Footnotes

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Genesis 30:25 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
4. Genesis 30:25 tn Heb “to my place and to my land.”
5. 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.
6. Genesis 30:26 tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.
7. Genesis 30:26 tn Heb “for you, you know my service [with] which I have served you.”
8. Genesis 30:27 tn The words “stay here” have been supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
9. Genesis 30:27 tn Or perhaps “I have grown rich and the Lord has blessed me” (cf. NEB). See J. Finkelstein, “An Old Babylonian Herding Contract and Genesis 31:38f.,” JAOS 88 (1968): 34, n. 19.
10. Genesis 30:28 tn Heb “set your wage for me so I may give [it].”
11. Genesis 30:29 tn 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.
12. Genesis 30:29 tn Heb “and how your cattle were with me.”
13. Genesis 30:30 tn Or “for.”
14. Genesis 30:30 tn Heb “before me.”
15. Genesis 30:30 tn Heb “and it has broken out with respect to abundance.”
16. Genesis 30:30 tn Heb “at my foot.”
17. Genesis 30:30 tn Heb “How long [until] I do, also I, for my house?”
18. Genesis 30:31 tn Heb “and he said.” The referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
19. Genesis 30:31 tn The negated imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance.
20. Genesis 30:31 tn The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
21. Genesis 30:31 tn Heb “If you do for me this thing.”
22. Genesis 30:31 tn Heb “I will return, I will tend,” an idiom meaning “I will continue tending.”
23. Genesis 30:32 tn Heb “pass through.”
24. Genesis 30:32 tn Or “every black lamb”; Heb “and every dark sheep among the lambs.”
25. Genesis 30:32 tn Heb “and the spotted and speckled among the goats.”
26. Genesis 30:32 tn Heb “and it will be my wage.” The referent collective singular pronoun (“it) has been specified as “these animals” in the translation for clarity.
27. Genesis 30:33 tn Heb “will answer on my behalf.”
28. Genesis 30:33 tn Heb “on the following day,” or “tomorrow.”
29. Genesis 30:33 tn 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.
30. Genesis 30:33 tn Heb “every one which is not speckled and spotted among the lambs and dark among the goats, stolen it is with me.”
31. Genesis 30:34 tn 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.
32. Genesis 30:35 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
33. Genesis 30:35 tn Heb “and he gave [them] into the hand.”
34. Genesis 30:36 tn 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.
35. Genesis 30:36 tn The disjunctive clause (introduced by the vav [ו] with subject) is circumstantial; Laban removed the animals while Jacob was taking care of the rest.
36. Genesis 30:38 sn He put the branches in front of the flocks…when they came to drink. It was generally believed that placing such “visual aids” before the animals as they were mating, it was possible to influence the appearance of their offspring. E. A. Speiser notes that “Jacob finds a way to outwit his father-in-law, through prenatal conditioning of the flock by visual aids—in conformance with universal folk beliefs” (Genesis [AB], 238). Nevertheless, in spite of Jacob’s efforts at animal husbandry, he still attributes the resulting success to God (see 31:5).
37. Genesis 30:39 tn 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.
38. Genesis 30:39 tn Heb “the sheep.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“they”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
39. Genesis 30:40 tn Heb “and he set the faces of.”
40. Genesis 30:41 tn Heb “and at every breeding-heat of the flock, the strong females.”
41. Genesis 30:42 tn 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.
42. Genesis 30:42 tn Heb “were for Laban.”
43. Genesis 30:43 tn Heb “the man”; Jacob’s name has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
44. Genesis 30:43 tn Heb “and there were to him.”