Genesis 3:1

The Temptation and the Fall

3:1 Now ¹  the serpent ²  was more shrewd ³ 

than any of the wild animals ⁴  that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that ⁵  God ⁶  said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?” ⁷ 

Genesis 16:6

16:6 Abram said to Sarai, “Since your ⁸  servant is under your authority, ⁹  do to her whatever you think best.” ¹⁰  Then Sarai treated Hagar ¹¹  harshly, ¹²  so she ran away from Sarai. ¹³ 

Genesis 17:16

17:16 I will bless her and will give you a son through her. I will bless her and she will become a mother of nations. ¹⁴  Kings of countries ¹⁵  will come from her!”

Genesis 18:28

18:28 what if there are five less than the fifty godly people? Will you destroy ¹⁶  the whole city because five are lacking?” ¹⁷  He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

Genesis 19:15

19:15 At dawn ¹⁸  the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, ¹⁹  or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!” ²⁰ 

Genesis 22:17

22:17 I will indeed bless you, ²¹  and I will greatly multiply ²²  your descendants ²³  so that they will be as countless as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession ²⁴  of the strongholds ²⁵  of their enemies.

Genesis 26:9

26:9 So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, “She is really ²⁶  your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac replied, “Because I thought someone might kill me to get her.” ²⁷ 

Genesis 27:25

27:25 Isaac ²⁸  said, “Bring some of the wild game for me to eat, my son. ²⁹  Then I will bless you.” ³⁰  So Jacob ³¹  brought it to him, and he ate it. He also brought him wine, and Isaac ³²  drank.

Genesis 27:33

27:33 Isaac began to shake violently ³³  and asked, “Then who else hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it just before you arrived, and I blessed him. ³⁴  He will indeed be blessed!”

Genesis 27:36

27:36 Esau exclaimed, “‘Jacob’ is the right name for him! ³⁵  He has tripped me up ³⁶  two times! He took away my birthright, and now, look, he has taken away my blessing!” Then he asked, “Have you not kept back a blessing for me?”

Genesis 42:7

42:7 When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger ³⁷  to them and spoke to them harshly. He asked, “Where do you come from?” They answered, ³⁸  “From the land of Canaan, to buy grain for food.” ³⁹ 

Genesis 43:8

43:8 Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me and we will go immediately. ⁴⁰  Then we will live ⁴¹  and not die – we and you and our little ones.

[3:1]  ¹ tn The chapter begins with a disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + predicate) that introduces a new character and a new scene in the story.

[3:1]  ² sn Many theologians identify or associate the serpent with Satan. In this view Satan comes in the disguise of a serpent or speaks through a serpent. This explains the serpent’s capacity to speak. While later passages in the Bible may indicate there was a satanic presence behind the serpent (see, for example, Rev 12:9), the immediate context pictures the serpent as simply one of the animals of the field created by God (see vv. 1, 14). An ancient Jewish interpretation explains the reference to the serpent in a literal manner, attributing the capacity to speak to all the animals in the orchard. This text (Jub. 3:28) states, “On that day [the day the man and woman were expelled from the orchard] the mouth of all the beasts and cattle and birds and whatever walked or moved was stopped from speaking because all of them used to speak to one another with one speech and one language [presumed to be Hebrew, see 12:26].” Josephus, Ant. 1.1.4 (1.41) attributes the serpent’s actions to jealousy. He writes that “the serpent, living in the company of Adam and his wife, grew jealous of the blessings which he supposed were destined for them if they obeyed God’s behests, and, believing that disobedience would bring trouble on them, he maliciously persuaded the woman to taste of the tree of wisdom.”

[3:1]  ³ tn The Hebrew word עָרוּם (’arum) basically means “clever.” This idea then polarizes into the nuances “cunning” (in a negative sense, see Job 5:12; 15:5), and “prudent” in a positive sense (Prov 12:16, 23; 13:16; 14:8, 15, 18; 22:3; 27:12). This same polarization of meaning can be detected in related words derived from the same root (see Exod 21:14; Josh 9:4; 1 Sam 23:22; Job 5:13; Ps 83:3). The negative nuance obviously applies in Gen 3, where the snake attempts to talk the woman into disobeying God by using half-truths and lies.

[3:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “animals of the field.”

[3:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “Indeed that God said.” The beginning of the quotation is elliptical and therefore difficult to translate. One must supply a phrase like “is it true”: “Indeed, [is it true] that God said.”

[3:1]  ⁶ sn God. The serpent does not use the expression “Yahweh God” [Lord God] because there is no covenant relationship involved between God and the serpent. He only speaks of “God.” In the process the serpent draws the woman into his manner of speech so that she too only speaks of “God.”

