17:15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; 1 Sarah 2 will be her name. 17:16 I will bless her and will give you a son through her. I will bless her and she will become a mother of nations. 3 Kings of countries 4 will come from her!”
17:17 Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed 5 as he said to himself, 6 “Can 7 a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? 8 Can Sarah 9 bear a child at the age of ninety?” 10 17:18 Abraham said to God, “O that 11 Ishmael might live before you!” 12
17:19 God said, “No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. 13 I will confirm my covenant with him as a perpetual 14 covenant for his descendants after him.
18:13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why 25 did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really 26 have a child when I am old?’ 18:14 Is anything impossible 27 for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” 28
21:1 The Lord visited 29 Sarah just as he had said he would and did 30 for Sarah what he had promised. 31 21:2 So Sarah became pregnant 32 and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him.
1 tn Heb “[As for] Sarai your wife, you must not call her name Sarai, for Sarah [will be] her name.”
2 sn Sarah. The name change seems to be a dialectical variation, both spellings meaning “princess” or “queen.” Like the name Abram, the name Sarai symbolized the past. The new name Sarah, like the name Abraham, would be a reminder of what God intended to do for Sarah in the future.
3 tn Heb “she will become nations.”
4 tn Heb “peoples.”
5 sn Laughed. The Hebrew verb used here provides the basis for the naming of Isaac: “And he laughed” is וַיִּצְחָק (vayyitskhaq); the name “Isaac” is יִצְחָק (yitskhaq), “he laughs.” Abraham’s (and Sarah’s, see 18:12) laughter signals disbelief, but when the boy is born, the laughter signals surprise and joy.
6 tn Heb “And he fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart.”
7 tn The imperfect verbal form here carries a potential nuance, as it expresses the disbelief of Abraham.
8 tn Heb “to the son of a hundred years.”
9 sn It is important to note that even though Abraham staggers at the announcement of the birth of a son, finding it almost too incredible, he nonetheless calls his wife Sarah, the new name given to remind him of the promise of God (v. 15).
10 tn Heb “the daughter of ninety years.”
11 tn The wish is introduced with the Hebrew particle לוּ (lu), “O that.”
12 tn Or “live with your blessing.”
13 tn Heb “will call his name Isaac.” The name means “he laughs,” or perhaps “may he laugh” (see the note on the word “laughed” in v. 17).
14 tn Or “as an eternal.”
15 tn Heb “he”; the referent (one of the three men introduced in v. 2) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Some English translations have specified the referent as the
16 tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, using the infinitive absolute with the imperfect tense.
17 tn Heb “as/when the time lives” or “revives,” possibly referring to the springtime.
18 tn Heb “and there will be (הִנֵּה, hinneh) a son for Sarah.”
19 tn This is the first of two disjunctive parenthetical clauses preparing the reader for Sarah’s response (see v. 12).
20 tn Heb “days.”
21 tn Heb “it had ceased to be for Sarah [after] a way like women.”
22 tn Heb “saying.”
23 tn It has been suggested that this word should be translated “conception,” not “pleasure.” See A. A. McIntosh, “A Third Root ‘adah in Biblical Hebrew,” VT 24 (1974): 454-73.
24 tn The word “too” has been added in the translation for stylistic reasons.
25 tn Heb “Why, this?” The demonstrative pronoun following the interrogative pronoun is enclitic, emphasizing the
26 tn The Hebrew construction uses both הַאַף (ha’af) and אֻמְנָם (’umnam): “Indeed, truly, will I have a child?”
27 tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”
28 sn 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
29 sn The Hebrew verb translated “visit” (פָּקַד, paqad ) often describes divine intervention for blessing or cursing; it indicates God’s special attention to an individual or a matter, always with respect to his people’s destiny. He may visit (that is, destroy) the Amalekites; he may visit (that is, deliver) his people in Egypt. Here he visits Sarah, to allow her to have the promised child. One’s destiny is changed when the
30 tn Heb “and the
31 tn Heb “spoken.”
32 tn Or “she conceived.”
33 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
34 tn Grk “who against hope believed,” referring to Abraham. The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
35 sn A quotation from Gen 17:5.
36 tn Grk “according to that which had been spoken.”
37 sn A quotation from Gen 15:5.
38 tc Most
39 tc ‡ Most witnesses (א A C D Ψ 33 Ï bo) have ἤδη (hdh, “already”) at this point in v. 19. But B F G 630 1739 1881 pc lat sa lack it. Since it appears to heighten the style of the narrative and since there is no easy accounting for an accidental omission, it is best to regard the shorter text as original. NA27 includes the word in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.
40 tn Grk “And he.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, δέ (de) has not been translated here.
41 tn Grk “and being.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
42 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
43 sn A quotation from Deut 30:14.
44 tn Grk “past the time of maturity.”
45 tn Grk “power to deposit seed.” Though it is not as likely, some construe this phrase to mean “power to conceive seed,” making the whole verse about Sarah: “by faith, even though Sarah herself was barren and too old, she received ability to conceive, because she regarded the one who had given the promise to be trustworthy.”