Genesis 1:11

1:11 God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: ¹  plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, ²  and ³  trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” It was so.

Genesis 1:26

1:26 Then God said, “Let us make ⁴ 

humankind ⁵  in our image, after our likeness, ⁶  so they may rule ⁷  over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, ⁸  and over all the creatures that move ⁹  on the earth.”

Genesis 1:28

1:28 God blessed ¹⁰  them and said ¹¹  to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! ¹²  Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.” ¹³ 

Genesis 1:30

1:30 And to all the animals of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to all the creatures that move on the ground – everything that has the breath of life in it – I give ¹⁴  every green plant for food.” It was so.

Genesis 2:5

2:5 Now ¹⁵  no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field ¹⁶  had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. ¹⁷ 

Genesis 6:17

6:17 I am about to bring ¹⁸  floodwaters ¹⁹  on the earth to destroy ²⁰  from under the sky all the living creatures that have the breath of life in them. ²¹  Everything that is on the earth will die,

Genesis 11:9

11:9 That is why its name was called ²²  Babel ²³  – 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 12:5

12:5 And Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew ²⁴  Lot, and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired ²⁵  in Haran, and they left for ²⁶  the land of Canaan. They entered the land of Canaan.

Genesis 24:5

24:5 The servant asked him, “What if the woman is not willing to come back with me ²⁷  to this land? Must I then ²⁸  take your son back to the land from which you came?”

Genesis 24:7

24:7 “The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and the land of my relatives, ²⁹  promised me with a solemn oath, ³⁰  ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ He will send his angel ³¹  before you so that you may find ³²  a wife for my son from there.

Genesis 26:3

26:3 Stay ³³  in this land. Then I will be with you and will bless you, ³⁴  for I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants, ³⁵  and I will fulfill ³⁶  the solemn promise I made ³⁷  to your father Abraham.

Genesis 31:13

31:13 I am the God of Bethel, ³⁸  where you anointed ³⁹  the sacred stone and made a vow to me. ⁴⁰  Now leave this land immediately ⁴¹  and return to your native land.’”

Genesis 34:21

34:21 “These men are at peace with us. So let them live in the land and travel freely in it, for the land is wide enough ⁴²  for them. We will take their daughters for wives, and we will give them our daughters to marry. ⁴³ 

Genesis 36:6

36:6 Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, all the people in his household, his livestock, his animals, and all his possessions which he had acquired in the land of Canaan and went to a land some distance away from ⁴⁴  Jacob his brother

Genesis 47:14-15

47:14 Joseph collected all the money that could be found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan as payment ⁴⁵  for the grain they were buying. Then Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s palace. ⁴⁶  47:15 When the money from the lands of Egypt and Canaan was used up, all the Egyptians ⁴⁷  came to Joseph and said, “Give us food! Why should we die ⁴⁸  before your very eyes because our money has run out?”

Genesis 48:7

48:7 But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died – to my sorrow ⁴⁹  – in the land of Canaan. It happened along the way, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there on the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem). ⁵⁰ 

Genesis 50:24

50:24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to you ⁵¹  and lead you up from this land to the land he swore on oath to give ⁵²  to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

[1:11]  ¹ tn The Hebrew construction employs a cognate accusative, where the nominal object (“vegetation”) derives from the verbal root employed. It stresses the abundant productivity that God created.

[1:11]  ² sn After their kinds. The Hebrew word translated “kind” (מִין, min) indicates again that God was concerned with defining and dividing time, space, and species. The point is that creation was with order, as opposed to chaos. And what God created and distinguished with boundaries was not to be confused (see Lev 19:19 and Deut 22:9-11).

[1:11]  ³ tn The conjunction “and” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation to clarify the relationship of the clauses.

[1:26]  ⁴ sn The plural form of the verb has been the subject of much discussion through the years, and not surprisingly several suggestions have been put forward. Many Christian theologians interpret it as an early hint of plurality within the Godhead, but this view imposes later trinitarian concepts on the ancient text. Some have suggested the plural verb indicates majesty, but the plural of majesty is not used with verbs. C. Westermann (Genesis, 1:145) argues for a plural of “deliberation” here, but his proposed examples of this use (2 Sam 24:14; Isa 6:8) do not actually support his theory. In 2 Sam 24:14 David uses the plural as representative of all Israel, and in Isa 6:8 the Lord speaks on behalf of his heavenly court. In its ancient Israelite context the plural is most naturally understood as referring to God and his heavenly court (see 1 Kgs 22:19-22; Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6; Isa 6:1-8). (The most well-known members of this court are God’s messengers, or angels. In Gen 3:5 the serpent may refer to this group as “gods/divine beings.” See the note on the word “evil” in 3:5.) If this is the case, God invites the heavenly court to participate in the creation of humankind (perhaps in the role of offering praise, see Job 38:7), but he himself is the one who does the actual creative work (v. 27). Of course, this view does assume that the members of the heavenly court possess the divine “image” in some way. Since the image is closely associated with rulership, perhaps they share the divine image in that they, together with God and under his royal authority, are the executive authority over the world.

