Genesis 14:4

14:4 For twelve years ¹  they had served Kedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year ²  they rebelled. ³ 

Genesis 24:2

24:2 Abraham said to his servant, the senior one ⁴  in his household who was in charge of everything he had, “Put your hand under my thigh ⁵ 

Genesis 33:14

33:14 Let my lord go on ahead of his servant. I will travel more slowly, at the pace of the herds and the children, ⁶  until I come to my lord at Seir.”

[14:4]  ¹ tn The sentence simply begins with “twelve years”; it serves as an adverbial accusative giving the duration of their bondage.

[14:4]  ² tn This is another adverbial accusative of time.

[14:4]  ³ sn The story serves as a foreshadowing of the plight of the kingdom of Israel later. Eastern powers came and forced the western kingdoms into submission. Each year, then, they would send tribute east – to keep them away. Here, in the thirteenth year, they refused to send the tribute (just as later Hezekiah rebelled against Assyria). And so in the fourteenth year the eastern powers came to put them down again. This account from Abram’s life taught future generations that God can give victory over such threats – that people did not have to live in servitude to tyrants from the east.

[24:2]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term זָקֵן (zaqen) may refer to the servant who is oldest in age or senior in authority (or both).

[24:2]  ⁵ sn Put your hand under my thigh. The taking of this oath had to do with the sanctity of the family and the continuation of the family line. See D. R. Freedman, “Put Your Hand Under My Thigh – the Patriarchal Oath,” BAR 2 (1976): 2-4, 42.

[33:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “and I, I will move along according to my leisure at the foot of the property which is before me and at the foot of the children.”