Discovery BoxGenesis 30:14-18
Context30:14 At the time 1 of the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found some mandrake plants 2 in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 30:15 But Leah replied, 3 “Wasn’t it enough that you’ve taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes too?” “All right,” 4 Rachel said, “he may sleep 5 with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 30:16 When Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must sleep 6 with me because I have paid for your services 7 with my son’s mandrakes.” So he had marital relations 8 with her that night. 30:17 God paid attention 9 to Leah; she became pregnant 10 and gave Jacob a son for the fifth time. 11 30:18 Then Leah said, “God has granted me a reward 12 because I gave my servant to my husband as a wife.” 13 So she named him Issachar. 14
Genesis 35:23
Context35:23 The sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, as well as Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
Genesis 49:14-15
Context49:14 Issachar is a strong-boned donkey
lying down between two saddlebags.
49:15 When he sees 15 a good resting place,
and the pleasant land,
he will bend his shoulder to the burden
and become a slave laborer. 16
Numbers 1:8
Context1:8 from Issachar, Nethanel son of Zuar;
Numbers 1:28-30
Context1:28 From the descendants of Issachar: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name. 1:29 Those of them who were numbered from the tribe of Issachar were 54,400.
1:30 From the descendants of Zebulun: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name.
Numbers 26:23-25
Context26:23 The Issacharites by their families: from Tola, the family of the Tolaites; from Puah, the family of the Puites; 26:24 from Jashub, the family of the Jashubites; and from Shimron, the family of the Shimronites. 26:25 These were the families of Issachar, according to those numbered of them, 64,300. 17
Deuteronomy 33:18
Context33:18 Of Zebulun he said:
Rejoice, Zebulun, when you go outside,
and Issachar, when you are in your tents.
Deuteronomy 33:1
Context33:1 This is the blessing Moses the man of God pronounced upon the Israelites before his death.
Deuteronomy 2:1
Context2:1 Then we turned and set out toward the desert land on the way to the Red Sea 18 just as the Lord told me to do, detouring around Mount Seir for a long time.
Deuteronomy 7:1-5
Context7:1 When the Lord your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you – Hittites, 19 Girgashites, 20 Amorites, 21 Canaanites, 22 Perizzites, 23 Hivites, 24 and Jebusites, 25 seven 26 nations more numerous and powerful than you – 7:2 and he 27 delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate 28 them. Make no treaty 29 with them and show them no mercy! 7:3 You must not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 7:4 for they will turn your sons away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will erupt against you and he will quickly destroy you. 7:5 Instead, this is what you must do to them: You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, 30 cut down their sacred Asherah poles, 31 and burn up their idols.
Deuteronomy 12:32
Context12:32 (13:1) 32 You 33 must be careful to do everything I am commanding you. Do not add to it or subtract from it! 34
[30:14] 1 tn Heb “during the days.”
[30:14] 2 sn Mandrake plants were popularly believed to be an aphrodisiac in the culture of the time.
[30:15] 3 tn Heb “and she said to her”; the referent of the pronoun “she” (Leah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[30:15] 5 tn Heb “lie down.” The expression “lie down with” in this context (here and in the following verse) refers to sexual intercourse. The imperfect verbal form has a permissive nuance here.
[30:16] 6 tn Heb “must come in to me.” The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. She has acquired him for the night and feels he is obligated to have sexual relations with her.
[30:16] 7 tn Heb “I have surely hired.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verbal form for emphasis. The name Issachar (see v. 18) seems to be related to this expression.
[30:16] 8 tn This is the same Hebrew verb (שָׁכַב, shakhav) translated “sleep with” in v. 15. In direct discourse the more euphemistic “sleep with” was used, but here in the narrative “marital relations” reflects more clearly the emphasis on sexual intercourse.
[30:17] 9 tn Heb “listened to.”
[30:17] 10 tn Or “she conceived” (also in v. 19).
[30:17] 11 tn Heb “and she bore for Jacob a fifth son,” i.e., this was the fifth son that Leah had given Jacob.
[30:18] 12 tn Heb “God has given my reward.”
[30:18] 13 tn The words “as a wife” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for clarity (cf. v. 9).
[30:18] 14 sn The name Issachar (יְשָּׁשכָר, yishakhar) appears to mean “man of reward” or possibly “there is reward.” The name plays on the word used in the statement made earlier in the verse. The Hebrew noun translated “reward” is derived from the same root as the name Issachar. The irony is that Rachel thought the mandrakes would work for her, and she was willing to trade one night for them. But in that one night Leah became pregnant.
