Genesis 1:10

1:10 God called the dry ground “land” ¹  and the gathered waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good.

Genesis 16:14

16:14 That is why the well was called ²  Beer Lahai Roi. ³  (It is located ⁴  between Kadesh and Bered.)

Genesis 21:31

21:31 That is why he named that place ⁵  Beer Sheba, ⁶  because the two of them swore ⁷  an oath there.

Genesis 31:47

31:47 Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, ⁸  but Jacob called it Galeed. ⁹ 

Genesis 41:52

41:52 He named the second child Ephraim, ¹⁰  saying, ¹¹  “Certainly ¹²  God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”

Genesis 1:5

1:5 God called ¹³  the light “day” and the darkness ¹⁴  “night.” There was evening, and there was morning, marking the first day. ¹⁵ 

Genesis 19:22

19:22 Run there quickly, ¹⁶  for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.” (This incident explains why the town was called Zoar.) ¹⁷ 

Genesis 25:30

25:30 So Esau said to Jacob, “Feed ¹⁸  me some of the red stuff – yes, this red stuff – because I’m starving!” (That is why he was also called ¹⁹  Edom.) ²⁰ 

Genesis 31:48

31:48 Laban said, “This pile of stones is a witness of our agreement ²¹  today.” That is why it was called Galeed.

Genesis 33:17

33:17 But ²²  Jacob traveled to Succoth ²³  where he built himself a house and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place was called ²⁴  Succoth. ²⁵ 

Genesis 35:18

35:18 With her dying breath, ²⁶  she named him Ben-Oni. ²⁷  But his father called him Benjamin instead. ²⁸ 

Genesis 11:9

11:9 That is why its name was called ²⁹  Babel ³⁰  – because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.

Genesis 26:18

26:18 Isaac reopened ³¹  the wells that had been dug ³²  back in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up ³³  after Abraham died. Isaac ³⁴  gave these wells ³⁵  the same names his father had given them. ³⁶ 

Genesis 27:36

27:36 Esau exclaimed, “‘Jacob’ is the right name for him! ³⁷  He has tripped me up ³⁸  two times! He took away my birthright, and now, look, he has taken away my blessing!” Then he asked, “Have you not kept back a blessing for me?”

Genesis 29:34

29:34 She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “Now this time my husband will show me affection, ³⁹  because I have given birth to three sons for him.” That is why he was named Levi. ⁴⁰ 

Genesis 50:11

50:11 When the Canaanites who lived in the land saw them mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a very sad occasion ⁴¹  for the Egyptians.” That is why its name was called ⁴²  Abel Mizraim, ⁴³  which is beyond the Jordan.

[1:10]  ¹ tn Heb “earth,” but here the term refers to the dry ground as opposed to the sea.

[16:14]  ² tn The verb does not have an expressed subject and so is rendered as passive in the translation.

[16:14]  ³ sn The Hebrew name Beer Lahai Roi (בְּאֵר לַחַי רֹאִי, bÿ’er lakhay ro’i) means “The well of the Living One who sees me.” The text suggests that God takes up the cause of those who are oppressed.

[16:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “look.” The words “it is located” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:31]  ³ tn Heb “that is why he called that place.” Some translations render this as an impersonal passive, “that is why that place was called.”

[21:31]  ⁴ sn The name Beer Sheba (בְּאֵר שָׁבַע, bÿ’er shava’) means “well of the oath” or “well of the seven.” Both the verb “to swear” and the number “seven” have been used throughout the account. Now they are drawn in as part of the explanation of the significance of the name.

[21:31]  ⁵ sn The verb forms a wordplay with the name Beer Sheba.

[31:47]  ⁴ sn Jegar Sahadutha. Laban the Aramean gave the place an Aramaic name which means “witness pile” or “the pile is a witness.”

[31:47]  ⁵ sn Galeed also means “witness pile” or “the pile is a witness,” but this name is Canaanite or Western Semitic and closer to later Hebrew. Jacob, though certainly capable of speaking Aramaic, here prefers to use the western dialect.

[41:52]  ⁵ sn The name Ephraim (אֶפְרַיִם, ’efrayim), a form of the Hebrew verb פָּרָה (parah), means “to bear fruit.” The theme of fruitfulness is connected with this line of the family from Rachel (30:2) on down (see Gen 49:22, Deut 33:13-17, and Hos 13:15). But there is some difficulty with the name “Ephraim” itself. It appears to be a dual, for which F. Delitzsch simply said it meant “double fruitfulness” (New Commentary on Genesis, 2:305). G. J. Spurrell suggested it was a diphthongal pronunciation of a name ending in -an or -am, often thought to be dual suffixes (Notes on the text of the book of Genesis, 334). Many, however, simply connect the name to the territory of Ephraim and interpret it to be “fertile land” (C. Fontinoy, “Les noms de lieux en -ayim dans la Bible,” UF 3 [1971]: 33-40). The dual would then be an old locative ending. There is no doubt that the name became attached to the land in which the tribe settled, and it is possible that is where the dual ending came from, but in this story it refers to Joseph’s God-given fruitfulness.

