Genesis 1:8

1:8 God called the expanse “sky.” ¹  There was evening, and there was morning, a second day.

Genesis 2:13

2:13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it runs through ²  the entire land of Cush. ³ 

Genesis 41:5

41:5 Then he fell asleep again and had a second dream: There were seven heads of grain growing ⁴  on one stalk, healthy ⁵  and good.

Genesis 41:52

41:52 He named the second child Ephraim, ⁶  saying, ⁷  “Certainly ⁸  God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”

[1:8]  ¹ tn Though the Hebrew word can mean “heaven,” it refers in this context to “the sky.”

[2:13]  ² tn Heb “it is that which goes around.”

[2:13]  ³ sn Cush. In the Bible the Hebrew word כּוּשׁ (kush, “Kush”) often refers to Ethiopia (so KJV, CEV), but here it must refer to a region in Mesopotamia, the area of the later Cassite dynasty of Babylon. See Gen 10:8 as well as E. A. Speiser, Genesis (AB), 20.

[41:5]  ³ tn Heb “coming up.”

[41:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “fat.”

[41:52]  ⁴ sn The name Ephraim (אֶפְרַיִם, ’efrayim), a form of the Hebrew verb פָּרָה (parah), means “to bear fruit.” The theme of fruitfulness is connected with this line of the family from Rachel (30:2) on down (see Gen 49:22, Deut 33:13-17, and Hos 13:15). But there is some difficulty with the name “Ephraim” itself. It appears to be a dual, for which F. Delitzsch simply said it meant “double fruitfulness” (New Commentary on Genesis, 2:305). G. J. Spurrell suggested it was a diphthongal pronunciation of a name ending in -an or -am, often thought to be dual suffixes (Notes on the text of the book of Genesis, 334). Many, however, simply connect the name to the territory of Ephraim and interpret it to be “fertile land” (C. Fontinoy, “Les noms de lieux en -ayim dans la Bible,” UF 3 [1971]: 33-40). The dual would then be an old locative ending. There is no doubt that the name became attached to the land in which the tribe settled, and it is possible that is where the dual ending came from, but in this story it refers to Joseph’s God-given fruitfulness.

[41:52]  ⁵ tn The word “saying” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[41:52]  ⁶ tn Or “for.”