Genesis 3:19

3:19 By the sweat of your brow ¹  you will eat food

until you return to the ground, ² 

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust, and to dust you will return.” ³ 

Genesis 18:5

18:5 And let me get ⁴  a bit of food ⁵  so that you may refresh yourselves ⁶  since you have passed by your servant’s home. After that you may be on your way.” ⁷  “All right,” they replied, “you may do as you say.”

Genesis 25:34

25:34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew; Esau ate and drank, then got up and went out. ⁸  So Esau despised his birthright. ⁹ 

Genesis 41:54

41:54 Then the seven years of famine began, ¹⁰  just as Joseph had predicted. There was famine in all the other lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food.

Genesis 43:25

43:25 They got their gifts ready for Joseph’s arrival ¹¹  at noon, for they had heard ¹²  that they were to have a meal ¹³  there.

Genesis 45:23

45:23 To his father he sent the following: ¹⁴  ten donkeys loaded with the best products of Egypt and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, food, and provisions for his father’s journey.

Genesis 47:12-13

47:12 Joseph also provided food for his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household, according to the number of their little children.

47:13 But there was no food in all the land because the famine was very severe; the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan wasted away ¹⁵  because of the famine.

[3:19]  ¹ tn The expression “the sweat of your brow” is a metonymy, the sweat being the result of painful toil in the fields.

[3:19]  ² sn Until you return to the ground. The theme of humankind’s mortality is critical here in view of the temptation to be like God. Man will labor painfully to provide food, obviously not enjoying the bounty that creation promised. In place of the abundance of the orchard’s fruit trees, thorns and thistles will grow. Man will have to work the soil so that it will produce the grain to make bread. This will continue until he returns to the soil from which he was taken (recalling the creation in 2:7 with the wordplay on Adam and ground). In spite of the dreams of immortality and divinity, man is but dust (2:7), and will return to dust. So much for his pride.

[3:19]  ³ sn In general, the themes of the curse oracles are important in the NT teaching that Jesus became the cursed one hanging on the tree. In his suffering and death, all the motifs are drawn together: the tree, the sweat, the thorns, and the dust of death (see Ps 22:15). Jesus experienced it all, to have victory over it through the resurrection.

[18:5]  ⁴ tn The Qal cohortative here probably has the nuance of polite request.

[18:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “a piece of bread.” The Hebrew word לֶחֶם (lekhem) can refer either to bread specifically or to food in general. Based on Abraham’s directions to Sarah in v. 6, bread was certainly involved, but v. 7 indicates that Abraham had a more elaborate meal in mind.

[18:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “strengthen your heart.” The imperative after the cohortative indicates purpose here.

[18:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “so that you may refresh yourselves, after [which] you may be on your way – for therefore you passed by near your servant.”

[25:34]  ⁷ sn The style here is typical of Hebrew narrative; after the tension is resolved with the dialogue, the working out of it is recorded in a rapid sequence of verbs (“gave”; “ate”; “drank”; “got up”; “went out”). See also Gen 3:1-7 for another example.

[25:34]  ⁸ sn So Esau despised his birthright. This clause, which concludes the episode, is a summary statement which reveals the underlying significance of Esau’s actions. “To despise” means to treat something as worthless or with contempt. Esau’s willingness to sell his birthright was evidence that he considered it to be unimportant.

[41:54]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “began to arrive.”

[43:25]  ¹³ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct after the preposition, followed by the subjective genitive.

[43:25]  ¹⁴ tn The action precedes the action of preparing the gift, and so must be translated as past perfect.

[43:25]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “eat bread.” The imperfect verbal form is used here as a historic future (future from the perspective of the past).

[45:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “according to this.”

[47:13]  ¹⁹ tn The verb לַהַה (lahah, = לָאָה, la’ah) means “to faint, to languish”; it figuratively describes the land as wasting away, drooping, being worn out.