[3:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “you must not eat from all the tree[s] of the orchard.” After the negated prohibitive verb, מִכֹּל (mikkol, “from all”) has the meaning “from any.” Note the construction in Lev 18:26, where the statement “you must not do from all these abominable things” means “you must not do any of these abominable things.” See Lev 22:25 and Deut 28:14 as well.

[16:6]  ⁸ tn The clause is introduced with the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh), introducing a foundational clause for the coming imperative: “since…do.”

[16:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “in your hand.”

[16:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “what is good in your eyes.”

[16:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “her”; the referent (Hagar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:6]  ¹² tn In the Piel stem the verb עָנָה (’anah) means “to afflict, to oppress, to treat harshly, to mistreat.”

[16:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “and she fled from her presence.” The referent of “her” (Sarai) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “she will become nations.”

[17:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “peoples.”

[18:28]  ²² tn The Hebrew verb שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to destroy”) was used earlier to describe the effect of the flood.

[18:28]  ²³ tn Heb “because of five.”

[19:15]  ²⁹ tn Heb “When dawn came up.”

[19:15]  ³⁰ tn Heb “who are found.” The wording might imply he had other daughters living in the city, but the text does not explicitly state this.

[19:15]  ³¹ tn Or “with the iniquity [i.e., punishment] of the city” (cf. NASB, NRSV).

[22:17]  ³⁶ tn The use of the infinitive absolute before the finite verbal form (either an imperfect or cohortative) emphasizes the certainty of the blessing.

[22:17]  ³⁷ tn Here too the infinitive absolute is used for emphasis before the following finite verb (either an imperfect or cohortative).

[22:17]  ³⁸ tn The Hebrew term זֶרַע (zera’) occurring here and in v. 18 may mean “seed” (for planting), “offspring” (occasionally of animals, but usually of people), or “descendants” depending on the context.

[22:17]  ³⁹ tn Or “inherit.”

[22:17]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “gate,” which here stands for a walled city. To break through the gate complex would be to conquer the city, for the gate complex was the main area of defense (hence the translation “stronghold”).

[26:9]  ⁴³ tn Heb “Surely, look!” See N. H. Snaith, “The meaning of Hebrew ‘ak,” VT 14 (1964): 221-25.

[26:9]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’” Since the verb “said” probably means “said to myself” (i.e., “thought”) here, the direct discourse in the Hebrew statement has been converted to indirect discourse in the translation. In addition the simple prepositional phrase “on account of her” has been clarified in the translation as “to get her” (cf. v. 7).

[27:25]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[27:25]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “Bring near to me and I will eat of the wild game, my son.” Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.

[27:25]  ⁵² tn Heb “so that my soul may bless you.” The presence of נַפְשִׁי (nafshi, “my soul”) as subject emphasizes Isaac’s heartfelt desire to do this. The conjunction indicates that the ritual meal must be first eaten before the formal blessing may be given.

[27:25]  ⁵³ tn Heb “and he brought”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[27:25]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “and he drank”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[27:33]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “and Isaac trembled with a great trembling to excess.” The verb “trembled” is joined with a cognate accusative, which is modified by an adjective “great,” and a prepositional phrase “to excess.” All of this is emphatic, showing the violence of Isaac’s reaction to the news.

[27:33]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “Who then is he who hunted game and brought [it] to me so that I ate from all before you arrived and blessed him?”

[27:36]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “Is he not rightly named Jacob?” The rhetorical question, since it expects a positive reply, has been translated as a declarative statement.

[27:36]  ⁶⁵ sn He has tripped me up. When originally given, the name Jacob was a play on the word “heel” (see Gen 25:26). The name (since it is a verb) probably means something like “may he protect,” that is, as a rearguard, dogging the heels. This name was probably chosen because of the immediate association with the incident of grabbing the heel. Esau gives the name “Jacob” a negative connotation here, the meaning “to trip up; to supplant.”

[42:7]  ⁷¹ sn But pretended to be a stranger. Joseph intends to test his brothers to see if they have changed and have the integrity to be patriarchs of the tribes of Israel. He will do this by putting them in the same situations that they and he were in before. The first test will be to awaken their conscience.

[42:7]  ⁷² tn Heb “said.”

[42:7]  ⁷³ tn The verb is denominative, meaning “to buy grain”; the word “food” could simply be the direct object, but may also be an adverbial accusative.

[43:8]  ⁷⁸ tn Heb “and we will rise up and we will go.” The first verb is adverbial and gives the expression the sense of “we will go immediately.”

[43:8]  ⁷⁹ tn After the preceding cohortatives, the prefixed verbal form (either imperfect or cohortative) with the prefixed conjunction here indicates purpose or result.