Genesis 9:21

9:21 When he drank some of the wine, he got drunk and uncovered himself ¹  inside his tent.

Genesis 1:6

1:6 God said, “Let there be an expanse ²  in the midst of the waters and let it separate water ³  from water.

Genesis 42:5

42:5 So Israel’s sons came to buy grain among the other travelers, ⁴  for the famine was severe in the land of Canaan.

Genesis 3:3

3:3 but concerning the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the orchard God said, ‘You must not eat from it, and you must not touch it, ⁵  or else you will die.’” ⁶ 

Genesis 3:8

The Judgment Oracles of God at the Fall

3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about ⁷  in the orchard at the breezy time ⁸  of the day, and they hid ⁹  from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard.

Genesis 15:10

15:10 So Abram ¹⁰  took all these for him and then cut them in two ¹¹  and placed each half opposite the other, ¹²  but he did not cut the birds in half.

Genesis 18:24

18:24 What if there are fifty godly people in the city? Will you really wipe it out and not spare ¹³  the place for the sake of the fifty godly people who are in it?

Genesis 18:26

18:26 So the Lord replied, “If I find in the city of Sodom fifty godly people, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

Genesis 23:10

23:10 (Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth.) Ephron the Hethite ¹⁴  replied to Abraham in the hearing ¹⁵  of the sons of Heth – before all who entered the gate ¹⁶  of his city –

Genesis 37:7

37:7 There we were, ¹⁷  binding sheaves of grain in the middle of the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose up and stood upright and your sheaves surrounded my sheaf and bowed down ¹⁸  to it!”

Genesis 2:9

2:9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, ¹⁹  every tree that was pleasing to look at ²⁰  and good for food. (Now ²¹  the tree of life ²²  and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ²³  were in the middle of the orchard.)

Genesis 40:20

40:20 On the third day it was Pharaoh’s birthday, so he gave a feast for all his servants. He “lifted up” ²⁴  the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker in the midst of his servants.

[9:21]  ¹ tn The Hebrew verb גָּלָה (galah) in the Hitpael verbal stem (וַיִּתְגַּל, vayyitggal) means “to uncover oneself” or “to be uncovered.” Noah became overheated because of the wine and uncovered himself in the tent.

[1:6]  ² tn The Hebrew word refers to an expanse of air pressure between the surface of the sea and the clouds, separating water below from water above. In v. 8 it is called “sky.”

[1:6]  ³ tn Heb “the waters from the waters.”

[42:5]  ³ tn Heb “in the midst of the coming ones.”

[3:3]  ⁴ sn And you must not touch it. The woman adds to God’s prohibition, making it say more than God expressed. G. von Rad observes that it is as though she wanted to set a law for herself by means of this exaggeration (Genesis [OTL], 86).

[3:3]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew construction is פֶּן (pen) with the imperfect tense, which conveys a negative purpose: “lest you die” = “in order that you not die.” By stating the warning in this way, the woman omits the emphatic infinitive used by God (“you shall surely die,” see 2:17).

[3:8]  ⁵ tn The Hitpael participle of הָלָךְ (halakh, “to walk, to go”) here has an iterative sense, “moving” or “going about.” While a translation of “walking about” is possible, it assumes a theophany, the presence of the Lord God in a human form. This is more than the text asserts.

[3:8]  ⁶ tn The expression is traditionally rendered “cool of the day,” because the Hebrew word רוּחַ (ruakh) can mean “wind.” U. Cassuto (Genesis: From Adam to Noah, 152-54) concludes after lengthy discussion that the expression refers to afternoon when it became hot and the sun was beginning to decline. J. J. Niehaus (God at Sinai [SOTBT], 155-57) offers a different interpretation of the phrase, relating יוֹם (yom, usually understood as “day”) to an Akkadian cognate umu (“storm”) and translates the phrase “in the wind of the storm.” If Niehaus is correct, then God is not pictured as taking an afternoon stroll through the orchard, but as coming in a powerful windstorm to confront the man and woman with their rebellion. In this case קוֹל יְהוָה (qol yÿhvah, “sound of the Lord”) may refer to God’s thunderous roar, which typically accompanies his appearance in the storm to do battle or render judgment (e.g., see Ps 29).

