Genesis 18:13-14

18:13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why ¹  did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really ²  have a child when I am old?’ 18:14 Is anything impossible ³  for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” ⁴ 

Numbers 11:21-23

11:21 Moses said, “The people around me ⁵  are 600,000 on foot; ⁶  but you say, ‘I will give them meat, ⁷  that they may eat ⁸  for a whole month.’ 11:22 Would they have enough if the flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? If all the fish of the sea were caught for them, would they have enough?” 11:23 And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s hand shortened? ⁹  Now you will see whether my word to you will come true ¹⁰  or not!”

Numbers 11:2

11:2 When the people cried to Moses, he ¹¹  prayed to the Lord, and the fire died out. ¹² 

Numbers 7:2

7:2 Then the leaders of Israel, the heads of their clans, ¹³  made an offering. They were the leaders of the tribes; they were the ones who had been supervising ¹⁴  the numbering.

Zechariah 8:6

8:6 And,’ says the Lord who rules over all, ‘though such a thing may seem to be difficult in the opinion of the small community of those days, will it also appear difficult to me?’ asks the Lord who rules over all.

Matthew 19:26

19:26 Jesus ¹⁵  looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, ¹⁶  but for God all things are possible.”

Luke 18:27

18:27 He replied, “What is impossible ¹⁷  for mere humans ¹⁸  is possible for God.”

¹ tn Heb “Why, this?” The demonstrative pronoun following the interrogative pronoun is enclitic, emphasizing the Lord’s amazement: “Why on earth did Sarah laugh?”

² tn The Hebrew construction uses both הַאַף (ha’af) and אֻמְנָם (’umnam): “Indeed, truly, will I have a child?”

³ tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”

⁴ 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 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.

⁵ tn Heb “the people who I am in their midst,” i.e., among whom I am.

⁶ tn The Hebrew sentence stresses the number. The sentence begins “600,000….”

⁷ tn The word order places the object first here: “Meat I will give them.” This adds to the contrast between the number and the statement of the Lord.

⁸ tn The verb is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the sequence from the preceding imperfect tense. However, this verb may be subordinated to the preceding to express a purpose clause.

⁹ sn This anthropomorphic expression concerns the power of God. The “hand of the Lord” is idiomatic for his power, what he is able to do. The question is rhetorical; it is affirming that his hand is not shortened, i.e., that his power is not limited. Moses should have known this, and so this is a rebuke for him at this point. God had provided the manna, among all the other powerful acts they had witnessed. Meat would be no problem. But the lack of faith by the people was infectious.

¹⁰ tn Or “will happen” (TEV); KJV “shall come to pass unto thee.”

¹¹ tn Heb “Moses.”

¹² sn Here is the pattern that will become in the wilderness experience so common – the complaining turns to a cry to Moses, which is then interpreted as a prayer to the Lord, and there is healing. The sequence presents a symbolic lesson, an illustration of the intercession of the Holy Spirit. The NT will say that in times of suffering Christians do not know how to pray, but the Spirit intercedes for them, changing their cries into the proper prayers (Rom 8).

¹³ tn Heb “the house of their fathers.”

¹⁴ tn The form is the Qal active participle from the verb “to stand” (עָמַד, ’amad). The form describes these leaders as “the ones standing over [the ones numbered].” The expression, along with the clear indication of the first census in chapter 1, shows that this was a supervisory capacity.

¹⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

¹⁶ tn The plural Greek term ἄνθρωποις (anqrwpois) is used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women (cf. NASB 1995 update, “people”). Because of the contrast here between mere mortals and God (“impossible for men, but for God all things are possible”) the phrase “mere humans” has been used in the translation. There may also be a slight wordplay with “the Son of Man” in v. 28.

¹⁷ sn The term impossible is in the emphatic position in the Greek text. God makes the impossible possible.

¹⁸ tn The plural Greek term ἄνθρωποις (anqrwpois) is used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women (cf. NASB 1995 update, “people”). Because of the contrast here between mere mortals and God (“impossible for men…possible for God”) the phrase “mere humans” has been used in the translation.