Genesis 1:21

1:21 God created the great sea creatures ¹  and every living and moving thing with which the water swarmed, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. God saw that it was good.

Genesis 15:18

15:18 That day the Lord made a covenant ²  with Abram: “To your descendants I give ³  this land, from the river of Egypt ⁴  to the great river, the Euphrates River –

Genesis 20:9

20:9 Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that would cause you to bring such great guilt on me and my kingdom? ⁵  You have done things to me that should not be done!” ⁶ 

Genesis 27:33

27:33 Isaac began to shake violently ⁷  and asked, “Then who else hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it just before you arrived, and I blessed him. ⁸  He will indeed be blessed!”

Genesis 27:42

27:42 When Rebekah heard what her older son Esau had said, ⁹  she quickly summoned ¹⁰  her younger son Jacob and told him, “Look, your brother Esau is planning to get revenge by killing you. ¹¹ 

Genesis 29:2

29:2 He saw ¹²  in the field a well with ¹³  three flocks of sheep lying beside it, because the flocks were watered from that well. Now ¹⁴  a large stone covered the mouth of the well.

Genesis 39:14

39:14 she called for her household servants and said to them, “See, my husband brought ¹⁵  in a Hebrew man ¹⁶  to us to humiliate us. ¹⁷  He tried to have sex with me, ¹⁸  but I screamed loudly. ¹⁹ 

[1:21]  ¹ tn For the first time in the narrative proper the verb “create” (בָּרָא, bara’) appears. (It is used in the summary statement of v. 1.) The author wishes to underscore that these creatures – even the great ones – are part of God’s perfect creation. The Hebrew term תַנִּינִם (tanninim) is used for snakes (Exod 7:9), crocodiles (Ezek 29:3), or other powerful animals (Jer 51:34). In Isa 27:1 the word is used to describe a mythological sea creature that symbolizes God’s enemies.

[15:18]  ² tn Heb “cut a covenant.”

[15:18]  ³ tn The perfect verbal form is understood as instantaneous (“I here and now give”). Another option is to understand it as rhetorical, indicating certitude (“I have given” meaning it is as good as done, i.e., “I will surely give”).

[15:18]  ⁴ sn The river of Egypt is a wadi (a seasonal stream) on the northeastern border of Egypt, not to the River Nile.

[20:9]  ³ tn Heb “How did I sin against you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin?” The expression “great sin” refers to adultery. For discussion of the cultural background of the passage, see J. J. Rabinowitz, “The Great Sin in Ancient Egyptian Marriage Contracts,” JNES 18 (1959): 73, and W. L. Moran, “The Scandal of the ‘Great Sin’ at Ugarit,” JNES 18 (1959): 280-81.

[20:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “Deeds which should not be done you have done to me.” The imperfect has an obligatory nuance here.

[27:33]  ⁴ tn Heb “and Isaac trembled with a great trembling to excess.” The verb “trembled” is joined with a cognate accusative, which is modified by an adjective “great,” and a prepositional phrase “to excess.” All of this is emphatic, showing the violence of Isaac’s reaction to the news.

[27:33]  ⁵ tn Heb “Who then is he who hunted game and brought [it] to me so that I ate from all before you arrived and blessed him?”

[27:42]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah.”

[27:42]  ⁶ tn Heb “she sent and called for.”

[27:42]  ⁷ tn Heb “is consoling himself with respect to you to kill you.” The only way Esau had of dealing with his anger at the moment was to plan to kill his brother after the death of Isaac.

[29:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he saw, and look.” As in Gen 28:12-15, the narrator uses the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) here and in the next clause to draw the reader into the story.

[29:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “and look, there.”

[29:2]  ⁸ tn The disjunctive clause (introduced by the noun with the prefixed conjunction) provides supplemental information that is important to the story.

[39:14]  ⁷ tn The verb has no expressed subject, and so it could be treated as a passive (“a Hebrew man was brought in”; cf. NIV). But it is clear from the context that her husband brought Joseph into the household, so Potiphar is the apparent referent here. Thus the translation supplies “my husband” as the referent of the unspecified pronominal subject of the verb (cf. NEB, NRSV).

[39:14]  ⁸ sn A Hebrew man. Potiphar’s wife raises the ethnic issue when talking to her servants about what their boss had done.

[39:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “to make fun of us.” The verb translated “to humiliate us” here means to hold something up for ridicule, or to toy with something harmfully. Attempted rape would be such an activity, for it would hold the victim in contempt.

[39:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he came to me to lie with me.” Here the expression “lie with” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

[39:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and I cried out with a loud voice.”