[3:8]  ⁷ tn The verb used here is the Hitpael, giving the reflexive idea (“they hid themselves”). In v. 10, when Adam answers the Lord, the Niphal form is used with the same sense: “I hid.”

[15:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “in the middle.”

[15:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “to meet its neighbor.”

[18:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “lift up,” perhaps in the sense of “bear with” (cf. NRSV “forgive”).

[23:10]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps “Hittite,” but see the note on the name “Heth” in v. 3.

[23:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “ears.” By metonymy the “ears” stand for the presence or proximity (i.e., within earshot) of the persons named.

[23:10]  ¹⁰ sn On the expression all who entered the gate see E. A. Speiser, “‘Coming’ and ‘Going’ at the City Gate,” BASOR 144 (1956): 20-23; and G. Evans, “‘Coming’ and ‘Going’ at the City Gate: A Discussion of Professor Speiser’s Paper,” BASOR 150 (1958): 28-33.

[37:7]  ⁹ tn All three clauses in this dream report begin with וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, “and look”), which lends vividness to the report. This is represented in the translation by the expression “there we were.”

[37:7]  ¹⁰ tn The verb means “to bow down to the ground.” It is used to describe worship and obeisance to masters.

[2:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “ground,” referring to the fertile soil.

[2:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “desirable of sight [or “appearance”].” The phrase describes the kinds of trees that are visually pleasing and yield fruit that is desirable to the appetite.

[2:9]  ¹² tn The verse ends with a disjunctive clause providing a parenthetical bit of information about the existence of two special trees in the garden.

[2:9]  ¹³ tn In light of Gen 3:22, the construction “tree of life” should be interpreted to mean a tree that produces life-giving fruit (objective genitive) rather than a living tree (attributive genitive). See E. O. James, The Tree of Life (SHR); and R. Marcus, “The Tree of Life in Proverbs,” JBL 62 (1943): 117-20.

[2:9]  ¹⁴ tn The expression “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” must be interpreted to mean that the tree would produce fruit which, when eaten, gives special knowledge of “good and evil.” Scholars debate what this phrase means here. For a survey of opinions, see G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:62-64. One view is that “good” refers to that which enhances, promotes, and produces life, while “evil” refers to anything that hinders, interrupts or destroys life. So eating from this tree would change human nature – people would be able to alter life for better (in their thinking) or for worse. See D. J. A. Clines, “The Tree of Knowledge and the Law of Yahweh,” VT 24 (1974): 8-14; and I. Engnell, “‘Knowledge’ and ‘Life’ in the Creation Story,” Wisdom in Israel and in the Ancient Near East [VTSup], 103-19. Another view understands the “knowledge of good and evil” as the capacity to discern between moral good and evil. The following context suggests the tree’s fruit gives one wisdom (see the phrase “capable of making one wise” in 3:6, as well as the note there on the word “wise”), which certainly includes the capacity to discern between good and evil. Such wisdom is characteristic of divine beings, as the serpent’s promise implies (3:5) and as 3:22 makes clear. (Note, however, that this capacity does not include the ability to do what is right.) God prohibits man from eating of the tree. The prohibition becomes a test to see if man will be satisfied with his role and place, or if he will try to ascend to the divine level. There will be a time for man to possess moral discernment/wisdom, as God reveals and imparts it to him, but it is not something to be grasped at in an effort to become “a god.” In fact, the command to be obedient was the first lesson in moral discernment/wisdom. God was essentially saying: “Here is lesson one – respect my authority and commands. Disobey me and you will die.” When man disobeys, he decides he does not want to acquire moral wisdom God’s way, but instead tries to rise immediately to the divine level. Once man has acquired such divine wisdom by eating the tree’s fruit (3:22), he must be banned from the garden so that he will not be able to achieve his goal of being godlike and thus live forever, a divine characteristic (3:24). Ironically, man now has the capacity to discern good from evil (3:22), but he is morally corrupted and rebellious and will not consistently choose what is right.

[40:20]  ¹¹ tn The translation puts the verb in quotation marks because it is used rhetorically here and has a double meaning. With respect to the cup bearer it means “reinstate” (see v. 13), but with respect to the baker it means “decapitate” (see v. 19).