Genesis 32:28

32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ¹  “but Israel, ²  because you have fought ³  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Genesis 43:30

43:30 Joseph hurried out, for he was overcome by affection for his brother ⁴  and was at the point of tears. ⁵  So he went to his room and wept there.

Genesis 43:34

43:34 He gave them portions of the food set before him, ⁶  but the portion for Benjamin was five times greater than the portions for any of the others. They drank with Joseph until they all became drunk. ⁷ 

Genesis 45:2

45:2 He wept loudly; ⁸  the Egyptians heard it and Pharaoh’s household heard about it. ⁹ 

Genesis 45:15

45:15 He kissed all his brothers and wept over them. After this his brothers talked with him.

Job 2:12

2:12 But when they gazed intently ¹⁰  from a distance but did not recognize ¹¹  him, they began to weep loudly. Each of them tore his robes, and they threw dust into the air over their heads. ¹² 

Nehemiah 1:11

1:11 Please, ¹³  O Lord, listen attentively ¹⁴  to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who take pleasure in showing respect ¹⁵  to your name. Grant your servant success today and show compassion to me ¹⁶  in the presence of this man.”

Now ¹⁷  I was cupbearer for the king.

Psalms 34:4

34:4 I sought the Lord’s help ¹⁸  and he answered me;

he delivered me from all my fears.

Proverbs 16:7

16:7 When a person’s ¹⁹  ways are pleasing to the Lord, ²⁰ 

he ²¹  even reconciles his enemies to himself. ²² 

Proverbs 21:1

21:1 The king’s heart ²³  is in the hand ²⁴  of the Lord like channels of water; ²⁵ 

he turns it wherever he wants.

[32:28]  ¹ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:28]  ² sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the Lord was saying that Jacob would have victory and receive the promises because God would fight for him.

[32:28]  ³ sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).

[43:30]  ⁴ tn Heb “for his affection boiled up concerning his brother.” The same expression is used in 1 Kgs 3:26 for the mother’s feelings for her endangered child.

[43:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he sought to weep.”

[43:34]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he lifted up portions from before his face to them.”

[43:34]  ⁷ tn Heb “and they drank and were intoxicated with him” (cf. NIV “drank freely with him”; NEB “grew merry”; NRSV “were merry”). The brothers were apparently relaxed and set at ease, despite Joseph’s obvious favoritism toward Benjamin.

[45:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he gave his voice in weeping,” meaning that Joseph could not restrain himself and wept out loud.

[45:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the Egyptians heard and the household of Pharaoh heard.” Presumably in the latter case this was by means of a report.

[2:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they lifted up their eyes.” The idiom “to lift up the eyes” (or “to lift up the voice”) is intended to show a special intensity in the effort. Here it would indicate that they were trying to see Job from a great distance away.

[2:12]  ¹¹ tn The Hiphil perfect here should take the nuance of potential perfect – they were not able to recognize him. In other words, this does not mean that they did not know it was Job, only that he did not look anything like the Job they knew.

[2:12]  ¹² tn Heb “they tossed dust skyward over their heads.”

[1:11]  ¹³ tn The interjection אָנָּא (’anna’) is an emphatic term of entreaty: “please!” (BDB 58 s.v.; HALOT 69-70 s.v.). This term is normally reserved for pleas for mercy from God in life-and-death situations (2 Kgs 20:3 = Isa 38:3; Pss 116:4; 118:25; Jonah 1:14; 4:2) and for forgiveness of heinous sins that would result or have resulted in severe judgment from God (Exod 32:31; Dan 9:4; Neh 1:5, 11).

[1:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “let your ear be attentive.”

[1:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “fear.”

[1:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “grant compassion.” The words “to me” are supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness and style in English.

[1:11]  ¹⁷ tn The vav (ו) on וַאֲנִי (va’ani, “Now, I”) introduces a disjunctive parenthetical clause that provides background information to the reader.

[34:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I sought the Lord.”

[16:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “ways of a man.”

[16:7]  ²⁰ tn The first line uses an infinitive in a temporal clause, followed by its subject in the genitive case: “in the taking pleasure of the Lord” = “when the Lord is pleased with.” So the condition set down for the second colon is a lifestyle that is pleasing to God.

[16:7]  ²¹ tn The referent of the verb in the second colon is unclear. The straightforward answer is that it refers to the person whose ways please the Lord – it is his lifestyle that disarms his enemies. W. McKane comments that the righteous have the power to mend relationships (Proverbs [OTL], 491); see, e.g., 10:13; 14:9; 15:1; 25:21-22). The life that is pleasing to God will be above reproach and find favor with others. Some would interpret this to mean that God makes his enemies to be at peace with him (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT). This is workable, but in this passage it would seem God would do this through the pleasing life of the believer (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV).

[16:7]  ²² tn Heb “even his enemies he makes to be at peace with him.”

[21:1]  ²³ sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.

[21:1]  ²⁴ sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.

[21:1]  ²⁵ tn “Channels of water” (פַּלְגֵי, palge) is an adverbial accusative, functioning as a figure of comparison – “like channels of water.” Cf. NAB “Like a stream”; NIV “watercourse”; NRSV, NLT “a stream of water.”