Genesis 4:2

4:2 Then she gave birth ¹  to his brother Abel. ²  Abel took care of the flocks, while Cain cultivated the ground. ³ 

Genesis 6:9

The Judgment of the Flood

6:9 This is the account of Noah. ⁴ 

Noah was a godly man; he was blameless ⁵ 

among his contemporaries. ⁶  He ⁷  walked with ⁸  God.

Genesis 10:9

10:9 He was a mighty hunter ⁹  before the Lord. ¹⁰  (That is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.”)

Genesis 11:3

11:3 Then they said to one another, ¹¹  “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” ¹²  (They had brick instead of stone and tar ¹³  instead of mortar.) ¹⁴ 

Genesis 13:3

13:3 And he journeyed from place to place ¹⁵  from the Negev as far as Bethel. ¹⁶  He returned ¹⁷  to the place where he had pitched his tent ¹⁸  at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai.

Genesis 13:6

13:6 But the land could ¹⁹  not support them while they were living side by side. ²⁰  Because their possessions were so great, they were not able to live ²¹  alongside one another.

Genesis 15:17

15:17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch ²²  passed between the animal parts. ²³ 

Genesis 26:1

Isaac and Abimelech

26:1 There was a famine in the land, subsequent to the earlier famine that occurred ²⁴  in the days of Abraham. ²⁵  Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.

Genesis 26:28

26:28 They replied, “We could plainly see ²⁶  that the Lord is with you. So we decided there should be ²⁷  a pact between us ²⁸  – between us ²⁹  and you. Allow us to make ³⁰  a treaty with you

Genesis 30:30

30:30 Indeed, ³¹  you had little before I arrived, ³²  but now your possessions have increased many times over. ³³  The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. ³⁴  But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?” ³⁵ 

Genesis 31:5

31:5 There he said to them, “I can tell that your father’s attitude toward me has changed, ³⁶  but the God of my father has been with me.

Genesis 36:7

36:7 because they had too many possessions to be able to stay together and the land where they had settled ³⁷  was not able to support them because of their livestock.

Genesis 41:54

41:54 Then the seven years of famine began, ³⁸  just as Joseph had predicted. There was famine in all the other lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was food.

Genesis 41:56

41:56 While the famine was over all the earth, ³⁹  Joseph opened the storehouses ⁴⁰  and sold grain to the Egyptians. The famine was severe throughout the land of Egypt.

[4:2]  ¹ tn Heb “And she again gave birth.”

[4:2]  ² sn The name Abel is not defined here in the text, but the tone is ominous. Abel’s name, the Hebrew word הֶבֶל (hevel), means “breath, vapor, vanity,” foreshadowing Abel’s untimely and premature death.

[4:2]  ³ tn Heb “and Abel was a shepherd of the flock, and Cain was a worker of the ground.” The designations of the two occupations are expressed with active participles, רֹעֵה (ro’eh, “shepherd”) and עֹבֵד (’oved, “worker”). Abel is occupied with sheep, whereas Cain is living under the curse, cultivating the ground.

[6:9]  ⁴ sn There is a vast body of scholarly literature about the flood story. The following studies are particularly helpful: A. Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and the Old Testament Parallels; M. Kessler, “Rhetorical Criticism of Genesis 7,” Rhetorical Criticism: Essays in Honor of James Muilenburg (PTMS), 1-17; I. M. Kikawada and A. Quinn, Before Abraham Was; A. R. Millard, “A New Babylonian ‘Genesis Story’,” TynBul 18 (1967): 3-18; G. J. Wenham, “The Coherence of the Flood Narrative,” VT 28 (1978): 336-48.

[6:9]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term תָּמִים (tamim, “blameless”) is used of men in Gen 17:1 (associated with the idiom “walk before,” which means “maintain a proper relationship with,” see 24:40); Deut 18:13 (where it means “blameless” in the sense of not guilty of the idolatrous practices listed before this; see Josh 24:14); Pss 18:23, 26 (“blameless” in the sense of not having violated God’s commands); 37:18 (in contrast to the wicked); 101:2, 6 (in contrast to proud, deceitful slanderers; see 15:2); Prov 2:21; 11:5 (in contrast to the wicked); 28:10; Job 12:4.

[6:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “Noah was a godly man, blameless in his generations.” The singular “generation” can refer to one’s contemporaries, i.e., those living at a particular point in time. The plural “generations” can refer to successive generations in the past or the future. Here, where it is qualified by “his” (i.e., Noah’s), it refers to Noah’s contemporaries, comprised of the preceding generation (his father’s generation), those of Noah’s generation, and the next generation (those the same age as his children). In other words, “his generations” means the generations contemporary with him. See BDB 190 s.v. דוֹר.

