1 Chronicles 17:2

17:2 Nathan said to David, “You should do whatever you have in mind,¹ for God is with you.”

Genesis 28:15

28:15 I am with you!² I will protect you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you!”

Genesis 28:1

28:1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman!³

Genesis 18:14

18:14 Is anything impossible⁴ for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.”⁵

Genesis 18:28

18:28 what if there are five less than the fifty godly people? Will you destroy⁶ the whole city because five are lacking?”⁷ He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

Genesis 18:2

18:2 Abraham⁸ looked up⁹ and saw¹⁰ three men standing across¹¹ from him. When he saw them¹² he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed low¹³ to the ground.¹⁴

Genesis 7:9

7:9 male and female, came into the ark to Noah,¹⁵ just as God had commanded him.¹⁶

Genesis 8:6

8:6 At the end of forty days,¹⁷ Noah opened the window he had made in the ark¹⁸

Genesis 8:8

8:8 Then Noah¹⁹ sent out a dove²⁰ to see if the waters had receded²¹ from the surface of the ground.

Genesis 8:14

8:14 And by the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth²² was dry.

Psalms 46:7

46:7 The Lord who commands armies is on our side!²³

The God of Jacob²⁴ is our protector!²⁵ (Selah)

Psalms 46:11

46:11 The Lord who commands armies is on our side!²⁶

The God of Jacob²⁷ is our protector!²⁸ (Selah)

¹tn Heb “all which is in your heart.”

²tn Heb “Look, I [am] with you.” The clause is a nominal clause; the verb to be supplied could be present (as in the translation) or future, “Look, I [will be] with you” (cf. NEB).

³tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”

⁴tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”

⁵sn Sarah will have a son. The passage brings God’s promise into clear focus. As long as it was a promise for the future, it really could be believed without much involvement. But now, when it seemed so impossible from the human standpoint, when the Lord fixed an exact date for the birth of the child, the promise became rather overwhelming to Abraham and Sarah. But then this was the Lord of creation, the one they had come to trust. The point of these narratives is that the creation of Abraham’s offspring, which eventually became Israel, is no less a miraculous work of creation than the creation of the world itself.

⁶tn The Hebrew verb שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to destroy”) was used earlier to describe the effect of the flood.

⁷tn Heb “because of five.”

⁸tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹tn Heb “lifted up his eyes.”

¹⁰tn Heb “and saw, and look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) draws attention to what he saw. The drawn-out description focuses the reader’s attention on Abraham’s deliberate, fixed gaze and indicates that what he is seeing is significant.

¹¹tn The Hebrew preposition עַל (’al) indicates the three men were nearby, but not close by, for Abraham had to run to meet them.

¹²tn The pronoun “them” has been supplied in the translation for clarification. In the Hebrew text the verb has no stated object.

¹³tn The form וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ (vayyishtakhu, “and bowed low”) is from the verb הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה (hishtakhavah, “to worship, bow low to the ground”). It is probably from a root חָוָה (khavah), though some derive it from שָׁחָה (shakhah).

¹⁴sn The reader knows this is a theophany. The three visitors are probably the Lord and two angels (see Gen 19:1). It is not certain how soon Abraham recognized the true identity of the visitors. His actions suggest he suspected this was something out of the ordinary, though it is possible that his lavish treatment of the visitors was done quite unwittingly. Bowing down to the ground would be reserved for obeisance of kings or worship of the Lord. Whether he was aware of it or not, Abraham’s action was most appropriate.

¹⁵tn The Hebrew text of vv. 8-9a reads, “From the clean animal[s] and from the animal[s] which are not clean and from the bird[s] and everything that creeps on the ground, two two they came to Noah to the ark, male and female.”

¹⁶tn Heb “Noah”; the pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁷tn The introductory verbal form וַיְהִי (vayÿhi), traditionally rendered “and it came to pass,” serves as a temporal indicator and has not been translated here.

¹⁸tn Heb “opened the window in the ark which he had made.” The perfect tense (“had made”) refers to action preceding the opening of the window, and is therefore rendered as a past perfect. Since in English “had made” could refer to either the ark or the window, the order of the phrases was reversed in the translation to clarify that the window is the referent.

¹⁹tn Heb “he”; the referent (Noah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁰tn The Hebrew text adds “from him.” This has not been translated for stylistic reasons, because it is redundant in English.

²¹tn The Hebrew verb קָלָל (qalal) normally means “to be light, to be slight”; it refers here to the waters receding.

²²tn In v. 13 the ground (הָאֲדָמָה, ha’adamah) is dry; now the earth (הָאָרֶץ, ha’arets) is dry.

²³tn Heb “the Lord of hosts is with us.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Ps 24:10). The military imagery is further developed in vv. 8-9.

²⁴tn That is, Israel, or Judah (see Ps 20:1).

²⁵tn Heb “our elevated place” (see Pss 9:9; 18:2).

²⁶tn Heb “the Lord of hosts is with us.” The title “Lord of hosts” here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle (see Ps 24:10). The military imagery is further developed in vv. 8-9.

²⁷tn That is, Israel, or Judah (see Ps 20:1).

²⁸tn Heb “our elevated place” (see Pss 9:9; 18:2).