Genesis 21:7

21:7 She went on to say, ¹  “Who would ²  have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son for him in his old age!”

Genesis 21:1

The Birth of Isaac

21:1 The Lord visited ³  Sarah just as he had said he would and did ⁴  for Sarah what he had promised. ⁵ 

Genesis 1:23

1:23 There was evening, and there was morning, a fifth day.

Lamentations 4:3-4

ג (Gimel)

4:3 Even the jackals ⁶  nurse their young

at their breast, ⁷ 

but my people ⁸  are cruel,

like ostriches ⁹  in the desert.

ד (Dalet)

4:4 The infant’s tongue sticks

to the roof of its mouth due to thirst;

little children beg for bread, ¹⁰ 

but no one gives them even a morsel. ¹¹ 

¹ tn Heb “said.”

² tn The perfect form of the verb is used here to describe a hypothetical situation.

³ 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 Lord “visits.” For a more detailed study of the term, see G. André, Determining the Destiny (ConBOT).

⁴ tn Heb “and the Lord did.” The divine name has not been repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁵ tn Heb “spoken.”

⁶ tn The noun תַּנִּין (tannin) means “jackals.” The plural ending ־ִין (-in) is diminutive (GKC 242 §87.e) (e.g., Lam 1:4).

⁷ tn Heb “draw out the breast and suckle their young.”

⁸ tn Heb “the daughter of my people.”

⁹ tc The MT Kethib form כִּי עֵנִים (ki ’enim) is by all accounts a textual corruption for כַּיְעֵנִים (kay’enim, “like ostriches”) which is preserved in the Qere and the medieval Hebrew mss, and reflected in the LXX.

¹⁰ tn Heb “bread.” The term “bread” might function as a synecdoche of specific (= bread) for general (= food); however, the following parallel line does indeed focus on the act of breaking bread in two.

¹¹ tn Heb “there is not a divider to them.” The term פָּרַשׂ (paras), Qal active participle ms from פָּרַס (paras, “to divide”) refers to the action of breaking bread in two before giving it to a person to eat (Isa 58:7; Jer 16:7; Lam 4:4). The form פָּרַשׂ (paras) is the alternate spelling of the more common פָּרַס (paras).