[6:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “Noah.” The proper name has been replaced with the pronoun in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[6:9]  ⁸ tn The construction translated “walked with” is used in Gen 5:22, 24 (see the note on this phrase in 5:22) and in 1 Sam 25:15, where it refers to David’s and Nabal’s men “rubbing shoulders” in the fields. Based on the use in 1 Sam 25:15, the expression seems to mean “live in close proximity to,” which may, by metonymy, mean “maintain cordial relations with.”

[10:9]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew word for “hunt” is צַיִד (tsayid), which is used on occasion for hunting men (1 Sam 24:12; Jer 16:16; Lam 3:15).

[10:9]  ⁸ tn Another option is to take the divine name here, לִפְנֵי יִהוָה (lifne yÿhvah, “before the Lord [YHWH]”), as a means of expressing the superlative degree. In this case one may translate “Nimrod was the greatest hunter in the world.”

[11:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “a man to his neighbor.” The Hebrew idiom may be translated “to each other” or “one to another.”

[11:3]  ¹¹ tn The speech contains two cohortatives of exhortation followed by their respective cognate accusatives: “let us brick bricks” (נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים, nilbbÿnah lÿvenim) and “burn for burning” (נִשְׂרְפָה לִשְׂרֵפָה, nisrÿfah lisrefah). This stresses the intensity of the undertaking; it also reflects the Akkadian text which uses similar constructions (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 75-76).

[11:3]  ¹² tn Or “bitumen” (cf. NEB, NRSV).

[11:3]  ¹³ tn The disjunctive clause gives information parenthetical to the narrative.

[13:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “on his journeys”; the verb and noun combination means to pick up the tents and move from camp to camp.

[13:3]  ¹⁴ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[13:3]  ¹⁵ tn The words “he returned” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[13:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “where his tent had been.”

[13:6]  ¹⁶ tn The potential nuance for the perfect tense is necessary here, and supported by the parallel clause that actually uses “to be able.”

[13:6]  ¹⁷ tn The infinitive construct לָשֶׁבֶת (lashevet, from יָשַׁב, yashav) explains what it was that the land could not support: “the land could not support them to live side by side.” See further J. C. de Moor, “Lexical Remarks Concerning Yahad and Yahdaw,” VT 7 (1957): 350-55.

[13:6]  ¹⁸ tn The same infinitive occurs here, serving as the object of the verb.

[15:17]  ¹⁹ sn A smoking pot with a flaming torch. These same implements were used in Mesopotamian rituals designed to ward off evil (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 113-14).

[15:17]  ²⁰ tn Heb “these pieces.”

[26:1]  ²² tn Heb “in addition to the first famine which was.”

[26:1]  ²³ sn This account is parallel to two similar stories about Abraham (see Gen 12:10-20; 20:1-18). Many scholars do not believe there were three similar incidents, only one that got borrowed and duplicated. Many regard the account about Isaac as the original, which then was attached to the more important person, Abraham, with supernatural elements being added. For a critique of such an approach, see R. Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative, 47-62. It is more likely that the story illustrates the proverb “like father, like son” (see T. W. Mann, The Book of the Torah, 53). In typical human fashion the son follows his father’s example of lying to avoid problems. The appearance of similar events reported in a similar way underscores the fact that the blessing has now passed to Isaac, even if he fails as his father did.

[26:28]  ²⁵ tn The infinitive absolute before the verb emphasizes the clarity of their perception.

[26:28]  ²⁶ tn Heb “And we said, ‘Let there be.’” The direct discourse in the Hebrew text has been rendered as indirect discourse in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:28]  ²⁷ tn The pronoun “us” here is inclusive – it refers to the Philistine contingent on the one hand and Isaac on the other.

[26:28]  ²⁸ tn The pronoun “us” here is exclusive – it refers to just the Philistine contingent (the following “you” refers to Isaac).

[26:28]  ²⁹ tn The translation assumes that the cohortative expresses their request. Another option is to understand the cohortative as indicating resolve: “We want to make.’”

[30:30]  ²⁸ tn Or “for.”

[30:30]  ²⁹ tn Heb “before me.”

[30:30]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and it has broken out with respect to abundance.”

[30:30]  ³¹ tn Heb “at my foot.”

[30:30]  ³² tn Heb “How long [until] I do, also I, for my house?”

[31:5]  ³¹ tn Heb “I see the face of your father, that he is not toward me as formerly.”

[36:7]  ³⁴ tn Heb “land of their settlements.”

[41:54]  ³⁷ tn Heb “began to arrive.”

[41:56]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “over the entire land”; Heb “over all the face of the earth.” The disjunctive clause is circumstantial-temporal to the next clause.

[41:56]  ⁴¹ tc The MT reads “he opened all that was in [or “among”] them.” The translation follows the reading of the LXX and Syriac versions.