Genesis 2:7

2:7 The Lord God formed ¹  the man from the soil of the ground ²  and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, ³  and the man became a living being. ⁴ 

Genesis 3:19

3:19 By the sweat of your brow ⁵  you will eat food

until you return to the ground, ⁶ 

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust, and to dust you will return.” ⁷ 

Genesis 19:1

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

19:1 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening while ⁸  Lot was sitting in the city’s gateway. ⁹  When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face toward the ground.

Genesis 30:2

30:2 Jacob became furious ¹⁰  with Rachel and exclaimed, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” ¹¹ 

Genesis 39:19

39:19 When his master heard his wife say, ¹²  “This is the way ¹³  your slave treated me,” ¹⁴  he became furious. ¹⁵ 

Genesis 42:6

42:6 Now Joseph was the ruler of the country, the one who sold grain to all the people of the country. ¹⁶  Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down ¹⁷  before him with ¹⁸  their faces to the ground.

Genesis 49:6

49:6 O my soul, do not come into their council,

do not be united to their assembly, my heart, ¹⁹ 

for in their anger they have killed men,

and for pleasure they have hamstrung oxen.

[2:7]  ¹ tn Or “fashioned.” The prefixed verb form with vav (ו) consecutive initiates narrative sequence. The Hebrew word יָצַר (yatsar) means “to form” or “to fashion,” usually by plan or design (see the related noun יֵצֶר [yetser] in Gen 6:5). It is the term for an artist’s work (the Hebrew term יוֹצֵר [yotser] refers to a potter; see Jer 18:2-4.)

[2:7]  ² tn The line literally reads “And Yahweh God formed the man, soil, from the ground.” “Soil” is an adverbial accusative, identifying the material from which the man was made.

[2:7]  ³ tn The Hebrew word נְשָׁמָה (nÿshamah, “breath”) is used for God and for the life imparted to humans, not animals (see T. C. Mitchell, “The Old Testament Usage of Nÿshama,” VT 11 [1961]: 177-87). Its usage in the Bible conveys more than a breathing living organism (נֶפֶשׁ חַיַּה, nefesh khayyah). Whatever is given this breath of life becomes animated with the life from God, has spiritual understanding (Job 32:8), and has a functioning conscience (Prov 20:27).

[2:7]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being”) is often translated “soul,” but the word usually refers to the whole person. The phrase נֶפֶשׁ חַיַּה (nefesh khayyah, “living being”) is used of both animals and human beings (see 1:20, 24, 30; 2:19).

[3:19]  ⁵ tn The expression “the sweat of your brow” is a metonymy, the sweat being the result of painful toil in the fields.

[3:19]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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.

[19:1]  ⁹ tn The disjunctive clause is temporal here, indicating what Lot was doing at the time of their arrival.

[19:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “sitting in the gate of Sodom.” The phrase “the gate of Sodom” has been translated “the city’s gateway” for stylistic reasons.

[30:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the anger of Jacob was hot.”

[30:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb.”

[39:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and when his master heard the words of his wife which she spoke to him, saying.”

[39:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “according to these words.”

[39:19]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “did to me.”

[39:19]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his anger burned.”

[42:6]  ²¹ tn The disjunctive clause either introduces a new episode in the unfolding drama or provides the reader with supplemental information necessary to understanding the story.

[42:6]  ²² sn Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down before him. Here is the beginning of the fulfillment of Joseph’s dreams (see Gen 37). But it is not the complete fulfillment, since all his brothers and his parents must come. The point of the dream, of course, was not simply to get the family to bow to Joseph, but that Joseph would be placed in a position of rule and authority to save the family and the world (41:57).

[42:6]  ²³ tn The word “faces” is an adverbial accusative, so the preposition has been supplied in the translation.

[49:6]  ²⁵ tn The Hebrew text reads “my glory,” but it is preferable to repoint the form and read “my liver.” The liver was sometimes viewed as the seat of the emotions and will (see HALOT 456 s.v. II כָּבֵד) for which the heart is the modern equivalent.