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 7:6-7

7:6 Noah ²  was 600 years old when the floodwaters engulfed ³  the earth. 7:7 Noah entered the ark along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives because ⁴  of the floodwaters.

Genesis 8:7-8

8:7 and sent out a raven; it kept flying ⁵  back and forth until the waters had dried up on the earth.

8:8 Then Noah ⁶  sent out a dove ⁷  to see if the waters had receded ⁸  from the surface of the ground.

Genesis 16:7

16:7 The Lord’s angel ⁹  found Hagar near a spring of water in the desert – the spring that is along the road to Shur. ¹⁰ 

Genesis 18:4

18:4 Let a little water be brought so that ¹¹  you may all ¹²  wash your feet and rest under the tree.

Genesis 21:15

21:15 When the water in the skin was gone, she shoved ¹³  the child under one of the shrubs.

Genesis 21:25

21:25 But Abraham lodged a complaint ¹⁴  against Abimelech concerning a well ¹⁵  that Abimelech’s servants had seized. ¹⁶ 

Genesis 24:11

24:11 He made the camels kneel down by the well ¹⁷  outside the city. It was evening, ¹⁸  the time when the women would go out to draw water.

Genesis 24:17

24:17 Abraham’s servant ¹⁹  ran to meet her and said, “Please give me a sip of water from your jug.”

Genesis 26:19

26:19 When Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well with fresh flowing ²⁰  water there,

Genesis 37:24

37:24 Then they took him and threw him into the cistern. (Now the cistern was empty; ²¹  there was no water in it.)

Genesis 49:4

49:4 You are destructive ²²  like water and will not excel, ²³ 

for you got on your father’s bed, ²⁴ 

then you defiled it – he got on my couch! ²⁵ 

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

[7:6]  ² tn Heb “Now Noah was.” The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + predicate nominative after implied “to be” verb) provides background information. The age of Noah receives prominence.

[7:6]  ³ tn Heb “and the flood was water upon.” The disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) is circumstantial/temporal in relation to the preceding clause. The verb הָיָה (hayah) here carries the nuance “to come” (BDB 225 s.v. הָיָה). In this context the phrase “come upon” means “to engulf.”

[7:7]  ³ tn The preposition מִן (min) is causal here, explaining why Noah and his family entered the ark.

[8:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “and it went out, going out and returning.” The Hebrew verb יָצָא (yatsa’), translated here “flying,” is modified by two infinitives absolute indicating that the raven went back and forth.

[8:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Noah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:8]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text adds “from him.” This has not been translated for stylistic reasons, because it is redundant in English.

[8:8]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew verb קָלָל (qalal) normally means “to be light, to be slight”; it refers here to the waters receding.

[16:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “the messenger of the Lord.” Some identify the angel of the Lord as the preincarnate Christ because in some texts the angel is identified with the Lord himself. However, it is more likely that the angel merely represents the Lord; he can speak for the Lord because he is sent with the Lord’s full authority. In some cases the angel is clearly distinct from the Lord (see Judg 6:11-23). It is not certain if the same angel is always in view. Though the proper name following the noun “angel” makes the construction definite, this may simply indicate that a definite angel sent from the Lord is referred to in any given context. It need not be the same angel on every occasion. Note the analogous expression “the servant of the Lord,” which refers to various individuals in the OT (see BDB 714 s.v. עֶבֶד).

[16:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “And the angel of the Lord found her near the spring of water in the desert, near the spring on the way to Shur.”

[18:4]  ⁷ tn The imperative after the jussive indicates purpose here.

[18:4]  ⁸ tn The word “all” has been supplied in the translation because the Hebrew verb translated “wash” and the pronominal suffix on the word “feet” are plural, referring to all three of the visitors.

[21:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “threw,” but the child, who was now thirteen years old, would not have been carried, let alone thrown under a bush. The exaggerated language suggests Ishmael is limp from dehydration and is being abandoned to die. See G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 2:85.

[21:25]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew verb used here means “to argue; to dispute”; it can focus on the beginning of the dispute (as here), the dispute itself, or the resolution of a dispute (Isa 1:18). Apparently the complaint was lodged before the actual oath was taken.

[21:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “concerning the matter of the well of water.”

[21:25]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew verb used here means “to steal; to rob; to take violently.” The statement reflects Abraham’s perspective.

[24:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “well of water.”

[24:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “at the time of evening.”

[24:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the servant.” The word “Abraham’s” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:19]  ¹² tn Heb “living.” This expression refers to a well supplied by subterranean streams (see Song 4:15).

[37:24]  ¹³ tn The disjunctive clause gives supplemental information that helps the reader or hearer to picture what happened.

[49:4]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew noun פַּחַז (pakhaz) only occurs here in the OT. A related verb occurs twice in the prophets (Jer 23:32; Zeph 3:4) for false prophets inventing their messages, and once in Judges for unscrupulous men bribed to murder (Judg 9:4). It would describe Reuben as being “frothy, boiling, turbulent” as water. The LXX has “run riot,” the Vulgate has “poured out,” and Tg. Onq. has “you followed your own direction.” It is a reference to Reuben’s misconduct in Gen 35, but the simile and the rare word invite some speculation. H. Pehlke suggests “destructive like water,” for Reuben acted with pride and presumption; see his “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Genesis 49:1-28” (Th.D. dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1985).

[49:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Do not excel!” The Hiphil of the verb יָתַר (yatar) has this meaning only here. The negated jussive is rhetorical here. Rather than being a command, it anticipates what will transpire. The prophecy says that because of the character of the ancestor, the tribe of Reuben would not have the character to lead (see 1 Chr 5:1).

[49:4]  ¹⁶ sn This is a euphemism for having sexual intercourse with Jacob’s wives (see Gen 35:22).

[49:4]  ¹⁷ tn The last verb is third masculine singular, as if for the first time Jacob told the brothers, or let them know that he knew. For a discussion of this passage see S. Gevirtz, “The Reprimand of Reuben,” JNES 30 (1971): 87-98.