Genesis 8:8

8:8 Then Noah ¹  sent out a dove ²  to see if the waters had receded ³  from the surface of the ground.

Genesis 12:3

12:3 I will bless those who bless you, ⁴ 

but the one who treats you lightly ⁵  I must curse,

and all the families of the earth will bless one another ⁶  by your name.”

Genesis 16:4

16:4 He had sexual relations with ⁷  Hagar, and she became pregnant. ⁸  Once Hagar realized she was pregnant, she despised Sarai. ⁹ 

Genesis 8:11

8:11 When ¹⁰  the dove returned to him in the evening, there was ¹¹  a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak! Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

Genesis 16:5

16:5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You have brought this wrong on me! ¹²  I allowed my servant to have sexual relations with you, ¹³  but when she realized ¹⁴  that she was pregnant, she despised me. ¹⁵  May the Lord judge between you and me!” ¹⁶ 

Genesis 8:21

8:21 And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma ¹⁷  and said ¹⁸  to himself, ¹⁹  “I will never again curse ²⁰  the ground because of humankind, even though ²¹  the inclination of their minds ²²  is evil from childhood on. ²³  I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.

[8:8]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Noah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:8]  ² tn The Hebrew text adds “from him.” This has not been translated for stylistic reasons, because it is redundant in English.

[8:8]  ³ tn The Hebrew verb קָלָל (qalal) normally means “to be light, to be slight”; it refers here to the waters receding.

[12:3]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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.

[16:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “entered to.” See the note on the same expression in v. 2.

[16:4]  ⁸ tn Or “she conceived” (also in v. 5)

[16:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “and she saw that she was pregnant and her mistress was despised in her eyes.” The Hebrew verb קָלַל (qalal) means “to despise, to treat lightly, to treat with contempt.” In Hagar’s opinion Sarai had been demoted.

[8:11]  ¹⁰ tn The clause introduced by vav (ו) consecutive is translated as a temporal clause subordinated to the following clause.

[8:11]  ¹¹ tn The deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to the olive leaf. It invites readers to enter into the story, as it were, and look at the olive leaf with their own eyes.

[16:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “my wrong is because of you.”

[16:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I placed my female servant in your bosom.”

[16:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “saw.”

[16:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I was despised in her eyes.” The passive verb has been translated as active for stylistic reasons. Sarai was made to feel supplanted and worthless by Hagar the servant girl.

[16:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “me and you.”

[8:21]  ¹⁶ tn The Lord “smelled” (וַיָּרַח, vayyarakh) a “soothing smell” (רֵיחַ הַנִּיהֹחַ, reakh hannihoakh). The object forms a cognate accusative with the verb. The language is anthropomorphic. The offering had a sweet aroma that pleased or soothed. The expression in Lev 1 signifies that God accepts the offering with pleasure, and in accepting the offering he accepts the worshiper.

[8:21]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and the Lord said.”

[8:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in his heart.”

[8:21]  ¹⁹ tn Here the Hebrew word translated “curse” is קָלָל (qalal), used in the Piel verbal stem.

[8:21]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) can be used in a concessive sense (see BDB 473 s.v. כִּי), which makes good sense in this context. Its normal causal sense (“for”) does not fit the context here very well.

[8:21]  ²¹ tn Heb “the inclination of the heart of humankind.”

[8:21]  ²² tn Heb “from his youth.”