Genesis 12:8

12:8 Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel ¹  and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord. ² 

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? ³  You have done things to me that should not be done!” ⁴ 

Genesis 21:17

21:17 But God heard the boy’s voice. ⁵  The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, ⁶  Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard ⁷  the boy’s voice right where he is crying.

Genesis 26:9

26:9 So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, “She is really ⁸  your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac replied, “Because I thought someone might kill me to get her.” ⁹ 

Genesis 26:18

26:18 Isaac reopened ¹⁰  the wells that had been dug ¹¹  back in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up ¹²  after Abraham died. Isaac ¹³  gave these wells ¹⁴  the same names his father had given them. ¹⁵ 

Genesis 26:22

26:22 Then he moved away from there and dug another well. They did not quarrel over it, so Isaac ¹⁶  named it ¹⁷  Rehoboth, ¹⁸  saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will prosper in the land.”

Genesis 35:10

35:10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but your name will no longer be called Jacob; Israel will be your name.” So God named him Israel. ¹⁹ 

Genesis 41:8

41:8 In the morning he ²⁰  was troubled, so he called for ²¹  all the diviner-priests ²²  of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, ²³  but no one could interpret ²⁴  them for him. ²⁵ 

Genesis 41:45

41:45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. ²⁶  He also gave him Asenath ²⁷  daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, ²⁸  to be his wife. So Joseph took charge of ²⁹  all the land of Egypt.

Genesis 45:1

The Reconciliation of the Brothers

45:1 Joseph was no longer able to control himself before all his attendants, ³⁰  so he cried out, “Make everyone go out from my presence!” No one remained ³¹  with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.

Genesis 47:29

47:29 The time ³²  for Israel to die approached, so he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh ³³  and show me kindness and faithfulness. ³⁴  Do not bury me in Egypt,

Genesis 48:16

48:16 the Angel ³⁵  who has protected me ³⁶ 

from all harm –

bless these boys.

May my name be named in them, ³⁷ 

and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac.

May they grow into a multitude on the earth.”

[12:8]  ¹ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[12:8]  ² tn Heb “he called in the name of the Lord.” The expression refers to worshiping the Lord through prayer and sacrifice (see Gen 4:26; 13:4; 21:33; 26:25). See G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:116, 281.

[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.

[21:17]  ⁵ sn God heard the boy’s voice. The text has not to this point indicated that Ishmael was crying out, either in pain or in prayer. But the text here makes it clear that God heard him. Ishmael is clearly central to the story. Both the mother and the Lord are focused on the child’s imminent death.

[21:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “What to you?”

[21:17]  ⁷ sn Here the verb heard picks up the main motif of the name Ishmael (“God hears”), introduced back in chap. 16.

[26:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “Surely, look!” See N. H. Snaith, “The meaning of Hebrew ‘ak,” VT 14 (1964): 221-25.

[26:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’” Since the verb “said” probably means “said to myself” (i.e., “thought”) here, the direct discourse in the Hebrew statement has been converted to indirect discourse in the translation. In addition the simple prepositional phrase “on account of her” has been clarified in the translation as “to get her” (cf. v. 7).

[26:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “he returned and dug,” meaning “he dug again” or “he reopened.”

[26:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “that they dug.” Since the subject is indefinite, the verb is translated as passive.

[26:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the Philistines had stopped them up.” This clause explains why Isaac had to reopen them.

[26:18]  ¹² tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[26:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “them”; the referent (the wells) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[26:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “called names to them according to the names that his father called them.”

[26:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[26:22]  ¹² tn Heb “and he called its name.”

[26:22]  ¹³ sn The name Rehoboth (רְהֹבוֹת, rehovot) is derived from a verbal root meaning “to make room.” The name was a reminder that God had made room for them. The story shows Isaac’s patience with the opposition; it also shows how God’s blessing outdistanced the men of Gerar. They could not stop it or seize it any longer.

[35:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “and he called his name Israel.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[41:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “his spirit.”

[41:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he sent and called,” which indicates an official summons.

[41:8]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term חַרְטֹם (khartom) is an Egyptian loanword (hyr-tp) that describes a class of priests who were skilled in such interpretations.

[41:8]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew text has the singular (though the Samaritan Pentateuch reads the plural). If retained, the singular must be collective for the set of dreams. Note the plural pronoun “them,” referring to the dreams, in the next clause. However, note that in v. 15 Pharaoh uses the singular to refer to the two dreams. In vv. 17-24 Pharaoh seems to treat the dreams as two parts of one dream (see especially v. 22).

[41:8]  ¹⁹ tn “there was no interpreter.”

[41:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “for Pharaoh.” The pronoun “him” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[41:45]  ¹⁷ sn The meaning of Joseph’s Egyptian name, Zaphenath-Paneah, is uncertain. Many recent commentators have followed the proposal of G. Steindorff that it means “the god has said, ‘he will live’” (“Der Name Josephs Saphenat-Pa‘neach,” ZÄS 31 [1889]: 41-42); others have suggested “the god speaks and lives” (see BDB 861 s.v. צָפְנָת פַּעְנֵחַ); “the man he knows” (J. Vergote, Joseph en Égypte, 145); or “Joseph [who is called] áIp-àankh” (K. A. Kitchen, NBD³ 1262).

[41:45]  ¹⁸ sn The name Asenath may mean “she belongs to the goddess Neit” (see HALOT 74 s.v. אָֽסְנַת). A novel was written at the beginning of the first century entitled Joseph and Asenath, which included a legendary account of the conversion of Asenath to Joseph’s faith in Yahweh. However, all that can be determined from this chapter is that their children received Hebrew names. See also V. Aptowitzer, “Asenath, the Wife of Joseph – a Haggadic Literary-Historical Study,” HUCA 1 (1924): 239-306.

[41:45]  ¹⁹ sn On (also in v. 50) is another name for the city of Heliopolis.

[41:45]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and he passed through.”

[45:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “all the ones standing beside him.”

[45:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “stood.”

[47:29]  ²¹ tn Heb “days.”

[47:29]  ²² sn On the expression put your hand under my thigh see Gen 24:2.

[47:29]  ²³ tn Or “deal with me in faithful love.”

[48:16]  ²³ sn The Samaritan Pentateuch reads “king” here, but the traditional reading (“angel”) may be maintained. Jacob closely associates God with an angelic protective presence. This does not mean that Jacob viewed his God as a mere angel, but it does suggest that he was aware of an angelic presence sent by God to protect him. Here he so closely associates the two that they become virtually indistinguishable. In this culture messengers typically carried the authority of the one who sent them and could even be addressed as such. Perhaps Jacob thought that the divine blessing would be mediated through this angelic messenger.

[48:16]  ²⁴ tn The verb גָּאַל (ga’al) has the basic idea of “protect” as a near relative might do. It is used for buying someone out of bondage, marrying a deceased brother’s widow, paying off debts, avenging the family, and the like. The meanings of “deliver, protect, avenge” are most fitting when God is the subject (see A. R. Johnson, “The Primary Meaning of √גאל,” Congress Volume: Copenhagen, 1953 [VTSup], 67-77).

[48:16]  ²⁵ tn Or “be recalled through them.”