Genesis 1:18

1:18 to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. ¹  God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:31

1:31 God saw all that he had made – and it was very good! ²  There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 6:5

6:5 But the Lord saw ³  that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination ⁴  of the thoughts ⁵  of their minds ⁶  was only evil ⁷  all the time. ⁸ 

Genesis 32:25

32:25 When the man ⁹  saw that he could not defeat Jacob, ¹⁰  he struck ¹¹  the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

Genesis 34:2

34:2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, who ruled that area, saw her, he grabbed her, forced himself on her, ¹²  and sexually assaulted her. ¹³ 

Genesis 50:23

50:23 Joseph saw the descendants of Ephraim to the third generation. ¹⁴  He also saw the children of Makir the son of Manasseh; they were given special inheritance rights by Joseph. ¹⁵ 

[1:18]  ¹ sn In days one to three there is a naming by God; in days five and six there is a blessing by God. But on day four there is neither. It could be a mere stylistic variation. But it could also be a deliberate design to avoid naming “sun” and “moon” or promoting them beyond what they are, things that God made to serve in his creation.

[1:31]  ² tn The Hebrew text again uses הִנֵּה (hinneh) for the sake of vividness. It is a particle that goes with the gesture of pointing, calling attention to something.

[6:5]  ³ sn The Hebrew verb translated “saw” (רָאָה, ra’ah), used here of God’s evaluation of humankind’s evil deeds, contrasts with God’s evaluation of creative work in Gen 1, when he observed that everything was good.

[6:5]  ⁴ tn The noun יֵצֶר (yetser) is related to the verb יָצָר (yatsar, “to form, to fashion [with a design]”). Here it refers to human plans or intentions (see Gen 8:21; 1 Chr 28:9; 29:18). People had taken their God-given capacities and used them to devise evil. The word יֵצֶר (yetser) became a significant theological term in Rabbinic literature for what might be called the sin nature – the evil inclination (see also R. E. Murphy, “Yeser in the Qumran Literature,” Bib 39 [1958]: 334-44).

[6:5]  ⁵ tn The related verb הָשָׁב (hashav) means “to think, to devise, to reckon.” The noun (here) refers to thoughts or considerations.

[6:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “his heart” (referring to collective “humankind”). The Hebrew term לֵב (lev, “heart”) frequently refers to the seat of one’s thoughts (see BDB 524 s.v. לֵב). In contemporary English this is typically referred to as the “mind.”

[6:5]  ⁷ sn Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil. There is hardly a stronger statement of the wickedness of the human race than this. Here is the result of falling into the “knowledge of good and evil”: Evil becomes dominant, and the good is ruined by the evil.

[6:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “all the day.”

[32:25]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:25]  ⁶ tn Or “injured”; traditionally “touched.” The Hebrew verb translated “struck” has the primary meanings “to touch; to reach; to strike.” It can, however, carry the connotation “to harm; to molest; to injure.” God’s “touch” cripples Jacob – it would be comparable to a devastating blow.

[34:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he took her and lay with her.” The suffixed form following the verb appears to be the sign of the accusative instead of the preposition, but see BDB 1012 s.v. שָׁכַב.

[34:2]  ⁶ tn The verb עָנָה (’anah) in the Piel stem can have various shades of meaning, depending on the context: “to defile; to mistreat; to violate; to rape; to shame; to afflict.” Here it means that Shechem violated or humiliated Dinah by raping her.

[50:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “saw Ephraim, the children of the third.”

[50:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “they were born on the knees of Joseph.” This expression implies their adoption by Joseph, which meant that they received an inheritance from him.