[49:15] 15 tn The verb forms in this verse (“sees,” “will bend,” and “[will] become”) are preterite; they is used in a rhetorical manner, describing the future as if it had already transpired.
[49:15] 16 sn The oracle shows that the tribe of Issachar will be willing to trade liberty for the material things of life. Issachar would work (become a slave laborer) for the Canaanites, a reversal of the oracle on Canaan. See C. M. Carmichael, “Some Sayings in Genesis 49,” JBL 88 (1969): 435-44; and S. Gevirtz, “The Issachar Oracle in the Testament of Jacob,” ErIsr 12 (1975): 104-12.
[26:25] 17 sn The Issacharites increased from 54,400 to 64,300.
[2:1] 18 tn Heb “Reed Sea.” See note on the term “Red Sea” in Deut 1:40.
[7:1] 19 sn Hittites. The center of Hittite power was in Anatolia (central modern Turkey). In the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200
[7:1] 20 sn Girgashites. These cannot be ethnically identified and are unknown outside the OT. They usually appear in such lists only when the intention is to have seven groups in all (see also the note on the word “seven” later in this verse).
[7:1] 21 sn Amorites. Originally from the upper Euphrates region (Amurru), the Amorites appear to have migrated into Canaan beginning in 2200
[7:1] 22 sn Canaanites. These were the indigenous peoples of the land, going back to the beginning of recorded history (ca. 3000
[7:1] 23 sn Perizzites. This is probably a subgroup of Canaanites (Gen 13:7; 34:30).
[7:1] 24 sn Hivites. These are usually thought to be the same as the Hurrians, a people well-known in ancient Near Eastern texts. They are likely identical to the Horites (see note on the term “Horites” in Deut 2:12).
[7:1] 25 sn Jebusites. These inhabited the hill country, particularly in and about Jerusalem (cf. Num 13:29; Josh 15:8; 2 Sam 5:6; 24:16).
[7:1] 26 sn Seven. This is an ideal number in the OT, one symbolizing fullness or completeness. Therefore, the intent of the text here is not to be precise and list all of Israel’s enemies but simply to state that Israel will have a full complement of foes to deal with. For other lists of Canaanites, some with fewer than seven peoples, see Exod 3:8; 13:5; 23:23, 28; 33:2; 34:11; Deut 20:17; Josh 3:10; 9:1; 24:11. Moreover, the “Table of Nations” (Gen 10:15-19) suggests that all of these (possibly excepting the Perizzites) were offspring of Canaan and therefore Canaanites.
[7:2] 27 tn Heb “the
[7:2] 28 tn In the Hebrew text the infinitive absolute before the finite verb emphasizes the statement. The imperfect has an obligatory nuance here. Cf. ASV “shalt (must NRSV) utterly destroy them”; CEV “must destroy them without mercy.”
[7:2] 29 tn Heb “covenant” (so NASB, NRSV); TEV “alliance.”
[7:5] 30 sn Sacred pillars. The Hebrew word (מַצֵּבֹת, matsevot) denotes a standing pillar, usually made of stone. Its purpose was to mark the presence of a shrine or altar thought to have been visited by deity. Though sometimes associated with pure worship of the
[7:5] 31 sn Sacred Asherah poles. A leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon was Asherah, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles (Hebrew אֲשֵׁרִים [’asherim], as here). They were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).
[12:32] 32 sn Beginning with 12:32, the verse numbers through 13:18 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 12:32 ET = 13:1 HT, 13:1 ET = 13:2 HT, 13:2 ET = 13:3 HT, etc., through 13:18 ET = 13:19 HT. With 14:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.
[12:32] 33 tn This verse highlights a phenomenon found throughout Deuteronomy, but most especially in chap. 12, namely, the alternation of grammatical singular and plural forms of the pronoun (known as Numeruswechsel in German scholarship). Critical scholarship in general resolves the “problem” by suggesting varying literary traditions – one favorable to the singular pronoun and the other to the plural – which appear in the (obviously rough) redacted text at hand. Even the ancient versions were troubled by the lack of harmony of grammatical number and in this verse, for example, offered a number of alternate readings. The MT reads “Everything I am commanding you (plural) you (plural) must be careful to do; you (singular) must not add to it nor should you (singular) subtract form it.” Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate suggest singular for the first two pronouns but a few Smr
[12:32] 34 sn Do not add to it or subtract from it. This prohibition makes at least two profound theological points: (1) This work by Moses is of divine origination (i.e., it is inspired) and therefore can tolerate no human alteration; and (2) the work is complete as it stands (i.e., it is canonical).
