Genesis 39:2

39:2 The Lord was with Joseph. He was successful ¹  and lived ²  in the household of his Egyptian master.

Genesis 39:1

Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife

39:1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt. ³  An Egyptian named Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard, ⁴  purchased him from ⁵  the Ishmaelites who had brought him there.

Genesis 18:5

18:5 And let me get ⁶  a bit of food ⁷  so that you may refresh yourselves ⁸  since you have passed by your servant’s home. After that you may be on your way.” ⁹  “All right,” they replied, “you may do as you say.”

Genesis 18:14

18:14 Is anything impossible ¹⁰  for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” ¹¹ 

Genesis 18:2

18:2 Abraham ¹²  looked up ¹³  and saw ¹⁴  three men standing across ¹⁵  from him. When he saw them ¹⁶  he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed low ¹⁷  to the ground. ¹⁸ 

Genesis 8:6

8:6 At the end of forty days, ¹⁹  Noah opened the window he had made in the ark ²⁰ 

Genesis 8:14

8:14 And by the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth ²¹  was dry.

Genesis 8:2

8:2 The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed, ²²  and the rain stopped falling from the sky.

Genesis 31:21

31:21 He left ²³  with all he owned. He quickly crossed ²⁴  the Euphrates River ²⁵  and headed for ²⁶  the hill country of Gilead.

Genesis 32:30

32:30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, ²⁷  explaining, ²⁸  “Certainly ²⁹  I have seen God face to face ³⁰  and have survived.” ³¹ 

Psalms 1:3

1:3 He is like ³²  a tree planted by flowing streams; ³³ 

it ³⁴  yields ³⁵  its fruit at the proper time, ³⁶ 

and its leaves never fall off. ³⁷ 

He succeeds in everything he attempts. ³⁸ 

Psalms 60:12

60:12 By God’s power we will conquer; ³⁹ 

he will trample down ⁴⁰  our enemies.

Romans 8:31

8:31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

[39:2]  ¹ tn Heb “and he was a prosperous man.” This does not mean that Joseph became wealthy, but that he was successful in what he was doing, or making progress in his situation (see 24:21).

[39:2]  ² tn Heb “and he was.”

[39:1]  ³ tn The disjunctive clause resumes the earlier narrative pertaining to Joseph by recapitulating the event described in 37:36. The perfect verbal form is given a past perfect translation to restore the sequence of the narrative for the reader.

[39:1]  ⁴ sn Captain of the guard. See the note on this phrase in Gen 37:36.

[39:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “from the hand of.”

[18:5]  ⁶ tn The Qal cohortative here probably has the nuance of polite request.

[18:5]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “strengthen your heart.” The imperative after the cohortative indicates purpose here.

[18:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “so that you may refresh yourselves, after [which] you may be on your way – for therefore you passed by near your servant.”

[18:14]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”

[18:14]  ¹¹ sn Sarah will have a son. The passage brings God’s promise into clear focus. As long as it was a promise for the future, it really could be believed without much involvement. But now, when it seemed so impossible from the human standpoint, when the Lord fixed an exact date for the birth of the child, the promise became rather overwhelming to Abraham and Sarah. But then this was the Lord of creation, the one they had come to trust. The point of these narratives is that the creation of Abraham’s offspring, which eventually became Israel, is no less a miraculous work of creation than the creation of the world itself.

[18:2]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “lifted up his eyes.”

[18:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and saw, and look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to what he saw. The drawn-out description focuses the reader’s attention on Abraham’s deliberate, fixed gaze and indicates that what he is seeing is significant.

[18:2]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew preposition עַל (’al) indicates the three men were nearby, but not close by, for Abraham had to run to meet them.

[18:2]  ¹⁶ tn The pronoun “them” has been supplied in the translation for clarification. In the Hebrew text the verb has no stated object.

[18:2]  ¹⁷ tn The form וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ (vayyishtakhu, “and bowed low”) is from the verb הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה (hishtakhavah, “to worship, bow low to the ground”). It is probably from a root חָוָה (khavah), though some derive it from שָׁחָה (shakhah).

[18:2]  ¹⁸ sn The reader knows this is a theophany. The three visitors are probably the Lord and two angels (see Gen 19:1). It is not certain how soon Abraham recognized the true identity of the visitors. His actions suggest he suspected this was something out of the ordinary, though it is possible that his lavish treatment of the visitors was done quite unwittingly. Bowing down to the ground would be reserved for obeisance of kings or worship of the Lord. Whether he was aware of it or not, Abraham’s action was most appropriate.

[8:6]  ¹⁹ tn The introductory verbal form וַיְהִי (vayÿhi), traditionally rendered “and it came to pass,” serves as a temporal indicator and has not been translated here.

[8:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “opened the window in the ark which he had made.” The perfect tense (“had made”) refers to action preceding the opening of the window, and is therefore rendered as a past perfect. Since in English “had made” could refer to either the ark or the window, the order of the phrases was reversed in the translation to clarify that the window is the referent.

[8:14]  ²¹ tn In v. 13 the ground (הָאֲדָמָה, ha’adamah) is dry; now the earth (הָאָרֶץ, ha’arets) is dry.

[8:2]  ²² tn Some (e.g., NIV) translate the preterite verb forms in this verse as past perfects (e.g., “had been closed”), for it seems likely that the sources of the water would have stopped before the waters receded.

[31:21]  ²³ tn Heb “and he fled.”

[31:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he arose and crossed.” The first verb emphasizes that he wasted no time in getting across.

[31:21]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the river”; the referent (the Euphrates) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[31:21]  ²⁶ tn Heb “he set his face.”

[32:30]  ²⁷ sn The name Peniel means “face of God.” Since Jacob saw God face to face here, the name is appropriate.

[32:30]  ²⁸ tn The word “explaining” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:30]  ²⁹ tn Or “because.”

[32:30]  ³⁰ sn I have seen God face to face. See the note on the name “Peniel” earlier in the verse.

[32:30]  ³¹ tn Heb “and my soul [= life] has been preserved.”

[1:3]  ³² tn The Hebrew perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries the same characteristic force as the imperfect in the preceding verse. According to the psalmist, the one who studies and obeys God’s commands typically prospers.

[1:3]  ³³ tn Heb “channels of water.”

[1:3]  ³⁴ tn Heb “which.”

[1:3]  ³⁵ tn The Hebrew imperfect verbal forms in v. 3 draw attention to the typical nature of the actions/states they describe.

[1:3]  ³⁶ tn Heb “in its season.”

[1:3]  ³⁷ tn Or “fade”; “wither.”

[1:3]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and all which he does prospers”; or “and all which he does he causes to prosper.” (The simile of the tree does not extend to this line.) It is not certain if the Hiphil verbal form (יַצְלִיחַ, yatsliakh) is intransitive-exhibitive (“prospers”) or causative (“causes to prosper”) here. If the verb is intransitive, then כֹּל (kol, “all, everything”) is the subject. If the verb is causative, then the godly individual or the Lord himself is the subject and כֹּל is the object. The wording is reminiscent of Josh 1:8, where the Lord tells Joshua: “This law scroll must not leave your lips! You must memorize it day and night so you can carefully obey all that is written in it. Then you will prosper (literally, “cause your way to prosper”) and be successful.”

[60:12]  ³⁹ tn Heb “in God we will accomplish strength.” The statement refers here to military success (see Num 24:18; 1 Sam 14:48; Pss 108:13; 118:15-16).

[60:12]  ⁴⁰ sn Trample down. On this expression see Ps 44:5.