Genesis 49:3

49:3 Reuben, you are my firstborn,

my might and the beginning of my strength,

outstanding in dignity, outstanding in power.

Genesis 31:29

31:29 I have ¹  the power to do you harm, but the God of your father told me last night, ‘Be careful ²  that you neither bless nor curse Jacob.’ ³ 

Genesis 26:16

26:16 Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave us and go elsewhere, ⁴  for you have become much more powerful ⁵  than we are.”

Genesis 31:6

31:6 You know that I’ve worked for your father as hard as I could, ⁶ 

Genesis 16:6

16:6 Abram said to Sarai, “Since your ⁷  servant is under your authority, ⁸  do to her whatever you think best.” ⁹  Then Sarai treated Hagar ¹⁰  harshly, ¹¹  so she ran away from Sarai. ¹² 

Genesis 18:18

18:18 After all, Abraham ¹³  will surely become ¹⁴  a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ¹⁵  using his name.

Genesis 41:16

41:16 Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “It is not within my power, ¹⁶  but God will speak concerning ¹⁷  the welfare of Pharaoh.” ¹⁸ 

Genesis 32:28

32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ¹⁹  “but Israel, ²⁰  because you have fought ²¹  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Genesis 6:11

6:11 The earth was ruined ²²  in the sight of ²³  God; the earth was filled with violence. ²⁴ 

Genesis 27:40

27:40 You will live by your sword

but you will serve your brother.

When you grow restless,

you will tear off his yoke

from your neck.” ²⁵ 

Genesis 44:15

44:15 Joseph said to them, “What did you think you were doing? ²⁶  Don’t you know that a man like me can find out things like this by divination?” ²⁷ 

Genesis 9:2

9:2 Every living creature of the earth and every bird of the sky will be terrified of you. ²⁸  Everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea are under your authority. ²⁹ 

Genesis 19:15

19:15 At dawn ³⁰  the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get going! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, ³¹  or else you will be destroyed when the city is judged!” ³² 

[31:29]  ¹ tn Heb “there is to my hand.”

[31:29]  ² tn Heb “watch yourself,” which is a warning to be on guard against doing something that is inappropriate.

[31:29]  ³ tn Heb “from speaking with Jacob from good to evil.” The precise meaning of the expression, which occurs only here and in v. 24, is uncertain. See the note on the same phrase in v. 24.

[26:16]  ¹ tn Heb “Go away from us.”

[26:16]  ² sn You have become much more powerful. This explanation for the expulsion of Isaac from Philistine territory foreshadows the words used later by the Egyptians to justify their oppression of Israel (see Exod 1:9).

[31:6]  ¹ tn Heb “with all my strength.”

[16:6]  ¹ tn The clause is introduced with the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh), introducing a foundational clause for the coming imperative: “since…do.”

[16:6]  ² tn Heb “in your hand.”

[16:6]  ³ tn Heb “what is good in your eyes.”

[16:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “her”; the referent (Hagar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[16:6]  ⁵ tn In the Piel stem the verb עָנָה (’anah) means “to afflict, to oppress, to treat harshly, to mistreat.”

[16:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “and she fled from her presence.” The referent of “her” (Sarai) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:18]  ¹ tn Heb “And Abraham.” The disjunctive clause is probably causal, giving a reason why God should not hide his intentions from Abraham. One could translate, “Should I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation?”

[18:18]  ² tn The infinitive absolute lends emphasis to the finite verb that follows.

[18:18]  ³ 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 upon”] 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 18:18 (like 12:2) predicts that Abraham 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.

[41:16]  ¹ tn Heb “not within me.”

[41:16]  ² tn Heb “God will answer.”

[41:16]  ³ tn The expression שְׁלוֹם פַּרְעֹה (shÿlom par’oh) is here rendered “the welfare of Pharaoh” because the dream will be about life in his land. Some interpret it to mean an answer of “peace” – one that will calm his heart, or give him the answer that he desires (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[32:28]  ¹ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:28]  ² sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the Lord was saying that Jacob would have victory and receive the promises because God would fight for him.

[32:28]  ³ sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).

[6:11]  ¹ tn Apart from Gen 6:11-12, the Niphal form of this verb occurs in Exod 8:20 HT (8:24 ET), where it describes the effect of the swarms of flies on the land of Egypt; Jer 13:7 and 18:4, where it is used of a “ruined” belt and “marred” clay pot, respectively; and Ezek 20:44, where it describes Judah’s morally “corrupt” actions. The sense “morally corrupt” fits well in Gen 6:11 because of the parallelism (note “the earth was filled with violence”). In this case “earth” would stand by metonymy for its sinful inhabitants. However, the translation “ruined” works just as well, if not better. In this case humankind’s sin is viewed has having an adverse effect upon the earth. Note that vv. 12b-13 make a distinction between the earth and the living creatures who live on it.

[6:11]  ² tn Heb “before.”

[6:11]  ³ tn The Hebrew word translated “violence” refers elsewhere to a broad range of crimes, including unjust treatment (Gen 16:5; Amos 3:10), injurious legal testimony (Deut 19:16), deadly assault (Gen 49:5), murder (Judg 9:24), and rape (Jer 13:22).

[27:40]  ¹ sn You will tear off his yoke from your neck. It may be that this prophetic blessing found its fulfillment when Jerusalem fell and Edom got its revenge. The oracle makes Edom subservient to Israel and suggests the Edomites would live away from the best land and be forced to sustain themselves by violent measures.

[44:15]  ¹ tn Heb “What is this deed you have done?” The demonstrative pronoun (“this”) adds emphasis to the question. A literal translation seems to contradict the following statement, in which Joseph affirms that he is able to divine such matters. Thus here the emotive force of the question has been reflected in the translation, “What did you think you were doing?”

[44:15]  ² tn Heb “[is] fully able to divine,” meaning that he can find things out by divination. The infinitive absolute appears before the finite verb for emphasis, stressing his ability to do this.

[9:2]  ¹ tn Heb “and fear of you and dread of you will be upon every living creature of the earth and upon every bird of the sky.” The suffixes on the nouns “fear” and “dread” are objective genitives. The animals will fear humans from this time forward.

[9:2]  ² tn Heb “into your hand are given.” The “hand” signifies power. To say the animals have been given into the hands of humans means humans have been given authority over them.

[19:15]  ¹ tn Heb “When dawn came up.”

[19:15]  ² tn Heb “who are found.” The wording might imply he had other daughters living in the city, but the text does not explicitly state this.

[19:15]  ³ tn Or “with the iniquity [i.e., punishment] of the city” (cf. NASB, NRSV).