But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? Genesis 50:19 NASB In God’s place – Genesis is a book of emotional distance. It begins with expulsion, continues through isolation (Noah), betrayal (Sarah), discrimination (Esau and Jacob) and ends with alienation (Joseph). Through all of these lives, God seeks…
Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. Genesis 48:10 NASB Dim– Ah, do you remember the first part of this story? Perhaps I can refresh your thinking. “When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see,” (Genesis 27:1 ESV). As always, Hebrew connects one…
Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. Genesis 32:24 NASB Left alone – I just can’t get past Jacob. Maybe it’s because years ago when the financial collapse happened that started this written journey of recovery, I was tempted to think I was kind of like Job. You know, innocent. Not deserving the…
Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” Genesis 32:26a NASB Dawn– There are a lot of strange verses in the story of Jacob’s encounter with the “man” at the brook Jabbok. If you’ve read Crossing,[1]then you know just how odd the story really is. Recently I read a comment by Michael Wyschogrod that provides…
Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” Genesis 17:17 NASB Laughed– Yesterday we looked at this verse in comparison with Genesis 18:12. We noticed that God does not correct…
If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him sons, if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, then it shall be in the day he wills what he has to his sons, he cannot make the son of the loved the firstborn before the son of…
He came to [b]a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place. Genesis 28:11 NASB A certain place– Do you read the footnotes? Or do you think, “Well, those are just references or…
Behold, I am with you Genesis 28:15a NASB I – hinneh ʾānōkî (“Behold, I”) says YHVH to Jacob in the famous dream of Genesis 28. Here the text uses ʾānōkî rather than the shorter form, ʾānî. But since ʾānōkî and ʾānî are both translated “I,” we would have a hard time distinguishing the two. Sometimes they are used interchangeably. But sometimes they…
Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons; Genesis 44:27 NASB My wife– Sometimes we just read over critical details in the text because we know the stories so well. As a result, we don’t experience the emotional impact in the text. We end up with the Sunday school version—theologically…
and they sent the varicolored tunic and brought it to their father and said, “We found this; please examine it to see whether it is your son’s tunic or not.” Genesis 37:32 NASB Please Examine– I think we should create a new Bible board game. We could call it CLUE. We would provide various verses on cards and little…
