15 October 2022 draft-bible
3. El Shaddai. This is the Hebrew name, translated as “God Almighty” in ASV, WEB. But the original meaning of the term is unknown.
5. will be mine. Generally speaking, the “twelve tribes of Israel” are identified as descended from the “twelve sons of Israel”. The major exception would seem to be Ephraim and Manasseh, who are according to Genesis – up to this point – gradchildren rather than children of Israel. Israel’s deathbed adoption of the two boys explains their status as full-fledged tribes.
6. they will be called after the name of their brothers. To follow Driver’s explanation, any further sons Joseph might have will be subsumed either into the tribe of Ephraim or the tribe of Manasseh.
7. Paddan. This must be the same area called “Paddan Aram” elsewhere in Genesis.
10. he could not see. So read the Hebrew and ASV. WEB adds “well”.
13. right hand … right hand. Throughout the Bible, the right hand is often a favored position. The goal of Joseph’s positioning of his sons is to ensure that Manasseh, the eldest, is given the more favorable blessing from his father.
14. Though he cannot see, Jacob somehow knows or anticipates that Manasseh is being placed near his right hand, and intentionally crosses his arms so that his right hand falls on the head of Ephraim, to his left, while his left hand falls on the head of Manasseh, to his left. The text does not say precisely why Jacob does this, although it is worth remembered that Jacob himself was the younger of two brothers, who cleverly took his elder brother’s birthright. When Jacob stole his brother’s blessing, he did it by taking advantage of his father’s inability to see. Now it is Jacob who cannot see, but he remains in control of the situation.
16. rescued me from all disaster. WEB, ASV read, “redeemed me from all evil”. On GʾL as “rescue”, see the appropriate entry in DCH. The Hebrew Rʿ refers to bad things generally – “diaster” and “evil” both fall within this word’s general range of possible meanings, but in this context it seems most likely that is more “disaster” than “evil” that Jacob has in mind.
22. as one above your brothers. I am here interpreting the Hebrew eḥad, masculine, as referring to Joseph, rather than to the feminine noun šᵉkem, “mountain slope”. This is the interpretation followed by Speiser as well as NAB, NET. The Samaritan Pentateuch (per Speiser) reads aḥat, feminine, and so this would lead to the interpretation “one šᵉkem”, as is found in many translations.
22. mountain slope. Hebrew šᵉkem, literally referring to a “shoulder”, and also the name of the highly significant city of Shechem, which according to the Hebrew Bible was the site of the Northern Kingdom’s first capital.
22. which I took. Outside of this verse, there is nothing in Genesis to suggest that Jacob engaged in the physical conquest of Shechem or any other site in Canaan. There is, however, a story recorded in which Jacob’s sons, against his wishes, annihilate the inhabitants of Shechem.
22. the Amorite. In material from E, “Amorite” is used as a general term for the pre-Israelite inhabitants of Canaan.
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