Notes on the text of the book of Genesis : with an appendix online

M. R., § 79. I ; Ewald, § 287 e. b, who compares the German
' Rheififluss!

16.

1. "^^n probably a Semitic xi2,x^Q — ' flight' (Arabic ^^
Uo flee,' "i^^ ^flight'), and scarcely, as she was an Egyptian,
her real name. Perhaps, as Del. suggests, she was given to
Sarai by Pharaoh, cf. 12, 16; and according to this the
Midrash explains the name fancifully, as = X"i:''N Nn ' behold,
a reward! The Arab nomad tribe D''"ijn, Ps. 83, 7, derive
their name from lin.

2. niT'?^ lit. "- away fr 0771 heari7igl i.e. 'â–  so that I ca7inot
bring forth ;' cf 18, 25 nb'VO; 23, 6 IDD "i3pD ; 27, i nKID,
etc.; and see Ges., § 119. 3d. i; Dav., S., § 10 1. R. c ;
M. R., § 49. I. R. c.

n^^t^ as in 30, 3; cf. Ruth 4, 11. Ex. i, 21. Deut. 25,
9, etc. The form is not a Nifal denominative from f? ' a
son,' but the ordinary imperf. Nif'al of njZl 'to build,' used in
a figurative sense.

3. rQU^S D^^^tl? ^WV. b in the place of the genitive, as
in 7, II (and regularly in dates, Ex. 16, i. 19, i, etc.) W
m ^'^rb nJtJ' niND ; cf. the note there.

4. T'pnV cf. I Sam. i, 6 f, is the imperf. Qal (intrans.) of



CHAP. l6, VERS. 1-7. 165

a verb y"y with -z-; cf. "^P', X^\, etc.; Ges., § 67. Rem. 3 ;
Stade, § 510 g. The two forms of the imperf. are, I. ^b^,
with the 3 doubled when it ceases to be final. II. 20^ trans,
(intrans. 2D^), with the D doubled. In Pj^^ the doubling has
been given up, and compensation made by lengthening the
-r into -:-, as is usual with gutturals; cf. Vl^, HH'', UTV.

5. ^uTt^n. 'The wrong done to me! Obj. genitive; cf.
on 9, 2. Misunderstood by LXX, aSiKoO/uai ck a-ov; and Vulg.
' inique agis contra vie;' for *]''i'V ^DDH is an interjectional
clause, ' the wrong doiie me, be tipoji thee !'

^'!^'2l\. The point over the second yod (Mass. note,
Ninn '^^ ^y llpj point on the last yod) probably marks it as
superfluous, because the form elsewhere is ^^''?, in pause
^J"*?; cf. 17, 2. 7. The other passages where points are
found over words in Genesis are, 18, 9. 19, 33. 33, 4. 37, 12.

7. ^^^!^0^^ (cf. I Chron. 20, 2) is the companion form
of ni 33 J "^^^^Ij 2 Chron. 20, 7 ; the imperf. taking
the affix of the third pers. fem. sing, either in the form
^— or n— .

â–¡^Cn "^V yV^ probably the well-known fountain on the
way to "iltJ' ; hence the article.

^1\I) "jn-rn. ' On the way to Shiir ;' cf. 3, 24 ^y pi

"^Itl'' must have been somewhere on the N. E. frontier
between Palestine and Egypt. Josephus, Ant.^ vi. 7, 3, er-
roneously supposed that "\V*J^ was Pelusium, which is Pp.
Saadiah holds that 1115^ was Gifar, ^Ua.. 'The Arab, geo-
graphers understand by the wilderness of Gifar (as distinct
from the wilderness of the children of Israel, or Paran), the



l66 GENESIS,

desert strip of land — which required five or six days' journey
to traverse — bounded on the east by the desert of Paran,
between Rafia in Philistia, up to lake Tennis (Menzaleh),
and from thence to Qulzum or Suez ; in a word, the western
declivity of the desert of Paran towards Egypt' (Dillmann).
The name probably means ' wall!

8. P^^^ TWy^ *^t^ , more frequently the imperfect was used
in questions after riD^, pt