Genesis 37:2

37:2 This is the account of Jacob.

Joseph, his seventeen-year-old son, ¹  was taking care of ²  the flocks with his brothers. Now he was a youngster ³  working with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. ⁴  Joseph brought back a bad report about them ⁵  to their father.

Genesis 38:14

38:14 So she removed her widow’s clothes and covered herself with a veil. She wrapped herself and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the way to Timnah. (She did this because ⁶  she saw that she had not been given to Shelah as a wife, even though he had now grown up.) ⁷ 

Genesis 42:38

42:38 But Jacob ⁸  replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. ⁹  If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair ¹⁰  in sorrow to the grave.” ¹¹ 

Genesis 48:14

48:14 Israel stretched out his right hand and placed it on Ephraim’s head, although he was the younger. ¹²  Crossing his hands, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, for Manasseh was the firstborn.

[37:2]  ¹ tn Heb “a son of seventeen years.” The word “son” is in apposition to the name “Joseph.”

[37:2]  ² tn Or “tending”; Heb “shepherding” or “feeding.”

[37:2]  ³ tn Or perhaps “a helper.” The significance of this statement is unclear. It may mean “now the lad was with,” or it may suggest Joseph was like a servant to them.

[37:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he [was] a young man with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, the wives of his father.”

[37:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “their bad report.” The pronoun is an objective genitive, specifying that the bad or damaging report was about the brothers.

[38:14]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text simply has “because,” connecting this sentence to what precedes. For stylistic reasons the words “she did this” are supplied in the translation and a new sentence begun.

[38:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “she saw that Shelah had grown up, but she was not given to him as a wife.”

[42:38]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[42:38]  ¹² sn The expression he alone is left meant that (so far as Jacob knew) Benjamin was the only surviving child of his mother Rachel.

[42:38]  ¹³ sn The expression bring down my gray hair is figurative, using a part for the whole – they would put Jacob in the grave. But the gray head signifies a long life of worry and trouble.

[42:38]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to Sheol,” the dwelling place of the dead.

[48:14]  ¹⁶ tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial-concessive here.