Genesis 2:17

2:17 but ¹  you must not eat ²  from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when ³  you eat from it you will surely die.” ⁴ 

Genesis 3:5

3:5 for God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will open ⁵  and you will be like divine beings who know ⁶  good and evil.” ⁷ 

Genesis 24:50

24:50 Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “This is the Lord’s doing. ⁸  Our wishes are of no concern. ⁹ 

Genesis 26:29

26:29 so that ¹⁰  you will not do us any harm, just as we have not harmed ¹¹  you, but have always treated you well ¹²  before sending you away ¹³  in peace. Now you are blessed by the Lord.” ¹⁴ 

Genesis 31:24

31:24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and warned him, ¹⁵  “Be careful ¹⁶  that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.” ¹⁷ 

Genesis 37:20

37:20 Come now, let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and then say that a wild ¹⁸  animal ate him. Then we’ll see how his dreams turn out!” ¹⁹ 

Genesis 40:7

40:7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officials, who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?” ²⁰ 

Genesis 41:3-4

41:3 Then seven bad-looking, thin cows were coming up after them from the Nile, ²¹  and they stood beside the other cows at the edge of the river. ²²  41:4 The bad-looking, thin cows ate the seven fine-looking, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.

Genesis 41:21

41:21 When they had eaten them, ²³  no one would have known ²⁴  that they had done so, for they were just as bad-looking as before. Then I woke up.

Genesis 41:27

41:27 The seven lean, bad-looking cows that came up after them represent seven years, as do the seven empty heads of grain burned with the east wind. They represent ²⁵  seven years of famine.

Genesis 44:29

44:29 If you take ²⁶  this one from me too and an accident happens to him, then you will bring down my gray hair ²⁷  in tragedy ²⁸  to the grave.’ ²⁹ 

Genesis 44:34

44:34 For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn’t bear to see ³⁰  my father’s pain.” ³¹ 

Genesis 50:20

50:20 As for you, you meant to harm me, ³²  but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day. ³³ 

[2:17]  ¹ tn The disjunctive clause here indicates contrast: “but from the tree of the knowledge….”

[2:17]  ² tn The negated imperfect verb form indicates prohibition, “you must not eat.”

[2:17]  ³ tn Or “in the very day, as soon as.” If one understands the expression to have this more precise meaning, then the following narrative presents a problem, for the man does not die physically as soon as he eats from the tree. In this case one may argue that spiritual death is in view. If physical death is in view here, there are two options to explain the following narrative: (1) The following phrase “You will surely die” concerns mortality which ultimately results in death (a natural paraphrase would be, “You will become mortal”), or (2) God mercifully gave man a reprieve, allowing him to live longer than he deserved.

[2:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “dying you will die.” The imperfect verb form here has the nuance of the specific future because it is introduced with the temporal clause, “when you eat…you will die.” That certainty is underscored with the infinitive absolute, “you will surely die.”

[3:5]  ⁵ tn Or “you will have understanding.” This obviously refers to the acquisition of the “knowledge of good and evil,” as the next statement makes clear.

[3:5]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps “like God, knowing.” It is unclear how the plural participle translated “knowing” is functioning. On the one hand, יֹדְעֵי (yodÿ’e) could be taken as a substantival participle functioning as a predicative adjective in the sentence. In this case one might translate: “You will be, like God himself, knowers of good and evil.” On the other hand, it could be taken as an attributive adjective modifying אֱלֹהִים (’elohim). In this case אֱלֹהִים has to be taken as a numerical plural referring to “gods,” “divine beings,” for if the one true God were the intended referent, a singular form of the participle would almost certainly appear as a modifier. Following this line of interpretation, one could translate, “You will be like divine beings who know good and evil.” The following context may favor this translation, for in 3:22 God says to an unidentified group, “Look, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil.” It is probable that God is addressing his heavenly court (see the note on the word “make” in 1:26), the members of which can be called “gods” or “divine beings” from the ancient Israelite perspective. (We know some of these beings as messengers or “angels.”) An examination of parallel constructions shows that a predicative understanding (“you will be, like God himself, knowers of good and evil,” cf. NIV, NRSV) is possible, but rare (see Gen 27:23, where “hairy” is predicative, complementing the verb “to be”). The statistical evidence strongly suggests that the participle is attributive, modifying “divine beings” (see Ps 31:12; Isa 1:30; 13:14; 16:2; 29:5; 58:11; Jer 14:9; 20:9; 23:9; 31:12; 48:41; 49:22; Hos 7:11; Amos 4:11). In all of these texts, where a comparative clause and accompanying adjective/participle follow a copulative (“to be”) verb, the adjective/participle is attributive after the noun in the comparative clause.

