Genesis 25:18-20

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Genesis 25:18 tn Heb “they”; the referent (Ishmael’s descendants) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2. Genesis 25:18 tn Heb “which is by the face of,” or near the border. The territory ran along the border of Egypt.
3. Genesis 25:18 tn Heb “as you go.”
4. Genesis 25:18 sn The name Asshur refers here to a tribal area in the Sinai.
5. Genesis 25:18 tn Heb “he fell.”
6. Genesis 25:18 tn Heb “upon the face of all his brothers.” This last expression, obviously alluding to the earlier oracle about Ishmael (Gen 16:12), could mean that the descendants of Ishmael lived in hostility to others or that they lived in a territory that was opposite the lands of their relatives. While there is some ambiguity about the meaning, the line probably does give a hint of the Ishmaelite-Israelite conflicts to come.
7. Genesis 25:19 sn This is the account of Isaac. What follows for several chapters is not the account of Isaac, except briefly, but the account of Jacob and Esau. The next chapters tell what became of Isaac and his family.
8. Genesis 25:20 tn Heb “And Isaac was the son of forty years when he took Rebekah.”
9. Genesis 25:20 sn Some valuable information is provided here. We learn here that Isaac married thirty-five years before Abraham died, that Rebekah was barren for 20 years, and that Abraham would have lived to see Jacob and Esau begin to grow up. The death of Abraham was recorded in the first part of the chapter as a “tidying up” of one generation before beginning the account of the next.