42:12 So the Lord blessed the second part of Job’s life more than the first. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
26:12 When Isaac planted in that land, he reaped in the same year a hundred times what he had sown, 1 because the Lord blessed him. 2
49:25 because of the God of your father,
who will help you, 8
because of the sovereign God, 9
who will bless you 10
with blessings from the sky above,
blessings from the deep that lies below,
and blessings of the breasts and womb. 11
33:11 Bless, O Lord, his goods,
and be pleased with his efforts;
undercut the legs 13 of any who attack him,
and of those who hate him, so that they cannot stand.
90:17 May our sovereign God extend his favor to us! 14
Make our endeavors successful!
Yes, make them successful! 15
107:38 He blessed 16 them so that they became very numerous.
He would not allow their cattle to decrease in number. 17
10:22 The blessing 18 from the Lord 19 makes a person rich, 20
and he adds no sorrow 21 to 22 it.
1 tn Heb “a hundredfold.”
2 tn This final clause explains why Isaac had such a bountiful harvest.
3 tn Or “for.”
4 tn Heb “before me.”
5 tn Heb “and it has broken out with respect to abundance.”
6 tn Heb “at my foot.”
7 tn Heb “How long [until] I do, also I, for my house?”
8 tn Heb “and he will help you.”
9 tn Heb “Shaddai.” See the note on the title “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1. The preposition אֵת (’et) in the Hebrew text should probably be emended to אֵל (’el, “God”).
10 tn Heb “and he will bless you.”
11 sn Jacob envisions God imparting both agricultural (blessings from the sky above, blessings from the deep that lies below) and human fertility (blessings of the breasts and womb) to Joseph and his family.
12 tn Heb “will bless the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
13 tn Heb “smash the sinews [or “loins,” so many English versions].” This part of the body was considered to be center of one’s strength (cf. Job 40:16; Ps 69:24; Prov 31:17; Nah 2:2, 11). See J. H. Tigay, Deuteronomy (JPSTC), 325.
14 tn Heb “and may the delight of the Master, our God, be on us.” The Hebrew term נֹעַם (no’am, “delight”) is used in Ps 27:4 of the
15 tn Heb “and the work of our hands establish over us, and the work of our hands, establish it.”
16 tn “Bless” here carries the nuance “endue with sexual potency, make fertile.” See Gen 1:28, where the statement “he blessed them” directly precedes the command “be fruitful and populate the earth” (see also 1:22). The verb “bless” carries this same nuance in Gen 17:16 (where God’s blessing of Sarai imparts to her the capacity to bear a child); 48:16 (where God’s blessing of Joseph’s sons is closely associated with their having numerous descendants); and Deut 7:13 (where God’s blessing is associated with fertility in general, including numerous descendants). See also Gen 49:25 (where Jacob uses the noun derivative in referring to “blessings of the breast and womb,” an obvious reference to fertility) and Gen 27:27 (where the verb is used of a field to which God has given the capacity to produce vegetation).
17 tn The verbal form in this line appears to be an imperfect, which may be taken as customary (drawing attention to typical action in a past time frame) or as generalizing (in which case one should use the English present tense, understanding a move from narrative to present reality).
18 tn The term בְּרָכָּה (bÿrakhah, “blessing”) refers to a gift, enrichment or endowment from the
19 tn Heb “of the
20 tn Heb “makes rich” (so NASB); NAB “brings wealth.” The direct object “a person” does not appear in the Hebrew but is implied by the Hiphil verb; it is supplied in the translation.
21 tn Heb “toil.” The noun עֶצֶב (’etsev) has a basic two-fold range of meanings: (1) “toil; labor” which produces pain and sorrow, and (2) “pain; sorrow” which is the result of toil and labor (BDB 780 s.v.). This is the word used of the curse of “toil” in man’s labor (Gen 3:17) and the “pain” in the woman’s child-bearing (Gen 3:16). God’s blessing is pure and untarnished – it does not bring physical pain or emotional sorrow.
22 tn Heb “with.”