Genesis 39:12-14

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Genesis 39:12 tn Heb “lie down with.” See note at v. 7.
2. Genesis 39:12 tn Heb “he fled and he went out.” The construction emphasizes the point that Joseph got out of there quickly.
3. Genesis 39:12 sn For discussion of this episode, see A. M. Honeyman, “The Occasion of Joseph’s Temptation,” VT 2 (1952): 85-87.
4. Genesis 39:14 tn The verb has no expressed subject, and so it could be treated as a passive (“a Hebrew man was brought in”; cf. NIV). But it is clear from the context that her husband brought Joseph into the household, so Potiphar is the apparent referent here. Thus the translation supplies “my husband” as the referent of the unspecified pronominal subject of the verb (cf. NEB, NRSV).
5. Genesis 39:14 sn A Hebrew man. Potiphar’s wife raises the ethnic issue when talking to her servants about what their boss had done.
6. Genesis 39:14 tn Heb “to make fun of us.” The verb translated “to humiliate us” here means to hold something up for ridicule, or to toy with something harmfully. Attempted rape would be such an activity, for it would hold the victim in contempt.
7. Genesis 39:14 tn Heb “He approached me to lie down with me.” Both expressions can be a euphemism for sexual relations. See the note at 2 Sam 12:24.
8. Genesis 39:14 tn Heb “and I cried out with a loud voice.”