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Genesis 32:10-12 New English Translation (NET Bible)

10 I am not worthy of all the faithful love[a] you have shown[b] your servant. With only my walking stick[c] I crossed the Jordan,[d] but now I have become two camps. 11 Rescue me,[e] I pray, from the hand[f] of my brother Esau,[g] for I am afraid he will come[h] and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children.[i] 12 But you[j] said, ‘I will certainly make you prosper[k] and will make[l] your descendants like the sand on the seashore, too numerous to count.’”[m]


  1. Genesis 32:10 tn Heb “the loving deeds and faithfulness” (see 24:27, 49).
  2. Genesis 32:10 tn Heb “you have done with.”
  3. Genesis 32:10 tn Heb “for with my staff.” The Hebrew word מַקֵל (maqel), traditionally translated “staff,” has been rendered as “walking stick” because a “staff” in contemporary English refers typically to the support personnel in an organization.
  4. Genesis 32:10 tn Heb “this Jordan.”
  5. Genesis 32:11 tn The imperative has the force of a prayer here, not a command.
  6. Genesis 32:11 tn The “hand” here is a metonymy for “power.”
  7. Genesis 32:11 tn Heb “from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.”
  8. Genesis 32:11 tn Heb “for I am afraid of him, lest he come.”
  9. Genesis 32:11 sn Heb “me, [the] mother upon [the] sons.” The first person pronoun “me” probably means here “me and mine,” as the following clause suggests.
  10. Genesis 32:12 tn Heb “But you, you said.” One of the occurrences of the pronoun “you” has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.sn Some commentators have thought this final verse of the prayer redundant, but it actually follows the predominant form of a lament in which God is motivated to act. The primary motivation Jacob can offer to God is God’s promise, and so he falls back on that at the end of the prayer.
  11. Genesis 32:12 tn Or “will certainly deal well with you.” The infinitive absolute appears before the imperfect, underscoring God’s promise to bless. The statement is more emphatic than in v. 9.
  12. Genesis 32:12 tn The form is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the nuance of the preceding verb forward.
  13. Genesis 32:12 tn Heb “which cannot be counted because of abundance.” The imperfect verbal form indicates potential here.
New English Translation (NET)



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