[41:52]  ⁶ tn The word “saying” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[41:52]  ⁷ tn Or “for.”

[1:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “he called to,” meaning “he named.”

[1:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the darkness he called night.” The words “he called” have not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[1:5]  ⁸ tn Another option is to translate, “Evening came, and then morning came.” This formula closes the six days of creation. It seems to follow the Jewish order of reckoning time: from evening to morning. Day one started with the dark, continued through the creation of light, and ended with nightfall. Another alternative would be to translate, “There was night and then there was day, one day.”

[19:22]  ⁷ tn Heb “Be quick! Escape to there!” The two imperatives form a verbal hendiadys, the first becoming adverbial.

[19:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “Therefore the name of the city is called Zoar.” The name of the place, צוֹעַר (tso’ar) apparently means “Little Place,” in light of the wordplay with the term “little” (מִצְעָר, mits’ar) used twice by Lot to describe the town (v. 20).

[25:30]  ⁸ tn The rare term לָעַט (la’at), translated “feed,” is used in later Hebrew for feeding animals (see Jastrow, 714). If this nuance was attached to the word in the biblical period, then it may depict Esau in a negative light, comparing him to a hungry animal. Famished Esau comes in from the hunt, only to enter the trap. He can only point at the red stew and ask Jacob to feed him.

[25:30]  ⁹ tn The verb has no expressed subject and so is given a passive translation.

[25:30]  ¹⁰ sn Esau’s descendants would eventually be called Edom. Edom was the place where they lived, so-named probably because of the reddish nature of the hills. The writer can use the word “red” to describe the stew that Esau gasped for to convey the nature of Esau and his descendants. They were a lusty, passionate, and profane people who lived for the moment. Again, the wordplay is meant to capture the “omen in the nomen.”

[31:48]  ⁹ tn Heb “a witness between me and you.”

[33:17]  ¹⁰ tn The disjunctive clause contrasts Jacob’s action with Esau’s.

[33:17]  ¹¹ sn But Jacob traveled to Succoth. There are several reasons why Jacob chose not to go to Mt. Seir after Esau. First, as he said, his herds and children probably could not keep up with the warriors. Second, he probably did not fully trust his brother. The current friendliness could change, and he could lose everything. And third, God did tell him to return to his land, not Seir. But Jacob is still not able to deal truthfully, probably because of fear of Esau.

[33:17]  ¹² tn Heb “why he called.” One could understand “Jacob” as the subject of the verb, but it is more likely that the subject is indefinite, in which case the verb is better translated as passive.

[33:17]  ¹³ sn The name Succoth means “shelters,” an appropriate name in light of the shelters Jacob built there for his livestock.

[35:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in the going out of her life, for she was dying.” Rachel named the child with her dying breath.

[35:18]  ¹² sn The name Ben-Oni means “son of my suffering.” It is ironic that Rachel’s words to Jacob in Gen 30:1, “Give me children or I’ll die,” take a different turn here, for it was having the child that brought about her death.

[35:18]  ¹³ tn The disjunctive clause is contrastive.

[11:9]  ¹² tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.

[11:9]  ¹³ sn Babel. Here is the climax of the account, a parody on the pride of Babylon. In the Babylonian literature the name bab-ili meant “the gate of God,” but in Hebrew it sounds like the word for “confusion,” and so retained that connotation. The name “Babel” (בָּבֶל, bavel) and the verb translated “confused” (בָּלַל, balal) form a paronomasia (sound play). For the many wordplays and other rhetorical devices in Genesis, see J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis (SSN).

[26:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “he returned and dug,” meaning “he dug again” or “he reopened.”

[26:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “that they dug.” Since the subject is indefinite, the verb is translated as passive.

[26:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and the Philistines had stopped them up.” This clause explains why Isaac had to reopen them.

[26:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[26:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the wells) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[26:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “called names to them according to the names that his father called them.”

[27:36]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Is he not rightly named Jacob?” The rhetorical question, since it expects a positive reply, has been translated as a declarative statement.

[27:36]  ¹⁵ sn He has tripped me up. When originally given, the name Jacob was a play on the word “heel” (see Gen 25:26). The name (since it is a verb) probably means something like “may he protect,” that is, as a rearguard, dogging the heels. This name was probably chosen because of the immediate association with the incident of grabbing the heel. Esau gives the name “Jacob” a negative connotation here, the meaning “to trip up; to supplant.”

[29:34]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “will be joined to me.”

[29:34]  ¹⁶ sn The name Levi (לֵוִי, levi), the precise meaning of which is debated, was appropriate because it sounds like the verb לָוָה (lavah, “to join”), used in the statement recorded earlier in the verse.

[50:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “this is heavy mourning for Egypt.”

[50:11]  ¹⁷ tn The verb has no expressed subject and so it may be translated as passive.

[50:11]  ¹⁸ sn The name Abel Mizraim means “the mourning of Egypt.”