Genesis 19:11

19:11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, ¹  with blindness. The men outside ²  wore themselves out trying to find the door.

Genesis 19:20

19:20 Look, this town ³  over here is close enough to escape to, and it’s just a little one. ⁴  Let me go there. ⁵  It’s just a little place, isn’t it? ⁶  Then I’ll survive.” ⁷ 

Genesis 30:15

30:15 But Leah replied, ⁸  “Wasn’t it enough that you’ve taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes too?” “All right,” ⁹  Rachel said, “he may sleep ¹⁰  with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

Genesis 7:8

7:8 Pairs ¹¹  of clean animals, of unclean animals, of birds, and of everything that creeps along the ground,

Genesis 41:23

41:23 Then ¹²  seven heads of grain, withered and thin and burned with the east wind, were sprouting up after them.

Genesis 1:24

1:24 God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” ¹³  It was so.

Genesis 7:21

7:21 And all living things ¹⁴  that moved on the earth died, including the birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all humankind.

Genesis 1:25

1:25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the cattle according to their kinds, and all the creatures that creep along the ground according to their kinds. God saw that it was good.

Genesis 2:5

2:5 Now ¹⁵  no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field ¹⁶  had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. ¹⁷ 

Genesis 6:20

6:20 Of the birds after their kinds, and of the cattle after their kinds, and of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you so you can keep them alive. ¹⁸ 

Genesis 9:2

9:2 Every living creature of the earth and every bird of the sky will be terrified of you. ¹⁹  Everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea are under your authority. ²⁰ 

Genesis 33:13

33:13 But Jacob ²¹  said to him, “My lord knows that the children are young, ²²  and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. ²³  If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die.

Genesis 47:9

47:9 Jacob said to Pharaoh, “All ²⁴  the years of my travels ²⁵  are 130. All ²⁶  the years of my life have been few and painful; ²⁷  the years of my travels are not as long as those of my ancestors.” ²⁸ 

Genesis 1:26

1:26 Then God said, “Let us make ²⁹ 

humankind ³⁰  in our image, after our likeness, ³¹  so they may rule ³²  over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, ³³  and over all the creatures that move ³⁴  on the earth.”

Genesis 7:23

7:23 So the Lord ³⁵  destroyed ³⁶  every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, including people, animals, creatures that creep along the ground, and birds of the sky. ³⁷  They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark survived. ³⁸ 

Genesis 34:30

34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin ³⁹  on me by making me a foul odor ⁴⁰  among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I ⁴¹  am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”

[19:11]  ¹ tn Heb “from the least to the greatest.”

[19:11]  ² tn Heb “they”; the referent (the men of Sodom outside the door) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[19:20]  ³ tn The Hebrew word עִיר (’ir) can refer to either a city or a town, depending on the size of the place. Given that this place was described by Lot later in this verse as a “little place,” the translation uses “town.”

[19:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “Look, this town is near to flee to there. And it is little.”

[19:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “Let me escape to there.” The cohortative here expresses Lot’s request.

[19:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “Is it not little?”

[19:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “my soul will live.” After the cohortative the jussive with vav conjunctive here indicates purpose/result.

[30:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “and she said to her”; the referent of the pronoun “she” (Leah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[30:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “therefore.”

[30:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “lie down.” The expression “lie down with” in this context (here and in the following verse) refers to sexual intercourse. The imperfect verbal form has a permissive nuance here.

[7:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “two two” meaning “in twos.”

[41:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “And look.”

[1:24]  ¹¹ tn There are three groups of land animals here: the cattle or livestock (mostly domesticated), things that creep or move close to the ground (such as reptiles or rodents), and the wild animals (all animals of the field). The three terms are general classifications without specific details.

[7:21]  ¹³ tn Heb “flesh.”

[2:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Now every sprig of the field before it was.” The verb forms, although appearing to be imperfects, are technically preterites coming after the adverb טֶּרֶם (terem). The word order (conjunction + subject + predicate) indicates a disjunctive clause, which provides background information for the following narrative (as in 1:2). Two negative clauses are given (“before any sprig…”, and “before any cultivated grain” existed), followed by two causal clauses explaining them, and then a positive circumstantial clause is given – again dealing with water as in 1:2 (water would well up).

[2:5]  ¹⁶ tn The first term, שִׂיחַ (siakh), probably refers to the wild, uncultivated plants (see Gen 21:15; Job 30:4,7); whereas the second, עֵשֶׂב (’esev), refers to cultivated grains. It is a way of saying: “back before anything was growing.”

[2:5]  ¹⁷ tn The two causal clauses explain the first two disjunctive clauses: There was no uncultivated, general growth because there was no rain, and there were no grains because there was no man to cultivate the soil.

[6:20]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to keep alive.”

[9:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and fear of you and dread of you will be upon every living creature of the earth and upon every bird of the sky.” The suffixes on the nouns “fear” and “dread” are objective genitives. The animals will fear humans from this time forward.

[9:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “into your hand are given.” The “hand” signifies power. To say the animals have been given into the hands of humans means humans have been given authority over them.

[33:13]  ²¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:13]  ²² tn Heb “weak.”

