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…
When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a peaceful man, living in tents. Genesis 25:27 NASB Was– Hebrew often communicates deep meaning through what is absent from the text. Such is the case with this verse. In the English translation, the copula is added in the…
But his mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.” Genesis 27:13 NASB Your curse – “Listen to me,” she said. Actually, it’s more like, “Listen to the sound of my making.” She continues, “If anything disastrous happens, then let it affect me. I will…
It came about as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin. Genesis 35:18 NASB Benjamin – No surprise here. Jacob renames his last son Ben-jamin rather than Ben-oni. To understand why, let’s put it in Hebrew transliteration. Ya’aqov names the boy, Ben-yamin rather than…
