Genesis 24:52

24:52 When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed down to the ground before the Lord.

Genesis 26:5

26:5 All this will come to pass ¹  because Abraham obeyed me ²  and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” ³ 

Genesis 27:13

27:13 So his mother told him, “Any curse against you will fall on me, ⁴  my son! Just obey me! ⁵  Go and get them for me!”

Genesis 27:43

27:43 Now then, my son, do what I say. ⁶  Run away immediately ⁷  to my brother Laban in Haran.

Genesis 42:23

42:23 (Now ⁸  they did not know that Joseph could understand them, ⁹  for he was speaking through an interpreter.) ¹⁰ 

[26:5]  ¹ tn The words “All this will come to pass” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for stylistic reasons.

[26:5]  ² tn Heb “listened to my voice.”

[26:5]  ³ sn My charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. The language of this verse is clearly interpretive, for Abraham did not have all these laws. The terms are legal designations for sections of the Mosaic law and presuppose the existence of the law. Some Rabbinic views actually conclude that Abraham had fulfilled the whole law before it was given (see m. Qiddushin 4:14). Some scholars argue that this story could only have been written after the law was given (C. Westermann, Genesis, 2:424-25). But the simplest explanation is that the narrator (traditionally taken to be Moses the Lawgiver) elaborated on the simple report of Abraham’s obedience by using terms with which the Israelites were familiar. In this way he depicts Abraham as the model of obedience to God’s commands, whose example Israel should follow.

[27:13]  ¹ tn Heb “upon me your curse.”

[27:13]  ² tn Heb “only listen to my voice.”

[27:43]  ¹ tn Heb “listen to my voice.”

[27:43]  ² tn Heb “arise, flee.”

[42:23]  ¹ tn The disjunctive clause provides supplemental information that is important to the story.

[42:23]  ² tn “was listening.” The brothers were not aware that Joseph could understand them as they spoke the preceding words in their native language.

[42:23]  ³ tn Heb “for [there was] an interpreter between them.” On the meaning of the word here translated “interpreter” see HALOT 590 s.v. מֵלִיץ and M. A. Canney, “The Hebrew melis (Prov IX 12; Gen XLII 2-3),” AJSL 40 (1923/24): 135-37.