Genesis 30:24-26

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Genesis 30:24 sn The name Joseph (יוֹסֵף, yosef) means “may he add.” The name expresses Rachel’s desire to have an additional son. In Hebrew the name sounds like the verb (אָסַף, ʾasaf) translated “taken away” in the earlier statement made in v. 23. So the name, while reflecting Rachel’s hope, was also a reminder that God had removed her shame.
2. Genesis 30:25 tn The perfect verbal form is translated as a past perfect because Rachel’s giving birth to Joseph preceded Jacob’s conversation with Laban.
3. Genesis 30:25 tn 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.
4. Genesis 30:25 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
5. Genesis 30:25 tn Heb “to my place and to my land.”
6. Genesis 30:26 tn 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.
7. Genesis 30:26 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
8. Genesis 30:26 tn Heb “for you, you know my service [with] which I have served you.”