Genesis 24:7

24:7 “The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and the land of my relatives, ¹  promised me with a solemn oath, ²  ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’ He will send his angel ³  before you so that you may find ⁴  a wife for my son from there.

Genesis 31:13

31:13 I am the God of Bethel, ⁵  where you anointed ⁶  the sacred stone and made a vow to me. ⁷  Now leave this land immediately ⁸  and return to your native land.’”

Genesis 43:7

43:7 They replied, “The man questioned us ⁹  thoroughly ¹⁰  about ourselves and our family, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ ¹¹  So we answered him in this way. ¹²  How could we possibly know ¹³  that he would say, ¹⁴  ‘Bring your brother down’?”

[24:7]  ¹ tn Or “the land of my birth.”

[24:7]  ² tn Heb “and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying.”

[24:7]  ³ tn Or “his messenger.”

[24:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “before you and you will take.”

[31:13]  ⁵ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[31:13]  ⁶ sn You anointed the sacred stone. In Gen 28:18 the text simply reported that Jacob poured oil on top of the stone. Now that pouring is interpreted by the Lord as an anointing. Jacob had consecrated the place.

[31:13]  ⁷ sn And made a vow to me. The second clause reminds Jacob of the vow he made to the Lord when he anointed the stone (Gen 28:20-22). God is now going to take him back to the land, and so he will have to fulfill his vow.

[31:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “arise, leave!” The first imperative draws attention to the need for immediate action.

[43:7]  ⁹ tn The word “us” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[43:7]  ¹⁰ tn The infinitive absolute with the perfect verbal form emphasizes that Joseph questioned them thoroughly.

[43:7]  ¹¹ sn The report given here concerning Joseph’s interrogation does not exactly match the previous account where they supplied the information to clear themselves (see 42:13). This section may reflect how they remembered the impact of his interrogation, whether he asked the specific questions or not. That may be twisting the truth to protect themselves, not wanting to admit that they volunteered the information. (They admitted as much in 42:31, but now they seem to be qualifying that comment.) On the other hand, when speaking to Joseph later (see 44:19), Judah claims that Joseph asked for the information about their family, making it possible that 42:13 leaves out some of the details of their first encounter.

[43:7]  ¹² tn Heb “and we told to him according to these words.”

[43:7]  ¹³ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the imperfect verbal form, which here is a historic future (that is, future from the perspective of a past time).

[43:7]  ¹⁴ tn Once again the imperfect verbal form is used as a historic future (that is, future from the perspective of past time).