[1:26]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew word is אָדָם (’adam), which can sometimes refer to man, as opposed to woman. The term refers here to humankind, comprised of male and female. The singular is clearly collective (see the plural verb, “[that] they may rule” in v. 26b) and the referent is defined specifically as “male and female” in v. 27. Usage elsewhere in Gen 1-11 supports this as well. In 5:2 we read: “Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and called their name ‘humankind’ (אָדָם).” The noun also refers to humankind in 6:1, 5-7 and in 9:5-6.

[1:26]  ⁶ tn The two prepositions translated “in” and “according to” have overlapping fields of meaning and in this context seem to be virtually equivalent. In 5:3 they are reversed with the two words. The word צֶלֶם (tselem, “image”) is used frequently of statues, models, and images – replicas (see D. J. A. Clines, “The Etymology of Hebrew selem,” JNSL 3 [1974]: 19-25). The word דְּמוּת (dÿmut, “likeness”) is an abstract noun; its verbal root means “to be like; to resemble.” In the Book of Genesis the two terms describe human beings who in some way reflect the form and the function of the creator. The form is more likely stressing the spiritual rather than the physical. The “image of God” would be the God-given mental and spiritual capacities that enable people to relate to God and to serve him by ruling over the created order as his earthly vice-regents.

[1:26]  ⁷ tn Following the cohortative (“let us make”), the prefixed verb form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result (see Gen 19:20; 34:23; 2 Sam 3:21). God’s purpose in giving humankind his image is that they might rule the created order on behalf of the heavenly king and his royal court. So the divine image, however it is defined, gives humankind the capacity and/or authority to rule over creation.

[1:26]  ⁸ tc The MT reads “earth”; the Syriac reads “wild animals” (cf. NRSV).

[1:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “creep” (also in v. 28).

[1:28]  ⁷ tn As in v. 22 the verb “bless” here means “to endow with the capacity to reproduce and be fruitful,” as the following context indicates. As in v. 22, the statement directly precedes the command “be fruitful and multiply.” The verb carries this same nuance in Gen 17:16 (where God’s blessing of Sarai imparts to her the capacity to bear a child); Gen 48:16 (where God’s blessing of Joseph’s sons is closely associated with their having numerous descendants); and Deut 7:13 (where God’s blessing is associated with fertility in general, including numerous descendants). See also Gen 49:25 (where Jacob uses the noun derivative in referring to “blessings of the breast and womb,” an obvious reference to fertility) and Gen 27:27 (where the verb is used of a field to which God has given the capacity to produce vegetation).

[1:28]  ⁸ tn Heb “and God said.” For stylistic reasons “God” has not been repeated here in the translation.

[1:28]  ⁹ tn Elsewhere the Hebrew verb translated “subdue” means “to enslave” (2 Chr 28:10; Neh 5:5; Jer 34:11, 16), “to conquer,” (Num 32:22, 29; Josh 18:1; 2 Sam 8:11; 1 Chr 22:18; Zech 9:13; and probably Mic 7:19), and “to assault sexually” (Esth 7:8). None of these nuances adequately meets the demands of this context, for humankind is not viewed as having an adversarial relationship with the world. The general meaning of the verb appears to be “to bring under one’s control for one’s advantage.” In Gen 1:28 one might paraphrase it as follows: “harness its potential and use its resources for your benefit.” In an ancient Israelite context this would suggest cultivating its fields, mining its mineral riches, using its trees for construction, and domesticating its animals.

[1:28]  ¹⁰ sn The several imperatives addressed to both males and females together (plural imperative forms) actually form two commands: reproduce and rule. God’s word is not merely a form of blessing, but is now addressed to them personally; this is a distinct emphasis with the creation of human beings. But with the blessing comes the ability to be fruitful and to rule. In procreation they will share in the divine work of creating human life and passing on the divine image (see 5:1-3); in ruling they will serve as God’s vice-regents on earth. They together, the human race collectively, have the responsibility of seeing to the welfare of that which is put under them and the privilege of using it for their benefit.

