Genesis 41:57

41:57 People from every country ¹  came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain because the famine was severe throughout the earth.

Genesis 11:1

The Dispersion of the Nations at Babel

11:1 The whole earth ²  had a common language and a common vocabulary. ³ 

Genesis 6:12

6:12 God saw the earth, and indeed ⁴  it was ruined, ⁵  for all living creatures ⁶  on the earth were sinful. ⁷ 

Genesis 19:31

19:31 Later the older daughter said ⁸  to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man anywhere nearby ⁹  to have sexual relations with us, ¹⁰  according to the way of all the world.

Genesis 11:9

11:9 That is why its name was called ¹¹  Babel ¹²  – because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.

Genesis 10:25

10:25 Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg because in his days the earth was divided, ¹³  and his brother’s name was Joktan.

Genesis 15:2

15:2 But Abram said, “O sovereign Lord, ¹⁴  what will you give me since ¹⁵  I continue to be ¹⁶  childless, and my heir ¹⁷  is ¹⁸  Eliezer of Damascus?” ¹⁹ 

Genesis 26:10

26:10 Then Abimelech exclaimed, “What in the world have you done to us? ²⁰  One of the men ²¹  might easily have had sexual relations with ²²  your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!”

Genesis 27:20

27:20 But Isaac asked his son, “How in the world ²³  did you find it so quickly, ²⁴  my son?” “Because the Lord your God brought it to me,” ²⁵  he replied. ²⁶ 

Genesis 11:4

11:4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens ²⁷  so that ²⁸  we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise ²⁹  we will be scattered ³⁰  across the face of the entire earth.”

Genesis 29:25

29:25 In the morning Jacob discovered it was Leah! ³¹  So Jacob ³²  said to Laban, “What in the world have you done to me! ³³  Didn’t I work for you in exchange for Rachel? Why have you tricked ³⁴  me?”

Genesis 39:6

39:6 So Potiphar ³⁵  left ³⁶  everything he had in Joseph’s care; ³⁷  he gave no thought ³⁸  to anything except the food he ate. ³⁹ 

Now Joseph was well built and good-looking. ⁴⁰ 

Genesis 42:28

42:28 He said to his brothers, “My money was returned! Here it is in my sack!” They were dismayed; ⁴¹  they turned trembling one to another ⁴²  and said, “What in the world has God done to us?” ⁴³ 

[41:57]  ¹ tn Heb “all the earth,” which refers here (by metonymy) to the people of the earth. Note that the following verb is plural in form, indicating that the inhabitants of the earth are in view.

[11:1]  ² sn The whole earth. Here “earth” is a metonymy of subject, referring to the people who lived in the earth. Genesis 11 begins with everyone speaking a common language, but chap. 10 has the nations arranged by languages. It is part of the narrative art of Genesis to give the explanation of the event after the narration of the event. On this passage see A. P. Ross, “The Dispersion of the Nations in Genesis 11:1-9,” BSac 138 (1981): 119-38.

[11:1]  ³ tn Heb “one lip and one [set of] words.” The term “lip” is a metonymy of cause, putting the instrument for the intended effect. They had one language. The term “words” refers to the content of their speech. They had the same vocabulary.

[6:12]  ³ tn Or “God saw how corrupt the earth was.”

[6:12]  ⁴ tn The repetition in the text (see v. 11) emphasizes the point.

[6:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “flesh.” Since moral corruption is in view here, most modern western interpreters understand the referent to be humankind. However, the phrase “all flesh” is used consistently of humankind and the animals in Gen 6-9 (6:17, 19; 7:15-16, 21; 8:17; 9:11, 15-17), suggesting that the author intends to picture all living creatures, humankind and animals, as guilty of moral failure. This would explain why the animals, not just humankind, are victims of the ensuing divine judgment. The OT sometimes views animals as morally culpable (Gen 9:5; Exod 21:28-29; Jonah 3:7-8). The OT also teaches that a person’s sin can contaminate others (people and animals) in the sinful person’s sphere (see the story of Achan, especially Josh 7:10). So the animals could be viewed here as morally contaminated because of their association with sinful humankind.

[6:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “had corrupted its way.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix on “way” refers to the collective “all flesh.” The construction “corrupt one’s way” occurs only here (though Ezek 16:47 uses the Hiphil in an intransitive sense with the preposition בְּ [bet, “in”] followed by “ways”). The Hiphil of שָׁחָת (shakhat) means “to ruin, to destroy, to corrupt,” often as here in a moral/ethical sense. The Hebrew term דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, “way”) here refers to behavior or moral character, a sense that it frequently carries (see BDB 203 s.v. דֶּרֶךְ 6.a).

[19:31]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the firstborn said.”

[19:31]  ⁵ tn Or perhaps “on earth,” in which case the statement would be hyperbolic; presumably there had been some men living in the town of Zoar to which Lot and his daughters had initially fled.

[19:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “to enter upon us.” This is a euphemism for sexual relations.

[11:9]  ⁵ tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.

[11:9]  ⁶ sn Babel. Here is the climax of the account, a parody on the pride of Babylon. In the Babylonian literature the name bab-ili meant “the gate of God,” but in Hebrew it sounds like the word for “confusion,” and so retained that connotation. The name “Babel” (בָּבֶל, bavel) and the verb translated “confused” (בָּלַל, balal) form a paronomasia (sound play). For the many wordplays and other rhetorical devices in Genesis, see J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis (SSN).

