Genesis 10:12

10:12 and Resen, which is between Nineveh and the great city Calah. ¹ 

Genesis 11:5

11:5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people ²  had started ³  building.

Genesis 11:8

11:8 So the Lord scattered them from there across the face of the entire earth, and they stopped building ⁴  the city.

Genesis 13:12

13:12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan, but Lot settled among the cities of the Jordan plain ⁵  and pitched his tents next to Sodom.

Genesis 23:18

23:18 as his property in the presence of the sons of Heth before all who entered the gate of Ephron’s city. ⁶ 

Genesis 24:11

24:11 He made the camels kneel down by the well ⁷  outside the city. It was evening, ⁸  the time when the women would go out to draw water.

Genesis 24:13

24:13 Here I am, standing by the spring, ⁹  and the daughters of the people ¹⁰  who live in the town are coming out to draw water.

Genesis 26:33

26:33 So he named it Shibah; ¹¹  that is why the name of the city has been Beer Sheba ¹²  to this day.

Genesis 28:19

28:19 He called that place Bethel, ¹³  although the former name of the town was Luz.

Genesis 34:27

34:27 Jacob’s sons killed them ¹⁴  and looted the city because their sister had been violated. ¹⁵ 

Genesis 47:21

47:21 Joseph ¹⁶  made all the people slaves ¹⁷  from one end of Egypt’s border to the other end of it.

[10:12]  ¹ tn Heb “and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; it [i.e., Calah] is the great city.”

[11:5]  ² tn Heb “the sons of man.” The phrase is intended in this polemic to portray the builders as mere mortals, not the lesser deities that the Babylonians claimed built the city.

[11:5]  ³ tn The Hebrew text simply has בָּנוּ (banu), but since v. 8 says they left off building the city, an ingressive idea (“had started building”) should be understood here.

[11:8]  ³ tn The infinitive construct לִבְנֹת (livnot, “building”) here serves as the object of the verb “they ceased, stopped,” answering the question of what they stopped doing.

[13:12]  ⁴ tn Or “the cities of the plain”; Heb “[the cities of] the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

[23:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “his city”; the referent (Ephron) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “well of water.”

[24:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “at the time of evening.”

[24:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “the spring of water.”

[24:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “the men.”

[26:33]  ⁸ sn The name Shibah (שִׁבְעָה, shiv’ah) means (or at least sounds like) the word meaning “oath.” The name was a reminder of the oath sworn by Isaac and the Philistines to solidify their treaty.

[26:33]  ⁹ sn The name Beer Sheba (בְּאֵר שָׁבַע, bÿ’er shava’) means “well of an oath” or “well of seven.” According to Gen 21:31 Abraham gave Beer Sheba its name when he made a treaty with the Philistines. Because of the parallels between this earlier story and the account in 26:26-33, some scholars see chaps. 21 and 26 as two versions (or doublets) of one original story. However, if one takes the text as it stands, it appears that Isaac made a later treaty agreement with the people of the land that was similar to his father’s. Abraham dug a well at the site and named the place Beer Sheba; Isaac dug another well there and named the well Shibah. Later generations then associated the name Beer Sheba with Isaac, even though Abraham gave the place its name at an earlier time.

[28:19]  ⁹ tn The name Bethel means “house of God” in Hebrew (see v. 17).

[34:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “came upon the slain.” Because of this statement the preceding phrase “Jacob’s sons” is frequently taken to mean the other sons of Jacob besides Simeon and Levi, but the text does not clearly affirm this.

[34:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “because they violated their sister.” The plural verb is active in form, but with no expressed subject, it may be translated passive.

[47:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[47:21]  ¹² tc The MT reads “and the people he removed to the cities,” which does not make a lot of sense in this context. The Samaritan Pentateuch and the LXX read “he enslaved them as slaves.”