[1:30]  ¹⁰ tn The phrase “I give” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[2:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “Now every sprig of the field before it was.” The verb forms, although appearing to be imperfects, are technically preterites coming after the adverb טֶּרֶם (terem). The word order (conjunction + subject + predicate) indicates a disjunctive clause, which provides background information for the following narrative (as in 1:2). Two negative clauses are given (“before any sprig…”, and “before any cultivated grain” existed), followed by two causal clauses explaining them, and then a positive circumstantial clause is given – again dealing with water as in 1:2 (water would well up).

[2:5]  ¹⁴ tn The first term, שִׂיחַ (siakh), probably refers to the wild, uncultivated plants (see Gen 21:15; Job 30:4,7); whereas the second, עֵשֶׂב (’esev), refers to cultivated grains. It is a way of saying: “back before anything was growing.”

[2:5]  ¹⁵ tn The two causal clauses explain the first two disjunctive clauses: There was no uncultivated, general growth because there was no rain, and there were no grains because there was no man to cultivate the soil.

[6:17]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew construction uses the independent personal pronoun, followed by a suffixed form of הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) and the a participle used with an imminent future nuance: “As for me, look, I am going to bring.”

[6:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the flood, water.”

[6:17]  ¹⁸ tn The verb שָׁחָת (shakhat, “to destroy”) is repeated yet again, only now in an infinitival form expressing the purpose of the flood.

[6:17]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew construction here is different from the previous two; here it is רוּחַ חַיִּים (ruakh khayyim) rather than נֶפֶשׁ הַיָּה (nefesh khayyah) or נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים (nishmat khayyim). It refers to everything that breathes.

[11:9]  ¹⁹ tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.

[11:9]  ²⁰ 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).

[12:5]  ²² tn Heb “the son of his brother.”

[12:5]  ²³ tn For the semantic nuance “acquire [property]” for the verb עָשָׂה (’asah), see BDB 795 s.v. עָשָׂה.

[12:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “went out to go.”

[24:5]  ²⁵ tn Heb “to go after me.”

[24:5]  ²⁶ tn In the Hebrew text the construction is emphatic; the infinitive absolute precedes the imperfect. However, it is difficult to reflect this emphasis in an English translation.

[24:7]  ²⁸ tn Or “the land of my birth.”

[24:7]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying.”

[24:7]  ³⁰ tn Or “his messenger.”

[24:7]  ³¹ tn Heb “before you and you will take.”

[26:3]  ³¹ tn The Hebrew verb גּוּר (gur) means “to live temporarily without ownership of land.” Abraham’s family will not actually possess the land of Canaan until the Israelite conquest hundreds of years later.

[26:3]  ³² tn After the imperative “stay” the two prefixed verb forms with prefixed conjunction here indicate consequence.

[26:3]  ³³ tn The Hebrew term זֶרַע (zera’) occurring here and in v. 18 may mean “seed” (for planting), “offspring” (occasionally of animals, but usually of people), or “descendants” depending on the context.

[26:3]  ³⁴ tn The Hiphil stem of the verb קוּם (qum) here means “to fulfill, to bring to realization.” For other examples of this use of this verb form, see Lev 26:9; Num 23:19; Deut 8:18; 9:5; 1 Sam 1:23; 1 Kgs 6:12; Jer 11:5.

[26:3]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the oath which I swore.”

[31:13]  ³⁴ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[31:13]  ³⁵ sn You anointed the sacred stone. In Gen 28:18 the text simply reported that Jacob poured oil on top of the stone. Now that pouring is interpreted by the Lord as an anointing. Jacob had consecrated the place.

[31:13]  ³⁶ sn And made a vow to me. The second clause reminds Jacob of the vow he made to the Lord when he anointed the stone (Gen 28:20-22). God is now going to take him back to the land, and so he will have to fulfill his vow.

[31:13]  ³⁷ tn Heb “arise, leave!” The first imperative draws attention to the need for immediate action.

[34:21]  ³⁷ tn Heb “wide on both hands,” that is, in both directions.

[34:21]  ³⁸ tn The words “to marry” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[36:6]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “from before.”

[47:14]  ⁴³ tn Or “in exchange.” On the use of the preposition here see BDB 90 s.v. בְּ.

[47:14]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “house.”

[47:15]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “all Egypt.” The expression is a metonymy and refers to all the people of Egypt.

[47:15]  ⁴⁷ tn The imperfect verbal form has a deliberative force here.

[48:7]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “upon me, against me,” which might mean something like “to my sorrow.”

[48:7]  ⁵⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[50:24]  ⁵² tn The verb פָּקַד (paqad) means “to visit,” i.e., to intervene for blessing or cursing; here Joseph announces that God would come to fulfill the promises by delivering them from Egypt. The statement is emphasized by the use of the infinitive absolute with the verb: “God will surely visit you.”

[50:24]  ⁵³ tn The words “to give” are supplied in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.