Genesis 11:28

11:28 Haran died in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans, ¹  while his father Terah was still alive. ² 

Genesis 24:4

24:4 You must go instead to my country and to my relatives ³  to find ⁴  a wife for my son Isaac.”

Genesis 31:3

31:3 The Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers ⁵  and to your relatives. I will be with you.” ⁶ 

Genesis 48:6

48:6 Any children that you father ⁷  after them will be yours; they will be listed ⁸  under the names of their brothers in their inheritance. ⁹ 

Genesis 12:1

The Obedience of Abram

12:1 Now the Lord said ¹⁰  to Abram, ¹¹ 

“Go out ¹²  from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household

to the land that I will show you. ¹³ 

Genesis 32:9

32:9 Then Jacob prayed, ¹⁴  “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said ¹⁵  to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’ ¹⁶ 

Genesis 24:7

24:7 “The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and the land of my relatives, ¹⁷  promised me with a solemn oath, ¹⁸  ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ He will send his angel ¹⁹  before you so that you may find ²⁰  a wife for my son from there.

Genesis 31:13

31:13 I am the God of Bethel, ²¹  where you anointed ²²  the sacred stone and made a vow to me. ²³  Now leave this land immediately ²⁴  and return to your native land.’”

Genesis 43:7

43:7 They replied, “The man questioned us ²⁵  thoroughly ²⁶  about ourselves and our family, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ ²⁷  So we answered him in this way. ²⁸  How could we possibly know ²⁹  that he would say, ³⁰  ‘Bring your brother down’?”

[11:28]  ¹ sn The phrase of the Chaldeans is a later editorial clarification for the readers, designating the location of Ur. From all evidence there would have been no Chaldeans in existence at this early date; they are known in the time of the neo-Babylonian empire in the first millennium b.c.

[11:28]  ² tn Heb “upon the face of Terah his father.”

[24:4]  ³ tn Heb “for to my country and my relatives you must go.”

[24:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “and take.”

[31:3]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps “ancestors” (so NRSV), although the only “ancestors” Jacob had there were his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac.

[31:3]  ⁶ sn I will be with you. Though Laban was no longer “with him,” the Lord promised to be.

[48:6]  ⁷ tn Or “you fathered.”

[48:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “called” or “named.”

[48:6]  ⁹ sn Listed under the names of their brothers in their inheritance. This means that any subsequent children of Joseph will be incorporated into the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.

[12:1]  ⁹ sn The Lord called Abram while he was in Ur (see Gen 15:7; Acts 7:2); but the sequence here makes it look like it was after the family left to migrate to Canaan (11:31-32). Genesis records the call of Abram at this place in the narrative because it is the formal beginning of the account of Abram. The record of Terah was brought to its end before this beginning.

[12:1]  ¹⁰ tn The call of Abram begins with an imperative לֶךְ־לְךָ (lekh-lÿkha, “go out”) followed by three cohortatives (v. 2a) indicating purpose or consequence (“that I may” or “then I will”). If Abram leaves, then God will do these three things. The second imperative (v. 2b, literally “and be a blessing”) is subordinated to the preceding cohortatives and indicates God’s ultimate purpose in calling and blessing Abram. On the syntactical structure of vv. 1-2 see R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 37. For a similar sequence of volitive forms see Gen 45:18.

[12:1]  ¹¹ tn The initial command is the direct imperative (לֶךְ, lekh) from the verb הָלַךְ (halakh). It is followed by the lamed preposition with a pronominal suffix (לְךָ, lÿkha) emphasizing the subject of the imperative: “you leave.”

[12:1]  ¹² sn To the land that I will show you. The call of Abram illustrates the leading of the Lord. The command is to leave. The Lord’s word is very specific about what Abram is to leave (the three prepositional phrases narrow to his father’s household), but is not specific at all about where he is to go. God required faith, a point that Heb 11:8 notes.

[32:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “said.”

[32:9]  ¹² tn Heb “the one who said.”

[32:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “I will cause good” or “I will treat well [or “favorably”].” The idea includes more than prosperity, though that is its essential meaning. Here the form is subordinated to the preceding imperative and indicates purpose or result. Jacob is reminding God of his promise in the hope that God will honor his word.

[24:7]  ¹³ tn Or “the land of my birth.”

[24:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying.”

[24:7]  ¹⁵ tn Or “his messenger.”

[24:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “before you and you will take.”

[31:13]  ¹⁵ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[31:13]  ¹⁶ sn You anointed the sacred stone. In Gen 28:18 the text simply reported that Jacob poured oil on top of the stone. Now that pouring is interpreted by the Lord as an anointing. Jacob had consecrated the place.

[31:13]  ¹⁷ sn And made a vow to me. The second clause reminds Jacob of the vow he made to the Lord when he anointed the stone (Gen 28:20-22). God is now going to take him back to the land, and so he will have to fulfill his vow.

[31:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “arise, leave!” The first imperative draws attention to the need for immediate action.

[43:7]  ¹⁷ tn The word “us” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[43:7]  ¹⁸ tn The infinitive absolute with the perfect verbal form emphasizes that Joseph questioned them thoroughly.

[43:7]  ¹⁹ sn The report given here concerning Joseph’s interrogation does not exactly match the previous account where they supplied the information to clear themselves (see 42:13). This section may reflect how they remembered the impact of his interrogation, whether he asked the specific questions or not. That may be twisting the truth to protect themselves, not wanting to admit that they volunteered the information. (They admitted as much in 42:31, but now they seem to be qualifying that comment.) On the other hand, when speaking to Joseph later (see 44:19), Judah claims that Joseph asked for the information about their family, making it possible that 42:13 leaves out some of the details of their first encounter.

[43:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and we told to him according to these words.”

[43:7]  ²¹ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the imperfect verbal form, which here is a historic future (that is, future from the perspective of a past time).

[43:7]  ²² tn Once again the imperfect verbal form is used as a historic future (that is, future from the perspective of past time).