Genesis 37:21

37:21 When Reuben heard this, he rescued Joseph ¹  from their hands, ²  saying, ³  “Let’s not take his life!” ⁴ 

Genesis 14:15

14:15 Then, during the night, ⁵  Abram ⁶  divided his forces ⁷  against them and defeated them. He chased them as far as Hobah, which is north ⁸  of Damascus.

Genesis 4:15

4:15 But the Lord said to him, “All right then, ⁹  if anyone kills Cain, Cain will be avenged seven times as much.” ¹⁰  Then the Lord put a special mark ¹¹  on Cain so that no one who found him would strike him down. ¹² 

Genesis 14:7

14:7 Then they attacked En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh) again, ¹³  and they conquered all the territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who were living in Hazazon Tamar.

Genesis 19:11

19:11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, ¹⁴  with blindness. The men outside ¹⁵  wore themselves out trying to find the door.

Genesis 32:8

32:8 “If Esau attacks one camp,” ¹⁶  he thought, ¹⁷  “then the other camp will be able to escape.” ¹⁸ 

Genesis 32:11

32:11 Rescue me, ¹⁹  I pray, from the hand ²⁰  of my brother Esau, ²¹  for I am afraid he will come ²²  and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children. ²³ 

Genesis 36:35

36:35 When Husham died, Hadad the son of Bedad, who defeated the Midianites in the land of Moab, reigned in his place; the name of his city was Avith.

Genesis 14:5

14:5 In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings who were his allies came and defeated ²⁴  the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim,

Genesis 14:17

14:17 After Abram ²⁵  returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet Abram ²⁶  in the Valley of Shaveh (known as the King’s Valley). ²⁷ 

Genesis 34:30

34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought ruin ²⁸  on me by making me a foul odor ²⁹  among the inhabitants of the land – among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I ³⁰  am few in number; they will join forces against me and attack me, and both I and my family will be destroyed!”

Genesis 8:21

8:21 And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma ³¹  and said ³²  to himself, ³³  “I will never again curse ³⁴  the ground because of humankind, even though ³⁵  the inclination of their minds ³⁶  is evil from childhood on. ³⁷  I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.

[37:21]  ¹ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Joseph) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[37:21]  ² sn From their hands. The instigators of this plot may have been the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah (see v. 2).

[37:21]  ³ tn Heb “and he said.”

[37:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “we must not strike him down [with respect to] life.”

[14:15]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text simply has “night” as an adverbial accusative.

[14:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “he divided himself…he and his servants.”

[14:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “left.” Directions in ancient Israel were given in relation to the east rather than the north.

[4:15]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² sn God becomes Cain’s protector. Here is common grace – Cain and his community will live on under God’s care, but without salvation.

[14:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “they returned and came to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh).” The two verbs together form a verbal hendiadys, the first serving as the adverb: “they returned and came” means “they came again.” Most English translations do not treat this as a hendiadys, but translate “they turned back” or something similar. Since in the context, however, “came again to” does not simply refer to travel but an assault against the place, the present translation expresses this as “attacked…again.”

[19:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “from the least to the greatest.”

[19:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the men of Sodom outside the door) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it.”

[32:8]  ²² tn Heb “and he said, ‘If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it.” The Hebrew verb אָמַר (’amar) here represents Jacob’s thought or reasoning, and is therefore translated “he thought.” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:8]  ²³ tn Heb “the surviving camp will be for escape.” The word “escape” is a feminine noun. The term most often refers to refugees from war.

[32:11]  ²⁵ tn The imperative has the force of a prayer here, not a command.

[32:11]  ²⁶ tn The “hand” here is a metonymy for “power.”

[32:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.”

[32:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “for I am afraid of him, lest he come.”

[32:11]  ²⁹ sn Heb “me, [the] mother upon [the] sons.” The first person pronoun “me” probably means here “me and mine,” as the following clause suggests.

[14:5]  ²⁹ tn The Hebrew verb נָכָה (nakhah) means “to attack, to strike, to smite.” In this context it appears that the strike was successful, and so a translation of “defeated” is preferable.

[14:17]  ³³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:17]  ³⁴ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:17]  ³⁵ sn The King’s Valley is possibly a reference to what came to be known later as the Kidron Valley.

[34:30]  ³⁷ tn The traditional translation is “troubled me” (KJV, ASV), but the verb refers to personal or national disaster and suggests complete ruin (see Josh 7:25, Judg 11:35, Prov 11:17). The remainder of the verse describes the “trouble” Simeon and Levi had caused.

[34:30]  ³⁸ tn In the causative stem the Hebrew verb בָּאַשׁ (ba’ash) means “to cause to stink, to have a foul smell.” In the contexts in which it is used it describes foul smells, stenches, or things that are odious. Jacob senses that the people in the land will find this act terribly repulsive. See P. R. Ackroyd, “The Hebrew Root באשׁ,” JTS 2 (1951): 31-36.

[34:30]  ³⁹ tn Jacob speaks in the first person as the head and representative of the entire family.

[8:21]  ⁴¹ tn The Lord “smelled” (וַיָּרַח, vayyarakh) a “soothing smell” (רֵיחַ הַנִּיהֹחַ, reakh hannihoakh). The object forms a cognate accusative with the verb. The language is anthropomorphic. The offering had a sweet aroma that pleased or soothed. The expression in Lev 1 signifies that God accepts the offering with pleasure, and in accepting the offering he accepts the worshiper.

[8:21]  ⁴² tn Heb “and the Lord said.”

[8:21]  ⁴³ tn Heb “in his heart.”

[8:21]  ⁴⁴ tn Here the Hebrew word translated “curse” is קָלָל (qalal), used in the Piel verbal stem.

[8:21]  ⁴⁵ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) can be used in a concessive sense (see BDB 473 s.v. כִּי), which makes good sense in this context. Its normal causal sense (“for”) does not fit the context here very well.

[8:21]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “the inclination of the heart of humankind.”

[8:21]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “from his youth.”