn Or “tending”; Heb “shepherding” or “feeding.”

[37:2]  ⁹ tn Or perhaps “a helper.” The significance of this statement is unclear. It may mean “now the lad was with,” or it may suggest Joseph was like a servant to them.

[37:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he [was] a young man with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, the wives of his father.”

[37:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “their bad report.” The pronoun is an objective genitive, specifying that the bad or damaging report was about the brothers.

[4:1]  ¹² tn The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) introduces a new episode in the ongoing narrative.

[4:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “the man knew,” a frequent euphemism for sexual relations.

[4:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “she conceived.”

[4:1]  ¹⁵ tn Here is another sound play (paronomasia) on a name. The sound of the verb קָנִיתִי (qaniti, “I have created”) reflects the sound of the name Cain in Hebrew (קַיִן, qayin) and gives meaning to it. The saying uses the Qal perfect of קָנָה (qanah). There are two homonymic verbs with this spelling, one meaning “obtain, acquire” and the other meaning “create” (see Gen 14:19, 22; Deut 32:6; Ps 139:13; Prov 8:22). The latter fits this context very well. Eve has created a man.

[4:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “with the Lord.” The particle אֶת־ (’et) is not the accusative/object sign, but the preposition “with” as the ancient versions attest. Some take the preposition in the sense of “with the help of” (see BDB 85 s.v. אֵת; cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV), while others prefer “along with” in the sense of “like, equally with, in common with” (see Lev 26:39; Isa 45:9; Jer 23:28). Either works well in this context; the latter is reflected in the present translation. Some understand אֶת־ as the accusative/object sign and translate, “I have acquired a man – the Lord.” They suggest that the woman thought (mistakenly) that she had given birth to the incarnate Lord, the Messiah who would bruise the Serpent’s head. This fanciful suggestion is based on a questionable allegorical interpretation of Gen 3:15 (see the note there on the word “heel”).

[5:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “our brothers, the Jews.”

[5:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “your brothers.”

[21:12]  ¹⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[21:12]  ²⁰ tn Grk “the temple.”

[21:12]  ²¹ tn Grk “the temple.”

[21:13]  ²² sn A quotation from Isa 56:7.

[21:13]  ²³ tn Or “a hideout” (see L&N 1.57).

[21:13]  ²⁴ sn A quotation from Jer 7:11. The meaning of Jesus’ statement about making the temple courts a den of robbers probably operates here at two levels. Not only were the religious leaders robbing the people financially, but because of this they had also robbed them spiritually by stealing from them the opportunity to come to know God genuinely. It is possible that these merchants had recently been moved to this location for convenience.

[21:2]  ²⁵ tn Grk “the village lying before you” (BDAG 530 s.v. κατέναντι 2.b).

[2:3]  ²⁶ sn See the note on King Herod in 2:1.

[18:13]  ²⁷ tn On the term ἄμωμον (amwmon) L&N 5.23 states, “a generic term for any kind of spice, though often a specific reference to amomum, an Indian type of spice – ‘spice, amomum.’ κιννάμωμον καὶ ἄμωμον καὶ θυμιάματα ‘cinnamon and spice and incense’ Re 18:13. In most translations ἄμωμον is interpreted as spice in general.”

[18:13]  ²⁸ tn Or “myrrh,” a strong aromatic ointment often used to prepare a body for burial (L&N 6.205).

[18:13]  ²⁹ tn The Greek term λίβανος (libano") refers to the aromatic resin of a certain type of tree (L&N 6.212).

[18:13]  ³⁰ tn On σεμίδαλις (semidali") L&N 5.10 states, “a fine grade of wheat flour – ‘fine flour.’ οἶνον καὶ ἔλαιον καὶ σεμίδαλιν καὶ σῖτον ‘wine and oil and fine flour and wheat’ Re 18:13. In some languages ‘fine flour’ may be best expressed as ‘expensive flour.’ Such a rendering fits well the context of Re 18:13.”

[18:13]  ³¹ tn Or “and wagons.” On the term ῥέδη (rJedh) see L&N 6.53: “a four-wheeled carriage or wagon used for travel or the transportation of loads – ‘carriage, wagon.’ The term ῥέδη occurs only in Re 18:13 in a list of products bought and sold by merchants.”

[18:13]  ³² tn Grk “and bodies and souls of men.” This could be understood (1) as a hendiadys (two things mentioned = one thing meant), referring only to slave trade; (2) it could be referring to two somewhat different concepts: slavery (bodies) and the cheapness of human life – some of the items earlier in the list of merchandise were to be obtained only at great cost of human life; or (3) a somewhat related idea, that the trade is in not just physical bodies (slavery) but human souls (people whose lives are destroyed through this trade).