Genesis 26

Notes

1. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "beside the first famine" (KJV) / "besides the former famine" (RSV)

   Ruling 2

   לְבַד is "alone, by itself" (2:18; 26:1 is its first use with מִן). מִלְּבַד is "apart from what stands alone," that is, besides (Num 29:39; Ezra 1:6), and the home gloss "alone" cannot be printed in the phrase. "Besides" is printed, and "apart from" is left to בִּלְעֲדֵי (14:24). The verse opens as 12:10 opened: "And there was a hunger in the land." The narrator names the first hunger, so the reader is told to hear the earlier story under this one.

2. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 6, 2, 37

   The third telling of a patriarch passing off his woman as his sister, after 12:10–20 (Pharaoh) and ch. 20 (Abimelech of Gerar). The same Hebrew keeps the same English across the three: "She is my sister" (20:2, 5; 26:7, 9), "lest… kill me" (12:12; 20:11; 26:7), "What is this you have done to us?" (12:18; 26:10). Varied constructions stay varied (6): Sarai is "beautiful of sight" (יְפַת מַרְאֶה, 12:11), Rebekah "good of sight" (טוֹבַת מַרְאֶה, 26:7; 24:16); Abimelech's charge was "a great sin" (20:9), and here it is "liability" (v. 10). In this telling no one takes the woman, and the king finds out by looking, not by a dream or a plague. Abimelech and his commander Phicol (v. 26) bear the names of ch. 20–21: the same men in the story's time, or a royal name handed down. "King of Philistines" has no article, as the Hebrew has none (guide §4.2).

3. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Ruling 2

   וַיֵּרָא is the niphal of רָאָה "see," "was seen," the verb of Adonai's appearing to Abram (12:7; 17:1; 18:1). It comes to Isaac twice, here and in v. 24. The first word to Isaac forbids what his father did in the first hunger: "Do not go down to Egypt." Genesis Rabbah 64:3 and Rashi give the reason: Isaac was a whole ascent-offering, bound on the altar (22:9), and the land outside would not befit him. Of the three patriarchs only Isaac never leaves the land.

4. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 20, 122

   "Make stand the oath": the hiphil of קוּם, the verb used for making the covenant stand (6:18; 9:11; 17:7, 19), now with the oath of 22:16–18, "by myself I have sworn." The blessing of vv. 3–4 repeats that oath almost word for word: seed like the stars of the skies, the nations blessing themselves in it, "in consequence that" Abraham heard. הָאֵל "these" is the short form of הָאֵלֶּה, printed untagged as a function word (123j).

5. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (KJV, RSV)

   Ruling 124

   The verb is the hithpael וְהִתְבָּרֲכוּ, as in 22:18, not the niphal of 12:3; 18:18; 28:14. The hithpael is reflexive: the nations will bless themselves by Abraham's seed, invoking it when they bless ("may Elohim make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh," 48:20; Ps 72:17; Jer 4:2). Ruling 124(l) keeps the two forms apart. The LXX has the passive (ἐνευλογηθήσονται), and the NT quotations follow it (Acts 3:25; Gal 3:8), as their Greek requires (4).

6. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "Because that" (KJV) / "because" (RSV)

   Rulings 124, 2

   עֵקֶב אֲשֶׁר is the conjunction of 22:18 and 2 Sam 12:10, formed from עֵקֶב "consequence," the word built like עָקֵב "heel": what comes on the heel of a thing. Ruling 124(h) keeps it apart from יַעַן "because." It comes one chapter after Jacob's name was explained from the heel (25:26).

7. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 5, 74

   The four nouns are the vocabulary of Deuteronomy: "you shall keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments" (Deut 11:1). מִשְׁמֶרֶת is the noun of שָׁמַר "keep," so the Hebrew says "kept my keeping"; "charge" is its gloss (Num 3:7–8). The tradition drew the obvious question, how Abraham kept laws not yet given, and answered it. m. Kiddushin 4:14: "we find that Abraham our father performed the whole Torah before it was given." b. Yoma 28b has him keep even the rabbis' rules. Rashi reads the plural "my Torahs" as including the Oral Torah with the written. תּוֹרָה is printed as the Hebrew loanword "Torah" (5), here in the plural, since it is both law and teaching (from יָרָה "point, teach"). The WPRB has "teachings."

8. Reading↩ Back to the text

   Rulings 51, 6

   After "he feared to say, 'My woman,'" the reason runs on in Isaac's first person, "lest the men of the place kill me," with no new verb of saying. The shift of voice is unmarked in the Hebrew and stays unmarked (51). The fear repeats Abram's at 12:12 and 20:11, and the "good of sight" is the narrator's word for Rebekah at the well (24:16).

