translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: GEN

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “and Jacob lifted up his eyes.”


text: Or “and look, Esau was coming.” By the use of the particle הִנֵּה ( hinneh , “look”), the narrator invites the reader to view the scene through Jacob’s eyes.


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


text: Heb “until his drawing near unto his brother.” The construction uses the preposition with the infinitive construct to express a temporal clause.


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


text: Heb “lifted up his eyes.”


text: The Hebrew verb means “to be gracious; to show favor”; here it carries the nuance “to give graciously.”


text: Heb “and the female servants drew near, they and their children and they bowed down.”


text: Heb “Who to you?”


text: Heb “all this camp which I met.”


text: Heb “and Jacob said, ‘No, please.’” The words “take them” have been supplied in the translation for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse rearranged for stylistic reasons.


text: The form is the perfect tense with a vav ( ו ) consecutive, expressing a contingent future nuance in the “then” section of the conditional sentence.


text: The verbal form is the preterite with a vav ( ו ) consecutive, indicating result here.


text: Heb “for therefore I have seen your face like seeing the face of God and you have accepted me.” sn This is an allusion to the preceding episode ( 32:22-31 ) in which Jacob saw the face of God and realized his prayer was answered.


text: Heb “blessing.” It is as if Jacob is trying to repay what he stole from his brother twenty years earlier.


text: Or “gracious,” but in the specific sense of prosperity.


text: Heb “all.”


text: Heb “and he urged him and he took.” The referent of the first pronoun in the sequence (“he”) has been specified as “Jacob” in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “let us travel and let us go.” The two cohortatives are used in combination with the sense, “let’s travel along, get going, be on our way.”


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


text: Heb “weak.”


text: Heb “and the sheep and the cattle nursing [are] upon me.”


text: Heb “and I, I will move along according to my leisure at the foot of the property which is before me and at the foot of the children.”


text: The cohortative verbal form here indicates a polite offer of help.


text: Heb “and he said, ‘Why this?’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.


text: Heb “I am finding favor in the eyes of my lord.”


text: Heb “returned on his way.”


text: The disjunctive clause contrasts Jacob’s action with Esau’s.


text: Heb “why he called.” One could understand “Jacob” as the subject of the verb, but it is more likely that the subject is indefinite, in which case the verb is better translated as passive.


text: Heb “in front of.”


text: The words “he bought it” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text v. 19 is one long sentence.


text: The Hebrew word קְשִׂיטָה ( qÿsitah ) is generally understood to refer to a unit of money, but the value is unknown. (However, cf. REB, which renders the term as “sheep”).


text: Heb “God, the God of Israel.” Rather than translating the name, a number of modern translations merely transliterate it from the Hebrew as “El Elohe Israel” (cf. NIV, NRSV, REB). It is not entirely clear how the name should be interpreted grammatically. One option is to supply an equative verb, as in the translation: “The God of Israel [is] God.” Another interpretive option is “the God of Israel [is] strong [or “mighty”].” Buying the land and settling down for a while was a momentous step for the patriarch, so the commemorative naming of the altar is significant.