Genesis 3:17

3:17 But to Adam ¹  he said,

“Because you obeyed ²  your wife

and ate from the tree about which I commanded you,

‘You must not eat from it,’

cursed is the ground ³  thanks to you; ⁴ 

in painful toil you will eat ⁵  of it all the days of your life.

Genesis 16:2

16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since ⁶  the Lord has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with ⁷  my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.” ⁸  Abram did what ⁹  Sarai told him.

Genesis 21:12

21:12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not be upset ¹⁰  about the boy or your slave wife. Do ¹¹  all that Sarah is telling ¹²  you because through Isaac your descendants will be counted. ¹³ 

Genesis 21:16

21:16 Then she went and sat down by herself across from him at quite a distance, about a bowshot ¹⁴  away; for she thought, ¹⁵  “I refuse to watch the child die.” ¹⁶  So she sat across from him and wept uncontrollably. ¹⁷ 

Genesis 39:14

39:14 she called for her household servants and said to them, “See, my husband brought ¹⁸  in a Hebrew man ¹⁹  to us to humiliate us. ²⁰  He tried to have sex with me, ²¹  but I screamed loudly. ²² 

[3:17]  ¹ tn Since there is no article on the word, the personal name is used, rather than the generic “the man” (cf. NRSV).

[3:17]  ² tn The idiom “listen to the voice of” often means “obey.” The man “obeyed” his wife and in the process disobeyed God.

[3:17]  ³ sn For the ground to be cursed means that it will no longer yield its bounty as the blessing from God had promised. The whole creation, Paul writes in Rom 8:22, is still groaning under this curse, waiting for the day of redemption.

[3:17]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew phrase בַּעֲבוּרֶךָ (ba’avurekha) is more literally translated “on your account” or “because of you.” The idiomatic “thanks to you” in the translation tries to capture the point of this expression.

[3:17]  ⁵ sn In painful toil you will eat. The theme of eating is prominent throughout Gen 3. The prohibition was against eating from the tree of knowledge. The sin was in eating. The interrogation concerned the eating from the tree of knowledge. The serpent is condemned to eat the dust of the ground. The curse focuses on eating in a “measure for measure” justice. Because the man and the woman sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, God will forbid the ground to cooperate, and so it will be through painful toil that they will eat.

[16:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) introduces the foundational clause for the imperative to follow.

[16:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “enter to.” The expression is a euphemism for sexual relations (also in v. 4).

[16:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “perhaps I will be built from her.” Sarai hopes to have a family established through this surrogate mother.

[16:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “listened to the voice of,” which is an idiom meaning “obeyed.”

[21:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Let it not be evil in your eyes.”

[21:12]  ¹² tn Heb “listen to her voice.” The idiomatic expression means “obey; comply.” Here her advice, though harsh, is necessary and conforms to the will of God. Later (see Gen 25), when Abraham has other sons, he sends them all away as well.

[21:12]  ¹³ tn The imperfect verbal form here draws attention to an action that is underway.

[21:12]  ¹⁴ tn Or perhaps “will be named”; Heb “for in Isaac offspring will be called to you.” The exact meaning of the statement is not clear, but it does indicate that God’s covenantal promises to Abraham will be realized through Isaac, not Ishmael.

[21:16]  ¹⁶ sn A bowshot would be a distance of about a hundred yards (ninety meters).

[21:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “said.”

[21:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I will not look on the death of the child.” The cohortative verbal form (note the negative particle אַל,’al) here expresses her resolve to avoid the stated action.

[21:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and she lifted up her voice and wept” (that is, she wept uncontrollably). The LXX reads “he” (referring to Ishmael) rather than “she” (referring to Hagar), but this is probably an attempt to harmonize this verse with the following one, which refers to the boy’s cries.

[39:14]  ²¹ tn The verb has no expressed subject, and so it could be treated as a passive (“a Hebrew man was brought in”; cf. NIV). But it is clear from the context that her husband brought Joseph into the household, so Potiphar is the apparent referent here. Thus the translation supplies “my husband” as the referent of the unspecified pronominal subject of the verb (cf. NEB, NRSV).

[39:14]  ²² sn A Hebrew man. Potiphar’s wife raises the ethnic issue when talking to her servants about what their boss had done.

[39:14]  ²³ tn Heb “to make fun of us.” The verb translated “to humiliate us” here means to hold something up for ridicule, or to toy with something harmfully. Attempted rape would be such an activity, for it would hold the victim in contempt.

[39:14]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he came to me to lie with me.” Here the expression “lie with” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

[39:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and I cried out with a loud voice.”