Genesis 9:23

9:23 Shem and Japheth took the garment ¹  and placed it on their shoulders. Then they walked in backwards and covered up their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned ²  the other way so they did not see their father’s nakedness.

Genesis 11:9

11:9 That is why its name was called ³  Babel ⁴  – because there the Lord confused the language of the entire world, and from there the Lord scattered them across the face of the entire earth.

Genesis 11:29

11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, ⁵  and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; ⁶  she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.

Genesis 11:31

11:31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and with them he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there.

Genesis 12:8

12:8 Then he moved from there to the hill country east of Bethel ⁷  and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord. ⁸ 

Genesis 13:14

13:14 After Lot had departed, the Lord said to Abram, ⁹  “Look ¹⁰  from the place where you stand to the north, south, east, and west.

Genesis 21:17

21:17 But God heard the boy’s voice. ¹¹  The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, ¹²  Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard ¹³  the boy’s voice right where he is crying.

Genesis 22:2

22:2 God ¹⁴  said, “Take your son – your only son, whom you love, Isaac ¹⁵  – and go to the land of Moriah! ¹⁶  Offer him up there as a burnt offering ¹⁷  on one of the mountains which I will indicate to ¹⁸  you.”

Genesis 22:9

22:9 When they came to the place God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there ¹⁹  and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up ²⁰  his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

Genesis 26:8

26:8 After Isaac ²¹  had been there a long time, ²²  Abimelech king of the Philistines happened to look out a window and observed ²³  Isaac caressing ²⁴  his wife Rebekah.

Genesis 29:2

29:2 He saw ²⁵  in the field a well with ²⁶  three flocks of sheep lying beside it, because the flocks were watered from that well. Now ²⁷  a large stone covered the mouth of the well.

Genesis 39:22

39:22 The warden put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care. He was in charge of whatever they were doing. ²⁸ 

Genesis 41:45

41:45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. ²⁹  He also gave him Asenath ³⁰  daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, ³¹  to be his wife. So Joseph took charge of ³²  all the land of Egypt.

Genesis 48:7

48:7 But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died – to my sorrow ³³  – in the land of Canaan. It happened along the way, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there on the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem). ³⁴ 

[9:23]  ¹ tn The word translated “garment” has the Hebrew definite article on it. The article may simply indicate that the garment is definite and vivid in the mind of the narrator, but it could refer instead to Noah’s garment. Did Ham bring it out when he told his brothers?

[9:23]  ² tn Heb “their faces [were turned] back.”

[11:9]  ³ tn The verb has no expressed subject and so can be rendered as a passive in the translation.

[11:9]  ⁴ sn Babel. Here is the climax of the account, a parody on the pride of Babylon. In the Babylonian literature the name bab-ili meant “the gate of God,” but in Hebrew it sounds like the word for “confusion,” and so retained that connotation. The name “Babel” (בָּבֶל, bavel) and the verb translated “confused” (בָּלַל, balal) form a paronomasia (sound play). For the many wordplays and other rhetorical devices in Genesis, see J. P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art in Genesis (SSN).

[11:29]  ⁵ sn The name Sarai (a variant spelling of “Sarah”) means “princess” (or “lady”). Sharratu was the name of the wife of the moon god Sin. The original name may reflect the culture out of which the patriarch was called, for the family did worship other gods in Mesopotamia.

[11:29]  ⁶ sn The name Milcah means “Queen.” But more to the point here is the fact that Malkatu was a title for Ishtar, the daughter of the moon god. If the women were named after such titles (and there is no evidence that this was the motivation for naming the girls “Princess” or “Queen”), that would not necessarily imply anything about the faith of the two women themselves.

[12:8]  ⁷ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[12:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “he called in the name of the Lord.” The expression refers to worshiping the Lord through prayer and sacrifice (see Gen 4:26; 13:4; 21:33; 26:25). See G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:116, 281.

[13:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the Lord said to Abram after Lot separated himself from with him.” The disjunctive clause at the beginning of the verse signals a new scene.

[13:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “lift up your eyes and see.”

[21:17]  ¹¹ sn God heard the boy’s voice. The text has not to this point indicated that Ishmael was crying out, either in pain or in prayer. But the text here makes it clear that God heard him. Ishmael is clearly central to the story. Both the mother and the Lord are focused on the child’s imminent death.

[21:17]  ¹² tn Heb “What to you?”

[21:17]  ¹³ sn Here the verb heard picks up the main motif of the name Ishmael (“God hears”), introduced back in chap. 16.

[22:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:2]  ¹⁴ sn Take your son…Isaac. The instructions are very clear, but the details are deliberate. With every additional description the commandment becomes more challenging.

[22:2]  ¹⁵ sn There has been much debate over the location of Moriah; 2 Chr 3:1 suggests it may be the site where the temple was later built in Jerusalem.

[22:2]  ¹⁶ sn A whole burnt offering signified the complete surrender of the worshiper and complete acceptance by God. The demand for a human sacrifice was certainly radical and may have seemed to Abraham out of character for God. Abraham would have to obey without fully understanding what God was about.

[22:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “which I will say to.”

[22:9]  ¹⁵ sn Abraham built an altar there. The theme of Abraham’s altar building culminates here. He has been a faithful worshiper. Will he continue to worship when called upon to make such a radical sacrifice?

[22:9]  ¹⁶ sn Then he tied up. This text has given rise to an important theme in Judaism known as the Aqedah, from the Hebrew word for “binding.” When sacrifices were made in the sanctuary, God remembered the binding of Isaac, for which a substitute was offered. See D. Polish, “The Binding of Isaac,” Jud 6 (1957): 17-21.

[26:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Isaac) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[26:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and it happened when the days were long to him there.”

[26:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “look, Isaac.” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”), the narrator invites the audience to view the scene through Abimelech’s eyes.

[26:8]  ²⁰ tn Or “fondling.”

[29:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and he saw, and look.” As in Gen 28:12-15, the narrator uses the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, “look”) here and in the next clause to draw the reader into the story.

[29:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and look, there.”

[29:2]  ²¹ tn The disjunctive clause (introduced by the noun with the prefixed conjunction) provides supplemental information that is important to the story.

[39:22]  ²¹ tn Heb “all which they were doing there, he was doing.” This probably means that Joseph was in charge of everything that went on in the prison.

[41:45]  ²³ sn The meaning of Joseph’s Egyptian name, Zaphenath-Paneah, is uncertain. Many recent commentators have followed the proposal of G. Steindorff that it means “the god has said, ‘he will live’” (“Der Name Josephs Saphenat-Pa‘neach,” ZÄS 31 [1889]: 41-42); others have suggested “the god speaks and lives” (see BDB 861 s.v. צָפְנָת פַּעְנֵחַ); “the man he knows” (J. Vergote, Joseph en Égypte, 145); or “Joseph [who is called] áIp-àankh” (K. A. Kitchen, NBD³ 1262).

[41:45]  ²⁴ sn The name Asenath may mean “she belongs to the goddess Neit” (see HALOT 74 s.v. אָֽסְנַת). A novel was written at the beginning of the first century entitled Joseph and Asenath, which included a legendary account of the conversion of Asenath to Joseph’s faith in Yahweh. However, all that can be determined from this chapter is that their children received Hebrew names. See also V. Aptowitzer, “Asenath, the Wife of Joseph – a Haggadic Literary-Historical Study,” HUCA 1 (1924): 239-306.

[41:45]  ²⁵ sn On (also in v. 50) is another name for the city of Heliopolis.

[41:45]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and he passed through.”

[48:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “upon me, against me,” which might mean something like “to my sorrow.”

[48:7]  ²⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.