Genesis 17:5

17:5 No longer will your name be ¹  Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham ²  because I will make you ³  the father of a multitude of nations.

Genesis 18:29

18:29 Abraham ⁴  spoke to him again, ⁵  “What if forty are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty.”

Genesis 24:20

24:20 She quickly emptied ⁶  her jug into the watering trough and ran back to the well to draw more water until she had drawn enough for all his camels.

Genesis 29:7

29:7 Then Jacob ⁷  said, “Since it is still the middle of the day, ⁸  it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. You should water the sheep and then go and let them graze some more.” ⁹ 

Genesis 29:27

29:27 Complete my older daughter’s bridal week. ¹⁰  Then we will give you the younger one ¹¹  too, in exchange for seven more years of work.” ¹² 

Genesis 29:30

29:30 Jacob ¹³  had marital relations ¹⁴  with Rachel as well. He loved Rachel more than Leah, so he worked for Laban ¹⁵  for seven more years. ¹⁶ 

Genesis 29:35

29:35 She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” That is why she named him Judah. ¹⁷  Then she stopped having children.

Genesis 32:28

32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ¹⁸  “but Israel, ¹⁹  because you have fought ²⁰  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Genesis 35:16

35:16 They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, ²¹  Rachel went into labor ²²  – and her labor was hard.

Genesis 37:8

37:8 Then his brothers asked him, “Do you really think you will rule over us or have dominion over us?” ²³  They hated him even more ²⁴  because of his dream and because of what he said. ²⁵ 

Genesis 38:26

38:26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more upright ²⁶  than I am, because I wouldn’t give her to Shelah my son.” He did not have sexual relations with her ²⁷  again.

Genesis 45:11

45:11 I will provide you with food ²⁸  there because there will be five more years of famine. Otherwise you would become poor – you, your household, and everyone who belongs to you.”’

Genesis 45:26

45:26 They told him, “Joseph is still alive and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” Jacob was stunned, ²⁹  for he did not believe them.

Genesis 46:29

46:29 Joseph harnessed his chariot and went up to meet his father Israel in Goshen. When he met him, ³⁰  he hugged his neck and wept on his neck for quite some time.

[17:5]  ¹ tn Heb “will your name be called.”

[17:5]  ² sn Your name will be Abraham. The renaming of Abram was a sign of confirmation to the patriarch. Every time the name was used it would be a reminder of God’s promise. “Abram” means “exalted father,” probably referring to Abram’s father Terah. The name looks to the past; Abram came from noble lineage. The name “Abraham” is a dialectical variant of the name Abram. But its significance is in the wordplay with אַב־הֲמוֹן (’av-hamon, “the father of a multitude,” which sounds like אַבְרָהָם, ’avraham, “Abraham”). The new name would be a reminder of God’s intention to make Abraham the father of a multitude. For a general discussion of renaming, see O. Eissfeldt, “Renaming in the Old Testament,” Words and Meanings, 70-83.

[17:5]  ³ tn The perfect verbal form is used here in a rhetorical manner to emphasize God’s intention.

[18:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:29]  ⁵ tn The construction is a verbal hendiadys – the preterite (“he added”) is combined with an adverb “yet” and an infinitive “to speak.”

[24:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “and she hurried and emptied.”

[29:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the day is great.”

[29:7]  ¹² tn Heb “water the sheep and go and pasture [them].” The verbal forms are imperatives, but Jacob would hardly be giving direct orders to someone else’s shepherds. The nuance here is probably one of advice.

[29:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “fulfill the period of seven of this one.” The referent of “this one” has been specified in the translation as “my older daughter” for clarity.

[29:27]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “this other one.”

[29:27]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and we will give to you also this one in exchange for labor which you will work with me, still seven other years.”

[29:30]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:30]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “went in also to Rachel.” The expression “went in to” in this context refers to sexual intercourse, i.e., the consummation of the marriage.

[29:30]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:30]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and he loved also Rachel, more than Leah, and he served with him still seven other years.”

[29:35]  ¹⁹ sn The name Judah (יְהוּדָה, yÿhudah) means “he will be praised” and reflects the sentiment Leah expresses in the statement recorded earlier in the verse. For further discussion see W. F. Albright, “The Names ‘Israel’ and ‘Judah’ with an Excursus on the Etymology of Todah and Torah,” JBL 46 (1927): 151-85; and A. R. Millard, “The Meaning of the Name Judah,” ZAW 86 (1974): 216-18.

[32:28]  ²² tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:28]  ²³ sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the Lord was saying that Jacob would have victory and receive the promises because God would fight for him.

[32:28]  ²⁴ sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).

[35:16]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and there was still a stretch of the land to go to Ephrath.”

[35:16]  ²⁶ tn Normally the verb would be translated “she gave birth,” but because that obviously had not happened yet, it is better to translate the verb as ingressive, “began to give birth” (cf. NIV) or “went into labor.”

[37:8]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Ruling, will you rule over us, or reigning, will you reign over us?” The statement has a poetic style, with the two questions being in synonymous parallelism. Both verbs in this statement are preceded by the infinitive absolute, which lends emphasis. It is as if Joseph’s brothers said, “You don’t really think you will rule over us, do you? You don’t really think you will have dominion over us, do you?”

[37:8]  ²⁹ tn This construction is identical to the one in Gen 37:5.

[37:8]  ³⁰ sn The response of Joseph’s brothers is understandable, given what has already been going on in the family. But here there is a hint of uneasiness – they hated him because of his dream and because of his words. The dream bothered them, as well as his telling them. And their words in the rhetorical question are ironic, for this is exactly what would happen. The dream was God’s way of revealing it.

[38:26]  ³¹ tn Traditionally “more righteous”; cf. NCV, NRSV, NLT “more in the right.”

[38:26]  ³² tn Heb “and he did not add again to know her.” Here “know” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

[45:11]  ³⁴ tn The verb כּוּל (kul) in the Pilpel stem means “to nourish, to support, to sustain.” As in 1 Kgs 20:27, it here means “to supply with food.”

[45:26]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and his heart was numb.” Jacob was stunned by the unbelievable news and was unable to respond.

[46:29]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and he appeared to him.”