Isaiah 44:3

44:3 For I will pour water on the parched ground ¹ 

and cause streams to flow ²  on the dry land.

I will pour my spirit on your offspring

and my blessing on your children.

Genesis 22:18

22:18 Because you have obeyed me, ³  all the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ⁴  using the name of your descendants.’”

Zechariah 8:13

8:13 And it will come about that just as you (both Judah and Israel) were a curse to the nations, so I will save you and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid! Instead, be strong!’

Romans 9:3-4

9:3 For I could wish ⁵  that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people, ⁶  my fellow countrymen, ⁷  9:4 who are Israelites. To them belong ⁸  the adoption as sons, ⁹  the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, ¹⁰  and the promises.

¹ tn Heb “the thirsty.” Parallelism suggests that dry ground is in view (see “dry land” in the next line.)

² tn Heb “and streams”; KJV “floods.” The verb “cause…to flow” is supplied in the second line for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

³ tn In the Hebrew text this causal clause comes at the end of the sentence. The translation alters the word order for stylistic reasons.

⁴ tn Traditionally the verb is taken as passive (“will be blessed”) here, as if Abraham’s descendants were going to be a channel or source of blessing to the nations. But the Hitpael is better understood here as reflexive/reciprocal, “will bless [i.e., pronounce blessings on] themselves/one another” (see also Gen 26:4). Elsewhere the Hitpael of the verb “to bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 12:2 predicts that Abram will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11. Earlier formulations of this promise (see Gen 12:2; 18:18) use the Niphal stem. (See also Gen 28:14.)

⁵ tn Or “For I would pray.” The implied condition is “if this could save my fellow Jews.”

⁶ tn Grk “brothers.” See BDAG 18-19 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.b.

⁷ tn Grk “my kinsmen according to the flesh.”

⁸ tn Grk “of whom.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

⁹ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).” Although some modern translations remove the filial sense completely and render the term merely “adoption” (cf. NAB, ESV), the retention of this component of meaning was accomplished in the present translation by the phrase “as sons.”

¹⁰ tn Or “cultic service.”