Genesis 3:8

The Judgment Oracles of God at the Fall

3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about ¹  in the orchard at the breezy time ²  of the day, and they hid ³  from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard.

Genesis 4:15

4:15 But the Lord said to him, “All right then, ⁴  if anyone kills Cain, Cain will be avenged seven times as much.” ⁵  Then the Lord put a special mark ⁶  on Cain so that no one who found him would strike him down. ⁷ 

Genesis 10:9

10:9 He was a mighty hunter ⁸  before the Lord. ⁹  (That is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.”)

Genesis 16:11

16:11 Then the Lord’s angel said to her,

“You are now ¹⁰  pregnant

and are about to give birth ¹¹  to a son.

You are to name him Ishmael, ¹² 

for the Lord has heard your painful groans. ¹³ 

Genesis 19:13

19:13 because we are about to destroy ¹⁴  it. The outcry against this place ¹⁵  is so great before the Lord that he ¹⁶  has sent us to destroy it.”

Genesis 22:14

22:14 And Abraham called the name of that place “The Lord provides.” ¹⁷  It is said to this day, ¹⁸  “In the mountain of the Lord provision will be made.” ¹⁹ 

Genesis 39:23

39:23 The warden did not concern himself ²⁰  with anything that was in Joseph’s ²¹  care because the Lord was with him and whatever he was doing the Lord was making successful.

[3:8]  ¹ tn The Hitpael participle of הָלָךְ (halakh, “to walk, to go”) here has an iterative sense, “moving” or “going about.” While a translation of “walking about” is possible, it assumes a theophany, the presence of the Lord God in a human form. This is more than the text asserts.

[3:8]  ² tn The expression is traditionally rendered “cool of the day,” because the Hebrew word רוּחַ (ruakh) can mean “wind.” U. Cassuto (Genesis: From Adam to Noah, 152-54) concludes after lengthy discussion that the expression refers to afternoon when it became hot and the sun was beginning to decline. J. J. Niehaus (God at Sinai [SOTBT], 155-57) offers a different interpretation of the phrase, relating יוֹם (yom, usually understood as “day”) to an Akkadian cognate umu (“storm”) and translates the phrase “in the wind of the storm.” If Niehaus is correct, then God is not pictured as taking an afternoon stroll through the orchard, but as coming in a powerful windstorm to confront the man and woman with their rebellion. In this case קוֹל יְהוָה (qol yÿhvah, “sound of the Lord”) may refer to God’s thunderous roar, which typically accompanies his appearance in the storm to do battle or render judgment (e.g., see Ps 29).

[3:8]  ³ tn The verb used here is the Hitpael, giving the reflexive idea (“they hid themselves”). In v. 10, when Adam answers the Lord, the Niphal form is used with the same sense: “I hid.”

[4:15]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term לָכֵן (lakhen, “therefore”) in this context carries the sense of “Okay,” or “in that case then I will do this.”

[4:15]  ⁵ sn The symbolic number seven is used here to emphasize that the offender will receive severe punishment. For other rhetorical and hyperbolic uses of the expression “seven times over,” see Pss 12:6; 79:12; Prov 6:31; Isa 30:26.

[4:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “sign”; “reminder.” The term “sign” is not used in the translation because it might imply to an English reader that God hung a sign on Cain. The text does not identify what the “sign” was. It must have been some outward, visual reminder of Cain’s special protected status.

[4:15]  ⁷ sn God becomes Cain’s protector. Here is common grace – Cain and his community will live on under God’s care, but without salvation.

[10:9]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew word for “hunt” is צַיִד (tsayid), which is used on occasion for hunting men (1 Sam 24:12; Jer 16:16; Lam 3:15).

[10:9]  ⁸ tn Another option is to take the divine name here, לִפְנֵי יִהוָה (lifne yÿhvah, “before the Lord [YHWH]”), as a means of expressing the superlative degree. In this case one may translate “Nimrod was the greatest hunter in the world.”

[16:11]  ¹⁰ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) focuses on her immediate situation: “Here you are pregnant.”

[16:11]  ¹¹ tn The active participle refers here to something that is about to happen.

[16:11]  ¹² sn The name Ishmael consists of the imperfect or jussive form of the Hebrew verb with the theophoric element added as the subject. It means “God hears” or “may God hear.”

[16:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “affliction,” which must refer here to Hagar’s painful groans of anguish.

[19:13]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew participle expresses an imminent action here.

[19:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for their outcry.” The words “about this place” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[19:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the Lord.” The repetition of the divine name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun “he” for stylistic reasons.

[22:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the Lord sees” (יְהוָה יִרְאֶה, yÿhvah yir’eh, traditionally transliterated “Jehovah Jireh”; see the note on the word “provide” in v. 8). By so naming the place Abraham preserved in the memory of God’s people the amazing event that took place there.

[22:14]  ¹⁷ sn On the expression to this day see B. Childs, “A Study of the Formula ‘Until this Day’,” JBL 82 (1963): 279-92.

[22:14]  ¹⁸ sn The saying connected with these events has some ambiguity, which was probably intended. The Niphal verb could be translated (1) “in the mountain of the Lord it will be seen/provided” or (2) “in the mountain the Lord will appear.” If the temple later stood here (see the note on “Moriah” in Gen 22:2), the latter interpretation might find support, for the people went to the temple to appear before the Lord, who “appeared” to them by providing for them his power and blessings. See S. R. Driver, Genesis, 219.

[39:23]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “was not looking at anything.”

[39:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “his”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.