[3:5]  ⁷ sn You will be like divine beings who know good and evil. The serpent raises doubts about the integrity of God. He implies that the only reason for the prohibition was that God was protecting the divine domain. If the man and woman were to eat, they would enter into that domain. The temptation is to overstep divinely established boundaries. (See D. E. Gowan, When Man Becomes God [PTMS], 25.)

[24:50]  ⁹ tn Heb “From the Lord the matter has gone out.”

[24:50]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “We are not able to speak to you bad or good.” This means that Laban and Bethuel could not say one way or the other what they wanted, for they viewed it as God’s will.

[26:29]  ¹³ tn The oath formula is used: “if you do us harm” means “so that you will not do.”

[26:29]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “touched.”

[26:29]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and just as we have done only good with you.”

[26:29]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and we sent you away.”

[26:29]  ¹⁷ tn The Philistine leaders are making an observation, not pronouncing a blessing, so the translation reads “you are blessed” rather than “may you be blessed” (cf. NAB).

[31:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “said to him.”

[31:24]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “watch yourself,” which is a warning to be on guard against doing something that is inappropriate.

[31:24]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “lest you speak with Jacob from good to evil.” The precise meaning of the expression, which occurs only here and in v. 29, is uncertain. Since Laban proceeded to speak to Jacob at length, it cannot mean to maintain silence. Nor does it seem to be a prohibition against criticism (see vv. 26-30). Most likely it refers to a formal pronouncement, whether it be a blessing or a curse. Laban was to avoid saying anything to Jacob that would be intended to enhance him or to harm him.

[37:20]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew word can sometimes carry the nuance “evil,” but when used of an animal it refers to a dangerous wild animal.

[37:20]  ²² tn Heb “what his dreams will be.”

[40:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “why are your faces sad today?”

[41:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “And look, seven other cows were coming up after them from the Nile, bad of appearance and thin of flesh.”

[41:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the Nile.” This has been replaced by “the river” in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[41:21]  ³³ tn Heb “when they went inside them.”

[41:21]  ³⁴ tn Heb “it was not known.”

[41:27]  ³⁷ tn Heb “are.” Another option is to translate, “There will be seven years of famine.”

[44:29]  ⁴¹ tn The construction uses a perfect verbal form with the vav consecutive to introduce the conditional clause and then another perfect verbal form with a vav consecutive to complete the sentence: “if you take…then you will bring down.”

[44:29]  ⁴² sn The expression bring down my gray hair is figurative, using a part for the whole – they would put Jacob in the grave. But the gray head signifies a long life of worry and trouble. See Gen 42:38.

[44:29]  ⁴³ tn Heb “evil/calamity.” The term is different than the one used in the otherwise identical statement recorded in v. 31 (see also 42:38).

[44:29]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.

[44:34]  ⁴⁵ tn The Hebrew text has “lest I see,” which expresses a negative purpose – “I cannot go up lest I see.”

[44:34]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “the calamity which would find my father.”

[50:20]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “you devised against me evil.”

[50:20]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “God devised it for good in order to do, like this day, to preserve alive a great nation.”