Genesis 12:7

12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants ¹  I will give this land.” So Abram ²  built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

Genesis 13:15

13:15 I will give all the land that you see to you and your descendants ³  forever.

Genesis 15:7

15:7 The Lord said ⁴  to him, “I am the Lord ⁵  who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans ⁶  to give you this land to possess.”

Genesis 17:8

17:8 I will give the whole land of Canaan – the land where you are now residing ⁷  – to you and your descendants after you as a permanent ⁸  possession. I will be their God.”

Genesis 26:4

26:4 I will multiply your descendants so they will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them ⁹  all these lands. All the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants. ¹⁰ 

Genesis 28:13

28:13 and the Lord stood at its top. He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. ¹¹  I will give you and your descendants the ground ¹²  you are lying on.

Exodus 32:13

32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants ¹³  like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about ¹⁴  I will give to your descendants, ¹⁵  and they will inherit it forever.’”

Ezekiel 20:14

20:14 I acted for the sake of my reputation, so that I would not be profaned before the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

Micah 7:20

7:20 You will be loyal to Jacob

and extend your loyal love to Abraham, ¹⁶ 

which you promised on oath to our ancestors ¹⁷ 

in ancient times. ¹⁸ 

Luke 1:54-55

1:54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering ¹⁹  his mercy, ²⁰ 

1:55 as he promised ²¹  to our ancestors, ²²  to Abraham and to his descendants ²³  forever.”

Acts 3:25

3:25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, ²⁴  saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants ²⁵  all the nations ²⁶  of the earth will be blessed.’ ²⁷ 

Acts 13:32-33

13:32 And we proclaim to you the good news about the promise to our ancestors, ²⁸  13:33 that this promise ²⁹  God has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising ³⁰  Jesus, as also it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son; ³¹  today I have fathered you.’ ³² 

Romans 11:28

11:28 In regard to the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but in regard to election they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers.

Romans 15:8

15:8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised ³³  on behalf of God’s truth to confirm the promises made to the fathers, ³⁴ 

[12:7]  ¹ tn The same Hebrew term זֶרַע (zera’) may mean “seed” (for planting), “offspring” (occasionally of animals, but usually of people), or “descendants” depending on the context.

[12:7]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[13:15]  ³ tn Heb “for all the land which you see to you I will give it and to your descendants.”

[15:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “And he said.”

[15:7]  ⁵ sn I am the Lord. The Lord initiates the covenant-making ceremony with a declaration of who he is and what he has done for Abram. The same form appears at the beginning of the covenant made at Sinai (see Exod 20:1).

[15:7]  ⁶ sn The phrase of the Chaldeans is a later editorial clarification for the readers, designating the location of Ur. From all evidence there would have been no Chaldeans in existence at this early date; they are known in the time of the neo-Babylonian empire in the first millennium b.c.

[17:8]  ⁷ tn The verbal root is גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to reside temporarily,” i.e., as a resident alien). It is the land in which Abram resides, but does not yet possess as his very own.

[17:8]  ⁸ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[26:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “your descendants.”

[26:4]  ¹⁰ tn Traditionally the verb is taken as passive (“will be blessed”) here, as if Abraham’s descendants were going to be a channel or source of blessing to the nations. But the Hitpael is better understood here as reflexive/reciprocal, “will bless [i.e., pronounce blessings on] themselves/one another” (see also Gen 22:18). Elsewhere the Hitpael of the verb “to bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 12:2 predicts that Abram will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11. Earlier formulations of this promise (see Gen 12:2; 18:18) use the Niphal stem. (See also Gen 28:14.)

[28:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.” The Hebrew word for “father” can typically be used in a broader sense than the English word, in this case referring to Abraham (who was Jacob’s grandfather). For stylistic reasons and for clarity, the words “your father” are supplied with “Isaac” in the translation.

[28:13]  ¹² tn The Hebrew term אֶרֶץ (’erets) can mean “[the] earth,” “land,” “region,” “piece of ground,” or “ground” depending on the context. Here the term specifically refers to the plot of ground on which Jacob was lying, but at the same time this stands by metonymy for the entire land of Canaan.

[32:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “your seed.”

[32:13]  ¹⁴ tn “about” has been supplied.

[32:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “seed.”

[7:20]  ¹⁶ tn More literally, “You will extend loyalty to Jacob, and loyal love to Abraham.

[7:20]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “our fathers.” The Hebrew term refers here to more distant ancestors, not immediate parents.

[7:20]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “which you swore [or, “pledged”] to our fathers from days of old.”

[1:54]  ¹⁹ tn Or “because he remembered mercy,” understanding the infinitive as causal.

[1:54]  ²⁰ tn Or “his [God’s] loyal love.”

[1:55]  ²¹ tn Grk “as he spoke.” Since this is a reference to the covenant to Abraham, ἐλάλησεν (elalhsen) can be translated in context “as he promised.” God keeps his word.

[1:55]  ²² tn Grk “fathers.”

[1:55]  ²³ tn Grk “his seed” (an idiom for offspring or descendants).

[3:25]  ²⁴ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[3:25]  ²⁵ tn Or “in your offspring”; Grk “in your seed.”

[3:25]  ²⁶ tn Or “families.” The Greek word πατριά (patria) can indicate persons of succeeding generations who are related by birth (“lineage,” “family”) but it can also indicate a relatively large unit of people who make up a sociopolitical group and who share a presumed biological descent. In many contexts πατριά is very similar to ἔθνος (eqnos) and λαός (laos). In light of the context of the OT quotation, it is better to translate πατριά as “nations” here.

[3:25]  ²⁷ sn A quotation from Gen 22:18.

[13:32]  ²⁸ tn Or “to our forefathers”; Grk “the fathers.”

[13:33]  ²⁹ tn Grk “that this”; the referent (the promise mentioned in the previous verse) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:33]  ³⁰ tn Or “by resurrecting.” The participle ἀναστήσας (anasthsa") is taken as instrumental here.

[13:33]  ³¹ sn You are my Son. The key to how the quotation is used is the naming of Jesus as “Son” to the Father. The language is that of kingship, as Ps 2 indicates. Here is the promise about what the ultimate Davidic heir would be.

[13:33]  ³² tn Grk “I have begotten you.” The traditional translation for γεγέννηκα (gegennhka, “begotten”) is misleading to the modern English reader because it is no longer in common use. Today one speaks of “fathering” a child in much the same way speakers of English formerly spoke of “begetting a child.”

[15:8]  ³³ tn Grk “of the circumcision”; that is, the Jews.

[15:8]  ³⁴ tn Or “to the patriarchs.”