Genesis 44:34

44:34 For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn’t bear to see ¹  my father’s pain.” ² 

Numbers 20:14

Rejection by the Edomites

20:14 ³ Moses ⁴  sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: ⁵  “Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardships we have experienced, ⁶ 

Nehemiah 9:32

9:32 “So now, our God – the great, powerful, and awesome God, who keeps covenant fidelity ⁷  – do not regard as inconsequential ⁸  all the hardship that has befallen us – our kings, our leaders, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and all your people – from the days of the kings of Assyria until this very day!

[44:34]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text has “lest I see,” which expresses a negative purpose – “I cannot go up lest I see.”

[44:34]  ² tn Heb “the calamity which would find my father.”

[20:14]  ³ sn For this particular section, see W. F. Albright, “From the Patriarchs to Moses: 2. Moses out of Egypt,” BA 36 (1973): 57-58; J. R. Bartlett, “The Land of Seir and the Brotherhood of Edom,” JTS 20 (1969): 1-20, and “The Rise and Fall of the Kingdom of Edom,” PEQ 104 (1972): 22-37, and “The Brotherhood of Edom,” JSOT 4 (1977): 2-7.

[20:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “And Moses sent.”

[20:14]  ⁵ sn Some modern biblical scholars are convinced, largely through arguments from silence, that there were no unified kingdoms in Edom until the 9th century, and no settlements there before the 12th century, and so the story must be late and largely fabricated. The evidence is beginning to point to the contrary. But the cities and residents of the region would largely be Bedouin, and so leave no real remains.

[20:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “found.”

[9:32]  ⁷ tn Heb “the covenant and loyal love.” The expression is a hendiadys. The second noun retains its full nominal sense, while the first functions adjectivally: “the covenant and loyalty” = covenant fidelity.

[9:32]  ⁸ tn Heb “do not let it seem small in your sight.”