Genesis 27:8

27:8 Now then, my son, do ¹  exactly what I tell you! ² 

Genesis 22:18

22:18 Because you have obeyed me, ³  all the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ⁴  using the name of your descendants.’”

Genesis 26:5

26:5 All this will come to pass ⁵  because Abraham obeyed me ⁶  and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” ⁷ 

Genesis 27:13

27:13 So his mother told him, “Any curse against you will fall on me, ⁸  my son! Just obey me! ⁹  Go and get them for me!”

Genesis 27:43

27:43 Now then, my son, do what I say. ¹⁰  Run away immediately ¹¹  to my brother Laban in Haran.

Genesis 30:6

30:6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me. He has responded to my prayer ¹²  and given me a son.” That is why ¹³  she named him Dan. ¹⁴ 

[27:8]  ¹ tn Heb “listen to my voice.” The Hebrew idiom means “to comply; to obey.”

[27:8]  ² tn Heb “to that which I am commanding you.”

[22:18]  ³ tn In the Hebrew text this causal clause comes at the end of the sentence. The translation alters the word order for stylistic reasons.

[22:18]  ⁴ tn Traditionally the verb is taken as passive (“will be blessed”) here, as if Abraham’s descendants were going to be a channel or source of blessing to the nations. But the Hitpael is better understood here as reflexive/reciprocal, “will bless [i.e., pronounce blessings on] themselves/one another” (see also Gen 26:4). Elsewhere the Hitpael of the verb “to bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 12:2 predicts that Abram will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11. Earlier formulations of this promise (see Gen 12:2; 18:18) use the Niphal stem. (See also Gen 28:14.)

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

[26:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “listened to my voice.”

[26:5]  ⁷ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “upon me your curse.”

[27:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “only listen to my voice.”

[27:43]  ⁹ tn Heb “listen to my voice.”

[27:43]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “arise, flee.”

[30:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and also he has heard my voice.” The expression means that God responded positively to Rachel’s cry and granted her request.

[30:6]  ¹² tn Or “therefore.”

[30:6]  ¹³ sn The name Dan means “he vindicated” or “he judged.” The name plays on the verb used in the statement which appears earlier in the verse. The verb translated “vindicated” is from דִּין (din, “to judge, to vindicate”), the same verbal root from which the name is derived. Rachel sensed that God was righting the wrong.