Genesis 49:21

49:21 Naphtali is a free running doe, ¹ 

he speaks delightful words. ² 

Genesis 44:7

44:7 They answered him, “Why does my lord say such things? ³  Far be it from your servants to do such a thing! ⁴ 

Genesis 39:8

39:8 But he refused, saying ⁵  to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not give any thought ⁶  to his household with me here, ⁷  and everything that he owns he has put into my care. ⁸ 

Genesis 24:39

24:39 But I said to my master, ‘What if the woman does not want to go ⁹  with me?’ ¹⁰ 

Genesis 44:23

44:23 But you said to your servants, ‘If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not see my face again.’

Genesis 31:5

31:5 There he said to them, “I can tell that your father’s attitude toward me has changed, ¹¹  but the God of my father has been with me.

Genesis 31:15

31:15 Hasn’t he treated us like foreigners? He not only sold us, but completely wasted ¹²  the money paid for us! ¹³ 

Genesis 12:3

12:3 I will bless those who bless you, ¹⁴ 

but the one who treats you lightly ¹⁵  I must curse,

and all the families of the earth will bless one another ¹⁶  by your name.”

Genesis 17:14

17:14 Any uncircumcised male ¹⁷  who has not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin will be cut off ¹⁸  from his people – he has failed to carry out my requirement.” ¹⁹ 

Genesis 44:5

44:5 Doesn’t my master drink from this cup ²⁰  and use it for divination? ²¹  You have done wrong!’” ²² 

Genesis 45:3

45:3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” His brothers could not answer him because they were dumbfounded before him.

Genesis 46:26

46:26 All the direct descendants of Jacob who went to Egypt with him were sixty-six in number. (This number does not include the wives of Jacob’s sons.) ²³ 

Genesis 49:24

49:24 But his bow will remain steady,

and his hands ²⁴  will be skillful;

because of the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,

because of ²⁵  the Shepherd, the Rock ²⁶  of Israel,

Genesis 4:15

4:15 But the Lord said to him, “All right then, ²⁷  if anyone kills Cain, Cain will be avenged seven times as much.” ²⁸  Then the Lord put a special mark ²⁹  on Cain so that no one who found him would strike him down. ³⁰ 

Genesis 31:12

31:12 Then he said, ‘Observe ³¹  that all the male goats mating with ³²  the flock are streaked, speckled, or spotted, for I have observed all that Laban has done to you.

Genesis 40:8

40:8 They told him, “We both had dreams, ³³  but there is no one to interpret them.” Joseph responded, “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Tell them ³⁴  to me.”

[49:21]  ¹ tn Heb “a doe set free.”

[49:21]  ² tn Heb “the one who gives words of beauty.” The deer imagery probably does not continue into this line; Naphtali is the likely antecedent of the substantival participle, which is masculine, not feminine, in form. If the animal imagery is retained from the preceding line, the image of a talking deer is preposterous. For this reason some read the second line “the one who bears beautiful fawns,” interpreting אִמְרֵי (’imre) as a reference to young animals, not words (see HALOT 67 s.v. *אִמֵּר).

[44:7]  ³ tn Heb “Why does my lord speak according to these words?”

[44:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “according to this thing.”

[39:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he said.”

[39:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “know.”

[39:8]  ⁷ tn The word “here” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[39:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “hand.” This is a metonymy for being under the control or care of Joseph.

[24:39]  ⁷ tn The imperfect is used here in a modal sense to indicate desire.

[24:39]  ⁸ tn Heb “after me.”

[31:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “I see the face of your father, that he is not toward me as formerly.”

[31:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he devoured, even devouring.” The infinitive absolute (following the finite verb here) is used for emphasis.

[31:15]  ¹² tn Heb “our money.” The word “money” is used figuratively here; it means the price paid for Leah and Rachel. A literal translation (“our money”) makes it sound as if Laban wasted money that belonged to Rachel and Leah, rather than the money paid for them.

[12:3]  ¹³ tn The Piel cohortative has as its object a Piel participle, masculine plural. Since the Lord binds himself to Abram by covenant, those who enrich Abram in any way share in the blessings.

[12:3]  ¹⁴ tn In this part of God’s statement there are two significant changes that often go unnoticed. First, the parallel and contrasting participle מְקַלֶּלְךָ (mÿqallelkha) is now singular and not plural. All the versions and a few Masoretic mss read the plural. But if it had been plural, there would be no reason to change it to the singular and alter the parallelism. On the other hand, if it was indeed singular, it is easy to see why the versions would change it to match the first participle. The MT preserves the original reading: “the one who treats you lightly.” The point would be a contrast with the lavish way that God desires to bless many. The second change is in the vocabulary. The English usually says, “I will curse those who curse you.” But there are two different words for curse here. The first is קָלַל (qalal), which means “to be light” in the Qal, and in the Piel “to treat lightly, to treat with contempt, to curse.” The second verb is אָרַר (’arar), which means “to banish, to remove from the blessing.” The point is simple: Whoever treats Abram and the covenant with contempt as worthless God will banish from the blessing. It is important also to note that the verb is not a cohortative, but a simple imperfect. Since God is binding himself to Abram, this would then be an obligatory imperfect: “but the one who treats you with contempt I must curse.”

[12:3]  ¹⁵ tn Theoretically the Niphal can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of “bless” is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Abram were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in later formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation “will bless [i.e., “pronounce blessings on”] themselves [or “one another”].” The Hitpael of “bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 12:2 predicts that Abram will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.

[17:14]  ¹⁵ tn The disjunctive clause calls attention to the “uncircumcised male” and what will happen to him.

[17:14]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “that person will be cut off.” The words “that person” have not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[17:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he has broken my covenant.” The noun בְּרִית (bÿrit) here refers to the obligation required by God in conjunction with the covenantal agreement. For the range of meaning of the term, see the note on the word “requirement” in v. 9.

[44:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Is this not what my master drinks from.” The word “cup” is not in the Hebrew text, but is obviously the referent of “this,” and so has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[44:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and he, divining, divines with it.” The infinitive absolute is emphatic, stressing the importance of the cup to Joseph.

[44:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “you have caused to be evil what you have done.”

[46:26]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “All the people who went with Jacob to Egypt, the ones who came out of his body, apart from the wives of the sons of Jacob, all the people were sixty-six.”

[49:24]  ²¹ tn Heb “the arms of his hands.”

[49:24]  ²² tn Heb “from there,” but the phrase should be revocalized and read “from [i.e., because of] the name of.”

[49:24]  ²³ tn Or “Stone.”

[4:15]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ sn God becomes Cain’s protector. Here is common grace – Cain and his community will live on under God’s care, but without salvation.

[31:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “lift up (now) your eyes and see.”

[31:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “going up on,” that is, mounting for intercourse.

[40:8]  ²⁷ tn Heb “a dream we dreamed.”

[40:8]  ²⁸ tn The word “them” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.