Genesis 35:18

35:18 With her dying breath, ¹  she named him Ben-Oni. ²  But his father called him Benjamin instead. ³ 

Genesis 1:8

1:8 God called the expanse “sky.” ⁴  There was evening, and there was morning, a second day.

Genesis 17:15

17:15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; ⁵  Sarah ⁶  will be her name.

Genesis 24:58

24:58 So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Do you want ⁷  to go with this man?” She replied, “I want to go.”

Genesis 28:1

28:1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman! ⁸ 

Genesis 28:19

28:19 He called that place Bethel, ⁹  although the former name of the town was Luz.

¹ tn Heb “in the going out of her life, for she was dying.” Rachel named the child with her dying breath.

² sn The name Ben-Oni means “son of my suffering.” It is ironic that Rachel’s words to Jacob in Gen 30:1, “Give me children or I’ll die,” take a different turn here, for it was having the child that brought about her death.

³ tn The disjunctive clause is contrastive.

⁴ tn Though the Hebrew word can mean “heaven,” it refers in this context to “the sky.”

⁷ tn Heb “[As for] Sarai your wife, you must not call her name Sarai, for Sarah [will be] her name.”

⁸ 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.

¹⁰ tn The imperfect verbal form here has a modal nuance, expressing desire.

¹³ tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”

¹⁶ tn The name Bethel means “house of God” in Hebrew (see v. 17).