Genesis 16:8

16:8 He said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from ¹  my mistress, Sarai.”

Genesis 27:41-45

27:41 So Esau hated ²  Jacob because of the blessing his father had given to his brother. ³  Esau said privately, ⁴  “The time ⁵  of mourning for my father is near; then I will kill ⁶  my brother Jacob!”

27:42 When Rebekah heard what her older son Esau had said, ⁷  she quickly summoned ⁸  her younger son Jacob and told him, “Look, your brother Esau is planning to get revenge by killing you. ⁹  27:43 Now then, my son, do what I say. ¹⁰  Run away immediately ¹¹  to my brother Laban in Haran. 27:44 Live with him for a little while ¹²  until your brother’s rage subsides. 27:45 Stay there ¹³  until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I’ll send someone to bring you back from there. ¹⁴  Why should I lose both of you in one day?” ¹⁵ 

Exodus 2:15

2:15 When Pharaoh heard ¹⁶  about this event, ¹⁷  he sought to kill Moses. So Moses fled ¹⁸  from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, ¹⁹  and he settled ²⁰  by a certain well. ²¹ 

[16:8]  ¹ tn Heb “from the presence of.”

[27:41]  ² tn Or “bore a grudge against” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV). The Hebrew verb שָׂטַם (satam) describes persistent hatred.

[27:41]  ³ tn Heb “because of the blessing which his father blessed him.”

[27:41]  ⁴ tn Heb “said in his heart.” The expression may mean “said to himself.” Even if this is the case, v. 42 makes it clear that he must have shared his intentions with someone, because the news reached Rebekah.

[27:41]  ⁵ tn Heb “days.”

[27:41]  ⁶ tn The cohortative here expresses Esau’s determined resolve to kill Jacob.

[27:42]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah.”

[27:42]  ⁸ tn Heb “she sent and called for.”

[27:42]  ⁹ tn Heb “is consoling himself with respect to you to kill you.” The only way Esau had of dealing with his anger at the moment was to plan to kill his brother after the death of Isaac.

[27:43]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “listen to my voice.”

[27:43]  ¹¹ tn Heb “arise, flee.”

[27:44]  ¹² tn Heb “a few days.” Rebekah probably downplays the length of time Jacob will be gone, perhaps to encourage him and assure him that things will settle down soon. She probably expects Esau’s anger to die down quickly. However, Jacob ends up being gone twenty years and he never sees Rebekah again.

[27:45]  ¹³ tn The words “stay there” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[27:45]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and I will send and I will take you from there.” The verb “send” has no object in the Hebrew text; one must be supplied in the translation. Either “someone” or “a message” could be supplied, but since in those times a message would require a messenger, “someone” has been used.

[27:45]  ¹⁵ tn If Jacob stayed, he would be killed and Esau would be forced to run away.

[2:15]  ¹⁶ tn The form with the vav consecutive is here subordinated to the main idea that Pharaoh sought to punish Moses.

[2:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb הַדָּבָר (haddavar, “the word [thing, matter, incident]”) functions here like a pronoun to refer in brief to what Moses had done.

[2:15]  ¹⁸ tn The vav (ו) consecutive with the preterite shows result – as a result of Pharaoh’s search for him, he fled.

[2:15]  ¹⁹ sn The location of Midyan or Midian is uncertain, but it had to have been beyond the Egyptian borders on the east, either in the Sinai or beyond in the Arabah (south of the Dead Sea) or even on the east side of the Gulf of Aqaba. The Midianites seem to have traveled extensively in the desert regions. R. A. Cole (Exodus [TOTC], 60) reasons that since they later were enemies of Israel, it is unlikely that these traditions would have been made up about Israel’s great lawgiver; further, he explains that “Ishmaelite” and “Kenite” might have been clan names within the region of Midian. But see, from a different point of view, G. W. Coats, “Moses and Midian,” JBL 92 (1973): 3-10.

[2:15]  ²⁰ tn The verb reads “and he sat” or “and he lived.” To translate it “he sat by a well” would seem anticlimactic and unconnected. It probably has the same sense as in the last clause, namely, that he lived in Midian, and he lived near a well, which detail prepares for what follows.

[2:15]  ²¹ tn The word has the definite article, “the well.” Gesenius lists this use of the article as that which denotes a thing that is yet unknown to the reader but present in the mind under the circumstances (GKC 407-8 §126.q-r). Where there was a well, people would settle, and as R. A. Cole says it, for people who settled there it was “the well” (Exodus [TOTC], 60).