9. Decision↩ Back to the text

   Expected: "Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife" (KJV) / "Isaac fondling Rebekah his wife" (RSV)

   Rulings 123, 1, 17, 46

   מְצַחֵק is the piel participle of צָחַק "laugh," the verb of Isaac's name: יִצְחָק מְצַחֵק, "He-Laughs laughing." Ruling 123(g) held "laugh" for the piel through Gen 21 (19:14, the sons-in-law; 21:9, Ishmael), with the other senses in notes, and left the stem to be ruled here. The piel goes beyond plain laughter. It is play, sexual here (Abimelech sees enough to know she is a wife), mockery at 39:14, 17 ("to laugh at us"), revelry at Exod 32:6 ("rose to play"), and entertainment at Judg 16:25 (Samson). The LXX has παίζοντα "playing"; the Vulgate iocantem; Onkelos מְחַיֵּךְ "laughing, joking." "Laughing" is printed. The chain of Isaac's name runs through every scene of the laughter family (17:17; 18:12–15; 21:6, 9), the source marks the sound with the name and the verb side by side (24), and "laughing with" his woman, seen by a king through a window, says enough for the scene. English "playing" or "fondling" would decide which of the piel's senses this is and lose the name. A ruling for the stem is asked for in the report.

10. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "Behold, of a surety she is thy wife" (KJV) / "Behold, she is your wife" (RSV)

    Rulings 20, 2

    אַךְ is "only" when it restricts, and "surely" by construction when it affirms (9:5; 44:28), a split declared in its row. Here it opens an exclamation of discovery, "Surely, look," and restricts nothing.

11. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us" (KJV) / "might easily have lain… brought guilt upon us" (RSV)

    Ruling 2

    כִּמְעַט is "like a little," that is, "almost": "my feet had like a little turned aside" (Ps 73:2; 119:87). The KJV and RSV make it "lightly, easily," the ease of the act rather than its nearness. אָשָׁם is guilt as a debt that must be paid, the word of the guilt offering (Lev 5:6–19); when the Philistines return the ark they send an אָשָׁם with it (1 Sam 6:3–8). "Liability" keeps the debt, and "guilt" stays with רֶשַׁע. In ch. 20 the same king spoke of "a great sin" (20:9).

12. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 6, 10

    מוֹת יוּמָת is the formula of the capital laws (Exod 19:12; 21:12, 15–17): the infinitive absolute "dying" with the hophal "he shall be made to die." The infinitive absolute is kept as at 2:17, "dying you shall die" (6). The king who was told "dying you shall die" in his dream (20:7) now lays the same sentence on his people. וּבְאִשְׁתּוֹ is "and his woman," and the conjunction is kept.

13. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "an hundredfold" (KJV, RSV)

    Rulings 2, 39

    שְׁעָרִים is the plural of שַׁעַר, a measure or estimate, from the verb שָׁעַר "reckon" (Prov 23:7). "A hundred measures" is a hundred for each one sown. The LXX reads the same consonants as שְׂעֹרִים "barley," ἑκατοστεύουσαν κριθήν, "barley yielding a hundredfold." Genesis Rabbah 64:6 makes the measuring a reckoning for the tithe. The yield is the one of Matt 13:8, "some a hundredfold." Isaac is the only patriarch who sows.

14. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 6, 109

    Three forms of one root: וַיִּגְדַּל "grew great," גָּדֵל "growing great," גָּדַל "was great." וַיֵּלֶךְ הָלוֹךְ "went on, going," with a second participle or adjective, is the Hebrew's way of saying steady growth (8:3, 5; 2 Sam 3:1; 1 Sam 2:26, "the lad Samuel went on growing great"). Abraham's servant said the same of his master: "Adonai blessed my lord very much, and he grew great" (24:35).

15. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "great store of servants" (KJV) / "a great household" (RSV)

    Rulings 2, 39

    עֲבֻדָּה, from עָבַד "serve," occurs only here and at Job 1:3, also in a list of flocks and herds. It is the whole work of a household and the workers who do it. The KJV margin at both places has "husbandry," which keeps the work and the workers together and is printed. The jealousy of the Philistines (קָנָא) is the first of the Bible's jealousies, followed by Rachel's for her sister (30:1) and the brothers' for Joseph (37:11).

16. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 37

    The wells were Abraham's: one of them his slaves dug and Abimelech's slaves seized (21:25–30). The Philistines stop them with "dust," עָפָר, the word of the promise, "I will set your seed like the dust of the land" (13:16; 28:14). In a land of little rain, to stop a well is to drive out its owner (2 Kgs 3:19, 25).

17. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "thou art much mightier than we" (KJV, RSV)

    Ruling 2

    עָצַם is to be many and strong together, and its adjective עָצוּם is "numerous" (18:18). The king's words return in Pharaoh's mouth at Exod 1:9: "the people of the sons of Israel are many and more numerous than we" (רַב וְעָצוּם מִמֶּנּוּ), and Exod 1:7, 20 use the verb for Israel's growth. The sojourner's increase, and the king's fear of it, is the same scene in both books.

18. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "the valley of Gerar" (KJV, RSV)

    Ruling 2

    נַחַל is a stream bed that runs in the rains and fails in summer, "my brothers have dealt falsely like a wadi" (Job 6:15–17), and the stream itself (Deut 8:7). "Wadi" is the English for it. "Valley" belongs to עֵמֶק (14:3, 8, 17). Isaac camps where water can be found by digging, and his slaves find it in v. 19.

19. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 2

    וַיָּשָׁב "and he returned." Many take שׁוּב here as "again," dug again (KJV "digged again"), as the verb often is with another verb (2 Kgs 1:11, 13). The home gloss is printed, and "returned and dug" holds both: he came back to his father's wells, and he did his father's work over again. He also gives them back his father's names, the only naming in Genesis that repeats another's.

20. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 2, 39

    "Living waters" are running water, a spring, against cistern water (Lev 14:5; Jer 2:13 "the spring of living waters"; Zech 14:8; John 4:10–11). In the wadi of Gerar the slaves find a spring. The same Hebrew "living" (חַיִּים) is held as everywhere.

21. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 17, 18

    עֵשֶׂק "Esek" is explained by הִתְעַשְּׂקוּ "they contended": "Contention," because they contended. The verb occurs only here in the Bible; Mishnaic Hebrew עֵסֶק "business, dealing" may be its cousin. English cannot carry the name and the verb together (17), and the names table has the form. The three wells are named from the quarrel's course: contention, accusation, room.

    See the table

22. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 17, 18

    שִׂטְנָה "Sitnah," "Accusation," from שָׂטַן "be an adversary, accuse" (Ps 38:21; 109:4), the root of הַשָּׂטָן "the Adversary" (Job 1:6; Zech 3:1) and of the "accusation" written against Judah (Ezra 4:6). The quarrel moves from a dispute over water to a charge against a man.

    See the table

23. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 17, 18

    רְחֹבוֹת "Rehoboth," "Broad places," explained by Isaac's own words, הִרְחִיב "he has made broad." English could print "Broad Places," but the name is given its familiar form (18) and the pun stays here. The verb is the psalmist's: "in the strait you made broad for me" (Ps 4:2). "We shall bear fruit" takes up the first blessing (1:28; 9:1; 17:6). Another Rehoboth was built in the land of Assyria (10:11).

    See the table

24. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 107, 9

    The speaker is Adonai, and אֱלֹהֵי אַבְרָהָם is capitalized by reference (107). It is the first time the title "the Elohim of Abraham your father" is spoken; it returns to Jacob (28:13; 31:42) and to Moses (Exod 3:6). "Do not fear" is what Abram heard at 15:1, and "for the sake of Abraham my servant" is the first time Adonai calls a human "my servant" (34).

25. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 2

    כָּרָה is a second verb of digging, used of a pit (Exod 21:33), a trap (Ps 7:16; 57:7) and a grave, "my grave that I delved for myself" (50:5). It is printed "delve," since "dig" belongs to חָפַר, the chapter's chain (vv. 15–32). The well dug at Beersheba is the one reported in v. 32.

26. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 18

    אֲחֻזַּת "Ahuzzath" is "Holding," formed from אָחַז "hold," like אֲחֻזָּה "tenure" (17:8; 23:4). מֵרֵעַ is the confidant at a man's side, the "companion" given to Samson at his wedding (Judg 14:20; 15:6), kept apart from רֵעַ "fellow." Abimelech and Phicol came to Abraham in the same way at 21:22. This time the king brings his companion, and the treaty is made with the son.

    See the table

27. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 6, 21

    אָלָה is the imprecation an oath calls down on the one who breaks it (24:41). "Between us" is said twice, first with the rarer form בֵּינוֹתֵינוּ and then as "between us and between you," and both are kept (6). Abraham's covenant with this king was made at the same well, with an oath and seven ewe-lambs (21:23–32).

28. Decision↩ Back to the text

    Expected: "That thou wilt do us no hurt" (KJV) / "that you will do us no harm" (RSV)

    Ruling 21

    אִם in an oath formula keeps the literal "if," with the curse left unspoken (21): "if you do bad with us…" and the imprecation of v. 28 is what follows. Abimelech had sworn Abraham the same way: "if you deal falsely with me" (21:23). The negative "as we did not touch you" is the king's account of v. 11.

29. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 17, 18

    שִׁבְעָה "Shibah" sounds both "seven" (שֶׁבַע) and the oath (שָׁבַע) the men swore that morning (v. 31). Abraham named the place Beersheba, "Well of Seven" and "Well of the Oath," over seven ewe-lambs and an oath (21:28–31). Isaac names it again, as he renamed his father's wells (v. 18). The LXX translates the name, Ὅρκος "Oath." The KJV has "Shebah"; the RSV "Shibah."

    See the table

30. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Ruling 18

    Esau marries at forty, the age at which Isaac married (25:20). The list of his wives at 36:2–3 differs: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah daughter of Anah, and Basemath daughter of Ishmael (Mahalath at 28:9). "He took a woman" is singular before two names. The Hittite wives are the reason Rebekah gives for sending Jacob away: "I loathe my life because of the daughters of Heth" (27:46; 28:1–2).

    See the table

31. Reading↩ Back to the text

    Rulings 31, 2

    מֹרַת רוּחַ occurs only here: "bitterness of spirit." רוּחַ is "spirit" when a person has it (31). The heart that "knows its own bitterness" (Prov 14:10) is the nearest phrase. Rashi hears the verb מָרָה "rebel": they made the spirit of Isaac and Rebekah rebel, that is, they defied them.