[33:13]  ²³ tn Heb “and the sheep and the cattle nursing [are] upon me.”

[47:9]  ²³ tn Heb “the days of.”

[47:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “sojournings.” Jacob uses a term that depicts him as one who has lived an unsettled life, temporarily residing in many different places.

[47:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the days of.”

[47:9]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew word רַע (ra’) can sometimes mean “evil,” but that would give the wrong connotation here, where it refers to pain, difficulty, and sorrow. Jacob is thinking back through all the troubles he had to endure to get to this point.

[47:9]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and they have not reached the days of the years of my fathers in the days of their sojournings.”

[1:26]  ²⁵ sn The plural form of the verb has been the subject of much discussion through the years, and not surprisingly several suggestions have been put forward. Many Christian theologians interpret it as an early hint of plurality within the Godhead, but this view imposes later trinitarian concepts on the ancient text. Some have suggested the plural verb indicates majesty, but the plural of majesty is not used with verbs. C. Westermann (Genesis, 1:145) argues for a plural of “deliberation” here, but his proposed examples of this use (2 Sam 24:14; Isa 6:8) do not actually support his theory. In 2 Sam 24:14 David uses the plural as representative of all Israel, and in Isa 6:8 the Lord speaks on behalf of his heavenly court. In its ancient Israelite context the plural is most naturally understood as referring to God and his heavenly court (see 1 Kgs 22:19-22; Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6; Isa 6:1-8). (The most well-known members of this court are God’s messengers, or angels. In Gen 3:5 the serpent may refer to this group as “gods/divine beings.” See the note on the word “evil” in 3:5.) If this is the case, God invites the heavenly court to participate in the creation of humankind (perhaps in the role of offering praise, see Job 38:7), but he himself is the one who does the actual creative work (v. 27). Of course, this view does assume that the members of the heavenly court possess the divine “image” in some way. Since the image is closely associated with rulership, perhaps they share the divine image in that they, together with God and under his royal authority, are the executive authority over the world.

[1:26]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew word is אָדָם (’adam), which can sometimes refer to man, as opposed to woman. The term refers here to humankind, comprised of male and female. The singular is clearly collective (see the plural verb, “[that] they may rule” in v. 26b) and the referent is defined specifically as “male and female” in v. 27. Usage elsewhere in Gen 1-11 supports this as well. In 5:2 we read: “Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and called their name ‘humankind’ (אָדָם).” The noun also refers to humankind in 6:1, 5-7 and in 9:5-6.

[1:26]  ²⁷ tn The two prepositions translated “in” and “according to” have overlapping fields of meaning and in this context seem to be virtually equivalent. In 5:3 they are reversed with the two words. The word צֶלֶם (tselem, “image”) is used frequently of statues, models, and images – replicas (see D. J. A. Clines, “The Etymology of Hebrew selem,” JNSL 3 [1974]: 19-25). The word דְּמוּת (dÿmut, “likeness”) is an abstract noun; its verbal root means “to be like; to resemble.” In the Book of Genesis the two terms describe human beings who in some way reflect the form and the function of the creator. The form is more likely stressing the spiritual rather than the physical. The “image of God” would be the God-given mental and spiritual capacities that enable people to relate to God and to serve him by ruling over the created order as his earthly vice-regents.

[1:26]  ²⁸ tn Following the cohortative (“let us make”), the prefixed verb form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result (see Gen 19:20; 34:23; 2 Sam 3:21). God’s purpose in giving humankind his image is that they might rule the created order on behalf of the heavenly king and his royal court. So the divine image, however it is defined, gives humankind the capacity and/or authority to rule over creation.

[1:26]  ²⁹ tc The MT reads “earth”; the Syriac reads “wild animals” (cf. NRSV).

[1:26]  ³⁰ tn Heb “creep” (also in v. 28).

[7:23]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:23]  ²⁸ tn Heb “wiped away” (cf. NRSV “blotted out”).

[7:23]  ²⁹ tn Heb “from man to animal to creeping thing and to the bird of the sky.”

[7:23]  ³⁰ tn The Hebrew verb שָׁאָר (sha’ar) means “to be left over; to survive” in the Niphal verb stem. It is the word used in later biblical texts for the remnant that escapes judgment. See G. F. Hasel, “Semantic Values of Derivatives of the Hebrew Root só’r,” AUSS 11 (1973): 152-69.

[34:30]  ²⁹ tn The traditional translation is “troubled me” (KJV, ASV), but the verb refers to personal or national disaster and suggests complete ruin (see Josh 7:25, Judg 11:35, Prov 11:17). The remainder of the verse describes the “trouble” Simeon and Levi had caused.

[34:30]  ³⁰ tn In the causative stem the Hebrew verb בָּאַשׁ (ba’ash) means “to cause to stink, to have a foul smell.” In the contexts in which it is used it describes foul smells, stenches, or things that are odious. Jacob senses that the people in the land will find this act terribly repulsive. See P. R. Ackroyd, “The Hebrew Root באשׁ,” JTS 2 (1951): 31-36.

[34:30]  ³¹ tn Jacob speaks in the first person as the head and representative of the entire family.