17:15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; 3 Sarah 4 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. 5 Kings of countries 6 will come from her!”
17:17 Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed 7 as he said to himself, 8 “Can 9 a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? 10 Can Sarah 11 bear a child at the age of ninety?” 12 17:18 Abraham said to God, “O that 13 Ishmael might live before you!” 14
17:19 God said, “No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. 15 I will confirm my covenant with him as a perpetual 16 covenant for his descendants after him.
18:13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why 27 did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really 28 have a child when I am old?’ 18:14 Is anything impossible 29 for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” 30
21:1 The Lord visited 31 Sarah just as he had said he would and did 32 for Sarah what he had promised. 33 21:2 So Sarah became pregnant 34 and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him. 21:3 Abraham named his son – whom Sarah bore to him – Isaac. 35 21:4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, 36 Abraham circumcised him just as God had commanded him to do. 37 21:5 (Now Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.) 38
21:6 Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. 39 Everyone who hears about this 40 will laugh 41 with me.” 21:7 She went on to say, 42 “Who would 43 have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son for him in his old age!”
1 sn The name Sarai (a variant spelling of “Sarah”) means “princess” (or “lady”). Sharratu was the name of the wife of the moon god Sin. The original name may reflect the culture out of which the patriarch was called, for the family did worship other gods in Mesopotamia.
2 sn The name Milcah means “Queen.” But more to the point here is the fact that Malkatu was a title for Ishtar, the daughter of the moon god. If the women were named after such titles (and there is no evidence that this was the motivation for naming the girls “Princess” or “Queen”), that would not necessarily imply anything about the faith of the two women themselves.
3 tn Heb “[As for] Sarai your wife, you must not call her name Sarai, for Sarah [will be] her name.”
4 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.
5 tn Heb “she will become nations.”
6 tn Heb “peoples.”
7 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.
8 tn Heb “And he fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart.”
9 tn The imperfect verbal form here carries a potential nuance, as it expresses the disbelief of Abraham.
10 tn Heb “to the son of a hundred years.”
11 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).
12 tn Heb “the daughter of ninety years.”
13 tn The wish is introduced with the Hebrew particle לוּ (lu), “O that.”
14 tn Or “live with your blessing.”
15 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).
16 tn Or “as an eternal.”
17 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
18 tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, using the infinitive absolute with the imperfect tense.
19 tn Heb “as/when the time lives” or “revives,” possibly referring to the springtime.
20 tn Heb “and there will be (הִנֵּה, hinneh) a son for Sarah.”
21 tn This is the first of two disjunctive parenthetical clauses preparing the reader for Sarah’s response (see v. 12).
22 tn Heb “days.”
23 tn Heb “it had ceased to be for Sarah [after] a way like women.”
24 tn Heb “saying.”
25 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.
26 tn The word “too” has been added in the translation for stylistic reasons.
27 tn Heb “Why, this?” The demonstrative pronoun following the interrogative pronoun is enclitic, emphasizing the
28 tn The Hebrew construction uses both הַאַף (ha’af) and אֻמְנָם (’umnam): “Indeed, truly, will I have a child?”
29 tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”
30 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
31 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
32 tn Heb “and the
33 tn Heb “spoken.”
34 tn Or “she conceived.”
35 tn Heb “the one born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.” The two modifying clauses, the first introduced with an article and the second with the relative pronoun, are placed in the middle of the sentence, before the name Isaac is stated. They are meant to underscore that this was indeed an actual birth to Abraham and Sarah in fulfillment of the promise.
36 tn Heb “Isaac his son, the son of eight days.” The name “Isaac” is repeated in the translation for clarity.
37 sn Just as God had commanded him to do. With the birth of the promised child, Abraham obeyed the
38 tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause underscores how miraculous this birth was. Abraham was 100 years old. The fact that the genealogies give the ages of the fathers when their first son is born shows that this was considered a major milestone in one’s life (G. J. Wenham, Genesis [WBC], 2:80).
39 tn Heb “Laughter God has made for me.”
40 tn The words “about this” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
41 sn Sarah’s words play on the name “Isaac” in a final triumphant manner. God prepared “laughter” (צְחֹק, ysÿkhoq ) for her, and everyone who hears about this “will laugh” (יִצְחַק, yitskhaq ) with her. The laughter now signals great joy and fulfillment, not unbelief (cf. Gen 18:12-15).
42 tn Heb “said.”
43 tn The perfect form of the verb is used here to describe a hypothetical situation.
44 tc Most
45 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.