[10:25]  ⁶ tn The expression “the earth was divided” may refer to dividing the land with canals, but more likely it anticipates the division of languages at Babel (Gen 11). The verb פָּלָג (palag, “separate, divide”) is used in Ps 55:9 for a division of languages.

[15:2]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text has אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה (’adonay yehvih, “Master, Lord”). Since the tetragrammaton (YHWH) usually is pointed with the vowels for the Hebrew word אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “master”) to avoid pronouncing the divine name, that would lead in this place to a repetition of אֲדֹנָי. So the tetragrammaton is here pointed with the vowels for the word אֱלֹהִים (’elohim, “God”) instead. That would produce the reading of the Hebrew as “Master, God” in the Jewish textual tradition. But the presence of “Master” before the holy name is rather compelling evidence that the original would have been “Master, Lord,” which is rendered here “sovereign Lord.”

[15:2]  ⁸ tn The vav (ו) disjunctive at the beginning of the clause is circumstantial, expressing the cause or reason.

[15:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “I am going.”

[15:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the son of the acquisition of my house.”

[15:2]  ¹¹ tn The pronoun is anaphoric here, equivalent to the verb “to be” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 23, §115).

[15:2]  ¹² sn The sentence in the Hebrew text employs a very effective wordplay on the name Damascus: “The son of the acquisition (בֶּן־מֶשֶׁק, ben-mesheq) of my house is Eliezer of Damascus (דַּמֶּשֶׁק, dammesheq).” The words are not the same; they have different sibilants. But the sound play gives the impression that “in the nomen is the omen.” Eliezer the Damascene will be Abram’s heir if Abram dies childless because “Damascus” seems to mean that. See M. F. Unger, “Some Comments on the Text of Genesis 15:2-3,” JBL 72 (1953): 49-50; H. L. Ginsberg, “Abram’s ‘Damascene’ Steward,” BASOR 200 (1970): 31-32.

[26:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “What is this you have done to us?” The Hebrew demonstrative pronoun “this” adds emphasis: “What in the world have you done to us?” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).

[26:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “people.”

[26:10]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew verb means “to lie down.” Here the expression “lie with” or “sleep with” is euphemistic for “have sexual relations with.”

[27:20]  ⁹ tn Heb “What is this?” The enclitic pronoun “this” adds emphasis to the question, which is comparable to the English rhetorical question, “How in the world?”

[27:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you hastened to find.” In translation the infinitive becomes the main verb and the first verb becomes adverbial.

[27:20]  ¹¹ tn Heb “caused to meet before me.”

[27:20]  ¹² tn Heb “and he said, ‘Because the Lord your God….’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[11:4]  ¹⁰ tn A translation of “heavens” for שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) fits this context because the Babylonian ziggurats had temples at the top, suggesting they reached to the heavens, the dwelling place of the gods.

[11:4]  ¹¹ tn The form וְנַעֲשֶׂה (vÿna’aseh, from the verb עשׂה, “do, make”) could be either the imperfect or the cohortative with a vav (ו) conjunction (“and let us make…”). Coming after the previous cohortative, this form expresses purpose.

[11:4]  ¹² tn The Hebrew particle פֶּן (pen) expresses a negative purpose; it means “that we be not scattered.”

[11:4]  ¹³ sn The Hebrew verb פָּוָץ (pavats, translated “scatter”) is a key term in this passage. The focal point of the account is the dispersion (“scattering”) of the nations rather than the Tower of Babel. But the passage also forms a polemic against Babylon, the pride of the east and a cosmopolitan center with a huge ziggurat. To the Hebrews it was a monument to the judgment of God on pride.

[29:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and it happened in the morning that look, it was Leah.” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator invites the reader to view the scene through Jacob’s eyes.

[29:25]  ¹² tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[29:25]  ¹³ tn Heb What is this you have done to me?” The use of the pronoun “this” is enclitic, adding emphasis to the question: “What in the world have you done to me?”

[29:25]  ¹⁴ sn The Hebrew verb translated tricked here (רָמָה, ramah) is cognate to the noun used in Gen 27:35 to describe Jacob’s deception of Esau. Jacob is discovering that what goes around, comes around. See J. A. Diamond, “The Deception of Jacob: A New Perspective on an Ancient Solution to the Problem,” VT 34 (1984): 211-13.

[39:6]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Potiphar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[39:6]  ¹³ sn The Hebrew verb translated left indicates he relinquished the care of it to Joseph. This is stronger than what was said earlier. Apparently Potiphar had come to trust Joseph so much that he knew it was in better care with Joseph than with anyone else.

[39:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “hand.” This is a metonymy for being under the control or care of Joseph.

[39:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “did not know.”

[39:6]  ¹⁶ sn The expression except the food he ate probably refers to Potiphar’s private affairs and should not be limited literally to what he ate.

[39:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “handsome of form and handsome of appearance.” The same Hebrew expressions were used in Gen 29:17 for Rachel.

[42:28]  ¹³ tn Heb “and their heart went out.” Since this expression is used only here, the exact meaning is unclear. The following statement suggests that it may refer to a sudden loss of emotional strength, so “They were dismayed” adequately conveys the meaning (cf. NRSV); NIV has “Their hearts sank.”

[42:28]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and they trembled, a man to his neighbor.”

[42:28]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “What is this God has done to us?” The demonstrative pronoun (“this”) adds emphasis to the question.