Genesis 35:18

35:18 With her dying breath, ¹  she named him Ben-Oni. ²  But his father called him Benjamin instead. ³ 

Genesis 37:3

37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons ⁴  because he was a son born to him late in life, ⁵  and he made a special ⁶  tunic for him.

Genesis 37:19

37:19 They said to one another, “Here comes this master of dreams! ⁷ 

Genesis 43:7-8

43:7 They replied, “The man questioned us ⁸  thoroughly ⁹  about ourselves and our family, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ ¹⁰  So we answered him in this way. ¹¹  How could we possibly know ¹²  that he would say, ¹³  ‘Bring your brother down’?”

43:8 Then Judah said to his father Israel, “Send the boy with me and we will go immediately. ¹⁴  Then we will live ¹⁵  and not die – we and you and our little ones.

Genesis 46:21

46:21 The sons of Benjamin: ¹⁶ 

Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim and Ard.

[35:18]  ¹ tn Heb “in the going out of her life, for she was dying.” Rachel named the child with her dying breath.

[35:18]  ² sn The name Ben-Oni means “son of my suffering.” It is ironic that Rachel’s words to Jacob in Gen 30:1, “Give me children or I’ll die,” take a different turn here, for it was having the child that brought about her death.

[35:18]  ³ tn The disjunctive clause is contrastive.

[37:3]  ⁴ tn The disjunctive clause provides supplemental information vital to the story. It explains in part the brothers’ animosity toward Joseph.

[37:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “a son of old age was he to him.” This expression means “a son born to him when he [i.e., Jacob] was old.”

[37:3]  ⁶ tn It is not clear what this tunic was like, because the meaning of the Hebrew word that describes it is uncertain. The idea that it was a coat of many colors comes from the Greek translation of the OT. An examination of cognate terms in Semitic suggests it was either a coat or tunic with long sleeves (cf. NEB, NRSV), or a tunic that was richly embroidered (cf. NIV). It set Joseph apart as the favored one.

[37:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “Look, this master of dreams is coming.” The brothers’ words have a sarcastic note and indicate that they resent his dreams.

[43:7]  ⁸ tn The word “us” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[43:7]  ⁹ tn The infinitive absolute with the perfect verbal form emphasizes that Joseph questioned them thoroughly.

[43:7]  ¹⁰ sn The report given here concerning Joseph’s interrogation does not exactly match the previous account where they supplied the information to clear themselves (see 42:13). This section may reflect how they remembered the impact of his interrogation, whether he asked the specific questions or not. That may be twisting the truth to protect themselves, not wanting to admit that they volunteered the information. (They admitted as much in 42:31, but now they seem to be qualifying that comment.) On the other hand, when speaking to Joseph later (see 44:19), Judah claims that Joseph asked for the information about their family, making it possible that 42:13 leaves out some of the details of their first encounter.

[43:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and we told to him according to these words.”

[43:7]  ¹² tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the imperfect verbal form, which here is a historic future (that is, future from the perspective of a past time).

[43:7]  ¹³ tn Once again the imperfect verbal form is used as a historic future (that is, future from the perspective of past time).

[43:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and we will rise up and we will go.” The first verb is adverbial and gives the expression the sense of “we will go immediately.”

[43:8]  ¹⁵ tn After the preceding cohortatives, the prefixed verbal form (either imperfect or cohortative) with the prefixed conjunction here indicates purpose or result.

[46:21]  ¹⁶ sn The sons of Benjamin. It is questionable whether youthful Benjamin had ten sons by the time he went into Egypt, but it is not impossible. If Benjamin was born when Joseph was six or seven, he was ten when Joseph was sold into Egypt, and would have been thirty-two at this point. Some suggest that the list originally served another purpose and included the names of all who were in the immediate family of the sons, whether born in Canaan or later in Egypt.