Genesis 22:5

22:5 So he ¹  said to his servants, “You two stay ²  here with the donkey while ³  the boy and I go up there. We will worship ⁴  and then return to you.” ⁵ 

Genesis 24:12

24:12 He prayed, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, guide me today. ⁶  Be faithful ⁷  to my master Abraham.

Genesis 25:11

25:11 After Abraham’s death, God blessed ⁸  his son Isaac. Isaac lived near Beer Lahai Roi. ⁹ 

Genesis 26:20

26:20 the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled ¹⁰  with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water belongs to us!” So Isaac ¹¹  named the well ¹²  Esek ¹³  because they argued with him about it. 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 32:4

32:4 He commanded them, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant ¹⁸  Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now.

Genesis 32:28

32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ¹⁹  “but Israel, ²⁰  because you have fought ²¹  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

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. ²²  Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down ²³  before him with ²⁴  their faces to the ground.

Genesis 50:20

50:20 As for you, you meant to harm me, ²⁵  but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day. ²⁶ 

[22:5]  ¹ tn Heb “And Abraham.” The proper name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“he”) for stylistic reasons.

[22:5]  ² tn The Hebrew verb is masculine plural, referring to the two young servants who accompanied Abraham and Isaac on the journey.

[22:5]  ³ tn The disjunctive clause (with the compound subject preceding the verb) may be circumstantial and temporal.

[22:5]  ⁴ tn This Hebrew word literally means “to bow oneself close to the ground.” It often means “to worship.”

[22:5]  ⁵ sn It is impossible to know what Abraham was thinking when he said, “we will…return to you.” When he went he knew (1) that he was to sacrifice Isaac, and (2) that God intended to fulfill his earlier promises through Isaac. How he reconciled those facts is not clear in the text. Heb 11:17-19 suggests that Abraham believed God could restore Isaac to him through resurrection.

[24:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “make it happen before me today.” Although a number of English translations understand this as a request for success in the task (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV) it is more likely that the servant is requesting an omen or sign from God (v. 14).

[24:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “act in loyal love with” or “show kindness to.”

[25:11]  ¹¹ sn God blessed Isaac. The Hebrew verb “bless” in this passage must include all the gifts that God granted to Isaac. But fertility was not one of them, at least not for twenty years, because Rebekah was barren as well (see v. 21).

[25:11]  ¹² sn Beer Lahai Roi. See the note on this place name in Gen 24:62.

[26:20]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew verb translated “quarreled” describes a conflict that often has legal ramifications.

[26:20]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[26:20]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and he called the name of the well.”

[26:20]  ¹⁹ sn The name Esek means “argument” in Hebrew. The following causal clause explains that Isaac gave the well this name as a reminder of the conflict its discovery had created. In the Hebrew text there is a wordplay, for the name is derived from the verb translated “argued.”

[26:20]  ²⁰ tn The words “about it” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[31:24]  ²¹ tn Heb “said to him.”

[31:24]  ²² tn Heb “watch yourself,” which is a warning to be on guard against doing something that is inappropriate.

[31:24]  ²³ 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.

[32:4]  ²⁶ sn Your servant. The narrative recounts Jacob’s groveling in fear before Esau as he calls his brother his “lord,” as if to minimize what had been done twenty years ago.

[32:28]  ³¹ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:28]  ³² sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the Lord was saying that Jacob would have victory and receive the promises because God would fight for him.

[32:28]  ³³ sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).

[42:6]  ³⁶ 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]  ³⁷ 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]  ³⁸ tn The word “faces” is an adverbial accusative, so the preposition has been supplied in the translation.

[50:20]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “you devised against me evil.”

[50:20]  ⁴² tn Heb “God devised it for good in order to do, like this day, to preserve alive a great nation.”