Genesis 6:21

6:21 And you must take ¹  for yourself every kind of food ²  that is eaten, ³  and gather it together. ⁴  It will be food for you and for them.

Genesis 12:1

The Obedience of Abram

12:1 Now the Lord said ⁵  to Abram, ⁶ 

“Go out ⁷  from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household

to the land that I will show you. ⁸ 

Genesis 19:12

19:12 Then the two visitors ⁹  said to Lot, “Who else do you have here? ¹⁰  Do you have ¹¹  any sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or other relatives in the city? ¹²  Get them out of this ¹³  place

Genesis 27:29

27:29 May peoples serve you

and nations bow down to you.

You will be ¹⁴  lord ¹⁵  over your brothers,

and the sons of your mother will bow down to you. ¹⁶ 

May those who curse you be cursed,

and those who bless you be blessed.”

Genesis 28:2

28:2 Leave immediately ¹⁷  for Paddan Aram! Go to the house of Bethuel, your mother’s father, and find yourself a wife there, among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother.

Genesis 28:4

28:4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham ¹⁸  so that you may possess the land ¹⁹  God gave to Abraham, the land where you have been living as a temporary resident.” ²⁰ 

[6:21]  ¹ tn The verb is a direct imperative: “And you, take for yourself.” The form stresses the immediate nature of the instruction; the pronoun underscores the directness.

[6:21]  ² tn Heb “from all food,” meaning “some of every kind of food.”

[6:21]  ³ tn Or “will be eaten.”

[6:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “and gather it to you.”

[12:1]  ⁵ sn The Lord called Abram while he was in Ur (see Gen 15:7; Acts 7:2); but the sequence here makes it look like it was after the family left to migrate to Canaan (11:31-32). Genesis records the call of Abram at this place in the narrative because it is the formal beginning of the account of Abram. The record of Terah was brought to its end before this beginning.

[12:1]  ⁶ tn The call of Abram begins with an imperative לֶךְ־לְךָ (lekh-lÿkha, “go out”) followed by three cohortatives (v. 2a) indicating purpose or consequence (“that I may” or “then I will”). If Abram leaves, then God will do these three things. The second imperative (v. 2b, literally “and be a blessing”) is subordinated to the preceding cohortatives and indicates God’s ultimate purpose in calling and blessing Abram. On the syntactical structure of vv. 1-2 see R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 37. For a similar sequence of volitive forms see Gen 45:18.

[12:1]  ⁷ tn The initial command is the direct imperative (לֶךְ, lekh) from the verb הָלַךְ (halakh). It is followed by the lamed preposition with a pronominal suffix (לְךָ, lÿkha) emphasizing the subject of the imperative: “you leave.”

[12:1]  ⁸ sn To the land that I will show you. The call of Abram illustrates the leading of the Lord. The command is to leave. The Lord’s word is very specific about what Abram is to leave (the three prepositional phrases narrow to his father’s household), but is not specific at all about where he is to go. God required faith, a point that Heb 11:8 notes.

[19:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “the men,” referring to the angels inside Lot’s house. The word “visitors” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[19:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Yet who [is there] to you here?”

[19:12]  ¹¹ tn The words “Do you have” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[19:12]  ¹² tn Heb “a son-in-law and your sons and your daughters and anyone who (is) to you in the city.”

[19:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “the place.” The Hebrew article serves here as a demonstrative.

[27:29]  ¹³ tn Heb “and be.” The verb is an imperative, which is used rhetorically in this oracle of blessing. It is an invitation to exercise authority his brothers and indicates that he is granted such authority by the patriarch of the family. Furthermore, the blessing enables the recipient to accomplish this.

[27:29]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew word is גְבִיר (gevir, “lord, mighty one”). The one being blessed will be stronger and therefore more powerful than his brother. See Gen 25:23. The feminine form of this rare noun means “mistress” or “queen-mother.”

[27:29]  ¹⁵ tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (which is either an imperfect or a jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.

[28:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Arise! Go!” The first of the two imperatives is adverbial and stresses the immediacy of the departure.

[28:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “and may he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you.” The name “Abraham” is an objective genitive here; this refers to the blessing that God gave to Abraham.

[28:4]  ²² tn The words “the land” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[28:4]  ²³ tn Heb “the land of your sojournings,” that is, the land where Jacob had been living as a resident alien, as his future descendants would after him.