Genesis 1:5

1:5 God called ¹  the light “day” and the darkness ²  “night.” There was evening, and there was morning, marking the first day. ³ 

Genesis 1:14

1:14 God said, “Let there be lights ⁴  in the expanse ⁵  of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs ⁶  to indicate seasons and days and years,

Genesis 1:31

1:31 God saw all that he had made – and it was very good! ⁷  There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 4:2

4:2 Then she gave birth ⁸  to his brother Abel. ⁹  Abel took care of the flocks, while Cain cultivated the ground. ¹⁰ 

Genesis 4:8

4:8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” ¹¹  While they were in the field, Cain attacked ¹²  his brother ¹³  Abel and killed him.

Genesis 4:14

4:14 Look! You are driving me off the land ¹⁴  today, and I must hide from your presence. ¹⁵  I will be a homeless wanderer on the earth; whoever finds me will kill me.”

Genesis 11:3

11:3 Then they said to one another, ¹⁶  “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” ¹⁷  (They had brick instead of stone and tar ¹⁸  instead of mortar.) ¹⁹ 

Genesis 15:17

15:17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch ²⁰  passed between the animal parts. ²¹ 

Genesis 17:16

17:16 I will bless her and will give you a son through her. I will bless her and she will become a mother of nations. ²²  Kings of countries ²³  will come from her!”

Genesis 26:1

Isaac and Abimelech

26:1 There was a famine in the land, subsequent to the earlier famine that occurred ²⁴  in the days of Abraham. ²⁵  Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.

Genesis 26:28

26:28 They replied, “We could plainly see ²⁶  that the Lord is with you. So we decided there should be ²⁷  a pact between us ²⁸  – between us ²⁹  and you. Allow us to make ³⁰  a treaty with you

Genesis 39:10

39:10 Even though she continued to speak ³¹  to Joseph day after day, he did not respond ³²  to her invitation to have sex with her. ³³ 

Genesis 41:36

41:36 This food should be held in storage for the land in preparation for the seven years of famine that will occur throughout the land of Egypt. In this way the land will survive the famine.” ³⁴ 

Genesis 41:54

41:54 Then the seven years of famine began, ³⁵  just as Joseph had predicted. There was famine in all the other lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food.

Genesis 44:10

44:10 He replied, “You have suggested your own punishment! ³⁶  The one who has it will become my slave, ³⁷  but the rest of ³⁸  you will go free.” ³⁹ 

Genesis 47:24

47:24 When you gather in the crop, ⁴⁰  give ⁴¹  one-fifth of it to Pharaoh, and the rest ⁴²  will be yours for seed for the fields and for you to eat, including those in your households and your little children.”

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

[1:5]  ² tn Heb “and the darkness he called night.” The words “he called” have not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[1:5]  ³ 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.”

[1:14]  ⁴ sn Let there be lights. Light itself was created before the light-bearers. The order would not seem strange to the ancient Hebrew mind that did not automatically link daylight with the sun (note that dawn and dusk appear to have light without the sun).

[1:14]  ⁵ tn The language describing the cosmos, which reflects a prescientific view of the world, must be interpreted as phenomenal, describing what appears to be the case. The sun and the moon are not in the sky (below the clouds), but from the viewpoint of a person standing on the earth, they appear that way. Even today we use similar phenomenological expressions, such as “the sun is rising” or “the stars in the sky.”

[1:14]  ⁶ tn The text has “for signs and for seasons and for days and years.” It seems likely from the meanings of the words involved that “signs” is the main idea, followed by two categories, “seasons” and “days and years.” This is the simplest explanation, and one that matches vv. 11-13. It could even be rendered “signs for the fixed seasons, that is [explicative vav (ו)] days and years.”

[1:31]  ⁷ 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.

[4:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “And she again gave birth.”

[4:2]  ¹¹ sn The name Abel is not defined here in the text, but the tone is ominous. Abel’s name, the Hebrew word הֶבֶל (hevel), means “breath, vapor, vanity,” foreshadowing Abel’s untimely and premature death.

[4:2]  ¹² tn Heb “and Abel was a shepherd of the flock, and Cain was a worker of the ground.” The designations of the two occupations are expressed with active participles, רֹעֵה (ro’eh, “shepherd”) and עֹבֵד (’oved, “worker”). Abel is occupied with sheep, whereas Cain is living under the curse, cultivating the ground.

