Genesis 2:12

2:12 (The gold of that land is pure; ¹  pearls ²  and lapis lazuli ³  are also there).

Genesis 10:22

10:22 The sons of Shem were Elam, ⁴  Asshur, ⁵  Arphaxad, ⁶  Lud, ⁷  and Aram. ⁸ 

Genesis 10:31

10:31 These are the sons of Shem according to their families, according to their languages, by their lands, and according to their nations.

Genesis 26:17

26:17 So Isaac left there and settled in the Gerar Valley. ⁹ 

Genesis 33:20

33:20 There he set up an altar and called it “The God of Israel is God.” ¹⁰ 

[2:12]  ¹ tn Heb “good.”

[2:12]  ² tn The Hebrew term translated “pearls” may be a reference to resin (cf. NIV “aromatic resin”) or another precious stone (cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV “bdellium”).

[2:12]  ³ tn Or “onyx.”

[10:22]  ⁴ sn The Hebrew name Elam (עֵילָם, ’elam) means “highland.” The Elamites were a non-Semitic people who lived east of Babylon.

[10:22]  ⁵ sn Asshur is the name for the Assyrians. Asshur was the region in which Nimrod expanded his power (see v. 11, where the name is also mentioned). When names appear in both sections of a genealogical list, it probably means that there were both Hamites and Shemites living in that region in antiquity, especially if the name is a place name.

[10:22]  ⁶ sn The descendants of Arphaxad may have lived northeast of Nineveh.

[10:22]  ⁷ sn Lud may have been the ancestor of the Ludbu, who lived near the Tigris River.

[10:22]  ⁸ sn Aram became the collective name of the northern tribes living in the steppes of Mesopotamia and speaking Aramaic dialects.

[26:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he camped in the valley of Gerar and he lived there.”

[33:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “God, the God of Israel.” Rather than translating the name, a number of modern translations merely transliterate it from the Hebrew as “El Elohe Israel” (cf. NIV, NRSV, REB). It is not entirely clear how the name should be interpreted grammatically. One option is to supply an equative verb, as in the translation: “The God of Israel [is] God.” Another interpretive option is “the God of Israel [is] strong [or “mighty”].” Buying the land and settling down for a while was a momentous step for the patriarch, so the commemorative naming of the altar is significant.