Genesis 2:5

2:5 Now ¹  no shrub of the field had yet grown on the earth, and no plant of the field ²  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. ³ 

Genesis 3:19

3:19 By the sweat of your brow ⁴  you will eat food

until you return to the ground, ⁵ 

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust, and to dust you will return.” ⁶ 

Genesis 4:23

4:23 Lamech said to his wives,

“Adah and Zillah! Listen to me!

You wives of Lamech, hear my words!

I have killed a man for wounding me,

a young man ⁷  for hurting me.

Genesis 30:32

30:32 Let me walk among ⁸  all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, ⁹  and the spotted or speckled goats. ¹⁰  These animals will be my wages. ¹¹ 

Genesis 38:12

38:12 After some time ¹²  Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. After Judah was consoled, he left for Timnah to visit his sheepshearers, along with ¹³  his friend Hirah the Adullamite.

Genesis 43:16

43:16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the servant who was over his household, “Bring the men to the house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for the men will eat with me at noon.”

[2:5]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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.

[3:19]  ⁴ tn The expression “the sweat of your brow” is a metonymy, the sweat being the result of painful toil in the fields.

[3:19]  ⁵ sn Until you return to the ground. The theme of humankind’s mortality is critical here in view of the temptation to be like God. Man will labor painfully to provide food, obviously not enjoying the bounty that creation promised. In place of the abundance of the orchard’s fruit trees, thorns and thistles will grow. Man will have to work the soil so that it will produce the grain to make bread. This will continue until he returns to the soil from which he was taken (recalling the creation in 2:7 with the wordplay on Adam and ground). In spite of the dreams of immortality and divinity, man is but dust (2:7), and will return to dust. So much for his pride.

[3:19]  ⁶ sn In general, the themes of the curse oracles are important in the NT teaching that Jesus became the cursed one hanging on the tree. In his suffering and death, all the motifs are drawn together: the tree, the sweat, the thorns, and the dust of death (see Ps 22:15). Jesus experienced it all, to have victory over it through the resurrection.

[4:23]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term יֶלֶד (yeled) probably refers to a youthful warrior here, not a child.

[30:32]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “pass through.”

[30:32]  ¹¹ tn Or “every black lamb”; Heb “and every dark sheep among the lambs.”

[30:32]  ¹² tn Heb “and the spotted and speckled among the goats.”

[30:32]  ¹³ tn Heb “and it will be my wage.” The referent collective singular pronoun (“it) has been specified as “these animals” in the translation for clarity.

[38:12]  ¹³ sn After some time. There is not enough information in the narrative to know how long this was. The text says “the days increased.” It was long enough for Shelah to mature and for Tamar to realize she would not have him.

[38:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and he went up to the shearers of his sheep, he and.”