[4:8]  ¹³ tc The MT has simply “and Cain said to Abel his brother,” omitting Cain’s words to Abel. It is possible that the elliptical text is original. Perhaps the author uses the technique of aposiopesis, “a sudden silence” to create tension. In the midst of the story the narrator suddenly rushes ahead to what happened in the field. It is more likely that the ancient versions (Samaritan Pentateuch, LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac), which include Cain’s words, “Let’s go out to the field,” preserve the original reading here. After writing אָחִיו (’akhiyv, “his brother”), a scribe’s eye may have jumped to the end of the form בַּשָּׂדֶה (basadeh, “to the field”) and accidentally omitted the quotation. This would be an error of virtual homoioteleuton. In older phases of the Hebrew script the sequence יו (yod-vav) on אָחִיו is graphically similar to the final ה (he) on בַּשָּׂדֶה.

[4:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “arose against” (in a hostile sense).

[4:8]  ¹⁵ sn The word “brother” appears six times in vv. 8-11, stressing the shocking nature of Cain’s fratricide (see 1 John 3:12).

[4:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “from upon the surface of the ground.”

[4:14]  ¹⁷ sn I must hide from your presence. The motif of hiding from the Lord as a result of sin also appears in Gen 3:8-10.

[11:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.” The Hebrew idiom may be translated “to each other” or “one to another.”

[11:3]  ²⁰ tn The speech contains two cohortatives of exhortation followed by their respective cognate accusatives: “let us brick bricks” (נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים, nilbbÿnah lÿvenim) and “burn for burning” (נִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה, nisrÿfah lisrefah). This stresses the intensity of the undertaking; it also reflects the Akkadian text which uses similar constructions (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 75-76).

[11:3]  ²¹ tn Or “bitumen” (cf. NEB, NRSV).

[11:3]  ²² tn The disjunctive clause gives information parenthetical to the narrative.

[15:17]  ²² sn A smoking pot with a flaming torch. These same implements were used in Mesopotamian rituals designed to ward off evil (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 113-14).

[15:17]  ²³ tn Heb “these pieces.”

[17:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “she will become nations.”

[17:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “peoples.”

[26:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in addition to the first famine which was.”

[26:1]  ²⁹ sn This account is parallel to two similar stories about Abraham (see Gen 12:10-20; 20:1-18). Many scholars do not believe there were three similar incidents, only one that got borrowed and duplicated. Many regard the account about Isaac as the original, which then was attached to the more important person, Abraham, with supernatural elements being added. For a critique of such an approach, see R. Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative, 47-62. It is more likely that the story illustrates the proverb “like father, like son” (see T. W. Mann, The Book of the Torah, 53). In typical human fashion the son follows his father’s example of lying to avoid problems. The appearance of similar events reported in a similar way underscores the fact that the blessing has now passed to Isaac, even if he fails as his father did.

[26:28]  ³¹ tn The infinitive absolute before the verb emphasizes the clarity of their perception.

[26:28]  ³² tn Heb “And we said, ‘Let there be.’” The direct discourse in the Hebrew text has been rendered as indirect discourse in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:28]  ³³ tn The pronoun “us” here is inclusive – it refers to the Philistine contingent on the one hand and Isaac on the other.

[26:28]  ³⁴ tn The pronoun “us” here is exclusive – it refers to just the Philistine contingent (the following “you” refers to Isaac).

[26:28]  ³⁵ tn The translation assumes that the cohortative expresses their request. Another option is to understand the cohortative as indicating resolve: “We want to make.’”

[39:10]  ³⁴ tn The verse begins with the temporal indicator, followed by the infinitive construct with the preposition כְּ (kÿ). This clause could therefore be taken as temporal.

[39:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “listen to.”

[39:10]  ³⁶ tn Heb “to lie beside her to be with her.” Here the expression “to lie beside” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

[41:36]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and the land will not be cut off in the famine.”

[41:54]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “began to arrive.”

[44:10]  ⁴³ tn Heb “Also now, according to your words, so it is.” As the next statement indicates, this does mean that he will do exactly as they say. He does agree with them the culprit should be punished, but not as harshly as they suggest. Furthermore, the innocent parties will not be punished.

[44:10]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “The one with whom it is found will become my slave.”

[44:10]  ⁴⁵ tn The words “the rest of” have been supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

[44:10]  ⁴⁶ tn The Hebrew word נָקִי (naqi) means “acquitted,” that is, free of guilt and the responsibility for it.

[47:24]  ⁴⁶ tn The words “the crop” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[47:24]  ⁴⁷ tn The perfect form with the vav (ו) consecutive is equivalent to an imperfect of instruction here.

[47:24]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “four parts.”