translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: GEN

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “Rachel.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“she”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “sons.”


text: Heb “and the anger of Jacob was hot.”


text: Heb “who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb.”


text: Heb “go in to.” The expression “go in to” in this context refers to sexual intercourse.


text: After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with the conjunction indicates the immediate purpose of the proposed activity.


text: The word “children” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “upon my knees.” This is an idiomatic way of saying that Bilhah will be simply a surrogate mother. Rachel will adopt the child as her own.


text: Heb “and I will be built up, even I, from her.” The prefixed verbal form with the conjunction is subordinated to the preceding prefixed verbal form and gives the ultimate purpose for the proposed action. The idiom of “built up” here refers to having a family (see Gen 16:2 , as well as Ruth 4:11 and BDB 125 s.v. בָנָה ).


text: Heb “and she”; the referent (Rachel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “went in to.” The expression “went in to” in this context refers to sexual intercourse.


text: Or “Bilhah conceived” (also in v. 7 ).


text: Heb “and she bore for Jacob a son.”


text: Heb “and also he has heard my voice.” The expression means that God responded positively to Rachel’s cry and granted her request.


text: Or “therefore.”


text: Heb “and she became pregnant again and Bilhah, the servant of Rachel, bore a second son for Jacob.”


text: Heb “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister, also I have prevailed.” The phrase “mighty struggle” reads literally “struggles of God.” The plural participle “struggles” reflects the ongoing nature of the struggle, while the divine name is used here idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the struggle. See J. Skinner, Genesis (ICC), 387.


text: Heb “she took her servant Zilpah and gave her.” The verbs “took” and “gave” are treated as a hendiadys in the translation: “she gave.”


text: Heb “and Zilpah, the servant of Leah, bore for Jacob a son.”


label: NET textual note

text: The statement in the Kethib (consonantal text) appears to mean literally “with good fortune,” if one takes the initial בְּ ( bet ) as a preposition indicating accompaniment. The Qere (marginal reading) means “good fortune has arrived.”


text: Heb “and Zilpah, the servant of Leah, bore a second son for Jacob.”


text: The Hebrew statement apparently means “with my happiness.”


text: Heb “daughters.”


text: Heb “during the days.”


text: Heb “and she said to her”; the referent of the pronoun “she” (Leah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “therefore.”


text: Heb “lie down.” The expression “lie down with” in this context (here and in the following verse) refers to sexual intercourse. The imperfect verbal form has a permissive nuance here.


text: Heb “must come in to me.” The imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance here. She has acquired him for the night and feels he is obligated to have sexual relations with her.


text: Heb “I have surely hired.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verbal form for emphasis. The name Issachar (see v. 18 ) seems to be related to this expression.


text: This is the same Hebrew verb ( שָׁכַב , shakhav ) translated “sleep with” in v. 15 . In direct discourse the more euphemistic “sleep with” was used, but here in the narrative “marital relations” reflects more clearly the emphasis on sexual intercourse.


text: Heb “listened to.”


text: Or “she conceived” (also in v. 19 ).


text: Heb “and she bore for Jacob a fifth son,” i.e., this was the fifth son that Leah had given Jacob.


text: Heb “God has given my reward.”


text: The words “as a wife” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for clarity (cf. v. 9 ). sn Leah seems to regard the act of giving her servant Zilpah to her husband as a sacrifice, for which (she believes) God is now rewarding her with the birth of a son.


text: Heb “and she bore a sixth son for Jacob,” i.e., this was the sixth son that Leah had given Jacob.


text: Heb “remembered.”


text: Heb “and God listened to her and opened up her womb.” Since “God” is the subject of the previous clause, the noun has been replaced by the pronoun “he” in the translation for stylistic reasons


text: Or “conceived.”


text: Heb “my reproach.” A “reproach” is a cutting taunt or painful ridicule, but here it probably refers by metonymy to Rachel’s barren condition, which was considered shameful in this culture and was the reason why she was the object of taunting and ridicule.


text: The perfect verbal form is translated as a past perfect because Rachel’s giving birth to Joseph preceded Jacob’s conversation with Laban.


text: The imperatival form here expresses a request. sn For Jacob to ask to leave would mean that seven more years had passed. Thus all Jacob’s children were born within the range of seven years of each other, with Joseph coming right at the end of the seven years.


text: Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.


text: Heb “to my place and to my land.”


text: Heb “give my wives and my children, for whom I have served you.” In one sense Laban had already “given” Jacob his two daughters as wives ( Gen 29:21, 28 ). Here Jacob was asking for permission to take his own family along with him on the journey back to Canaan.


text: Heb “for you, you know my service [with] which I have served you.”


text: The words “please stay here” have been supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.


text: Or perhaps “I have grown rich and the Lord has blessed me” (cf. NEB). See J. Finkelstein, “An Old Babylonian Herding Contract and Genesis 31:38 f.,” JAOS 88 (1968): 34, n. 19.


text: Heb “set your wage for me so I may give [it].”


text: Heb “and he said to him, ‘You know how I have served you.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons, and the referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “and how your cattle were with me.”


text: Or “for.”


text: Heb “before me.”


text: Heb “and it has broken out with respect to abundance.”


text: Heb “at my foot.”


text: Heb “How long [until] I do, also I, for my house?”


text: Heb “and he said.” The referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: The negated imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance.


text: The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “If you do for me this thing.”


text: Heb “I will return, I will tend,” an idiom meaning “I will continue tending.”


text: Heb “pass through.”


text: Or “every black lamb”; Heb “and every dark sheep among the lambs.”


text: Heb “and the spotted and speckled among the goats.”


text: Heb “and it will be my wage.” The referent collective singular pronoun (“it) has been specified as “these animals” in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “will answer on my behalf.”


text: Heb “on the following day,” or “tomorrow.”


text: Heb “when you come concerning my wage before you.” sn Only the wage we agreed on . Jacob would have to be considered completely honest here, for he would have no control over the kind of animals born; and there could be no disagreement over which animals were his wages.


text: Heb “every one which is not speckled and spotted among the lambs and dark among the goats, stolen it is with me.”


text: Heb “and Laban said, ‘Good, let it be according to your word.’” On the asseverative use of the particle לוּ ( lu ) here, see HALOT 521 s.v. לוּ .


text: Heb “he”; the referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “and he gave [them] into the hand.”


text: Heb “and he put a journey of three days between himself and Jacob.” sn Three days’ traveling distance from Jacob . E. A. Speiser observes, “Laban is delighted with the terms, and promptly proceeds to violate the spirit of the bargain by removing to a safe distance all the grown animals that would be likely to produce the specified spots” ( Genesis [AB], 238). Laban apparently thought that by separating out the spotted, striped, and dark colored animals he could minimize the production of spotted, striped, or dark offspring that would then belong to Jacob.


text: The disjunctive clause (introduced by the vav with subject) is circumstantial/temporal; Laban removed the animals while Jacob was taking care of the rest.


text: The Hebrew verb used here can mean “to be in heat” (see v. 38 ) or “to mate; to conceive; to become pregnant.” The latter nuance makes better sense in this verse, for the next clause describes them giving birth.


text: Heb “the sheep.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“they”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “and he set the faces of.”


text: Heb “and at every breeding-heat of the flock.”


text: Heb “he did not put [them] in.” The referent of the [understood] direct object, “them,” has been specified as “the branches” in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “were for Laban.”


text: Heb “the man”; Jacob’s name has been supplied in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “and there were to him.”