Genesis 4:17

The Beginning of Civilization

4:17 Cain had marital relations ¹  with his wife, and she became pregnant ²  and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was building a city, and he named the city after ³  his son Enoch.

Genesis 4:1

The Story of Cain and Abel

4:1 Now ⁴  the man had marital relations with ⁵  his wife Eve, and she became pregnant ⁶  and gave birth to Cain. Then she said, “I have created ⁷  a man just as the Lord did!” ⁸ 

Genesis 15:12

15:12 When the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep, ⁹  and great terror overwhelmed him. ¹⁰ 

Genesis 15:2

15:2 But Abram said, “O sovereign Lord, ¹¹  what will you give me since ¹²  I continue to be ¹³  childless, and my heir ¹⁴  is ¹⁵  Eliezer of Damascus?” ¹⁶ 

Genesis 18:18

18:18 After all, Abraham ¹⁷  will surely become ¹⁸  a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ¹⁹  using his name.

[4:17]  ¹ tn Heb “knew,” a frequent euphemism for sexual relations.

[4:17]  ² tn Or “she conceived.”

[4:17]  ³ tn Heb “according to the name of.”

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

[4:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “the man knew,” a frequent euphemism for sexual relations.

[4:1]  ⁶ tn Or “she conceived.”

[4:1]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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”).

[15:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “a deep sleep fell on Abram.”

[15:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and look, terror, a great darkness was falling on him.”

[15:2]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text has אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה (’adonay yehvih, “Master, Lord”). Since the tetragrammaton (YHWH) usually is pointed with the vowels for the Hebrew word אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “master”) to avoid pronouncing the divine name, that would lead in this place to a repetition of אֲדֹנָי. So the tetragrammaton is here pointed with the vowels for the word אֱלֹהִים (’elohim, “God”) instead. That would produce the reading of the Hebrew as “Master, God” in the Jewish textual tradition. But the presence of “Master” before the holy name is rather compelling evidence that the original would have been “Master, Lord,” which is rendered here “sovereign Lord.”

[15:2]  ¹² tn The vav (ו) disjunctive at the beginning of the clause is circumstantial, expressing the cause or reason.

[15:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “I am going.”

[15:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the son of the acquisition of my house.”

[15:2]  ¹⁵ tn The pronoun is anaphoric here, equivalent to the verb “to be” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 23, §115).

[15:2]  ¹⁶ sn The sentence in the Hebrew text employs a very effective wordplay on the name Damascus: “The son of the acquisition (בֶּן־מֶשֶׁק, ben-mesheq) of my house is Eliezer of Damascus (דַּמֶּשֶׁק, dammesheq).” The words are not the same; they have different sibilants. But the sound play gives the impression that “in the nomen is the omen.” Eliezer the Damascene will be Abram’s heir if Abram dies childless because “Damascus” seems to mean that. See M. F. Unger, “Some Comments on the Text of Genesis 15:2-3,” JBL 72 (1953): 49-50; H. L. Ginsberg, “Abram’s ‘Damascene’ Steward,” BASOR 200 (1970): 31-32.

[18:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “And Abraham.” The disjunctive clause is probably causal, giving a reason why God should not hide his intentions from Abraham. One could translate, “Should I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation?”

[18:18]  ¹⁸ tn The infinitive absolute lends emphasis to the finite verb that follows.

[18:18]  ¹⁹ tn Theoretically the Niphal can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of “bless” is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Abram were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in later formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation “will bless [i.e., “pronounce blessings upon”] themselves [or “one another”].” The Hitpael of “bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 18:18 (like 12:2) predicts that Abraham will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.