21:6 Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. 4 Everyone who hears about this 5 will laugh 6 with me.”
66:9 “Do I bring a baby to the birth opening and then not deliver it?”
asks the Lord.
“Or do I bring a baby to the point of delivery and then hold it back?”
asks your God. 7
66:10 Be happy for Jerusalem
and rejoice with her, all you who love her!
Share in her great joy,
all you who have mourned over her!
12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, 8 by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God 9 – which is your reasonable service.
1 tn Grk “This will be joy and gladness.”
2 tn Or “because of.”
3 tn “At his birth” is more precise as the grammatical subject (1:58), though “at his coming” is a possible force, since it is his mission, as the following verses note, that will really bring joy.
4 tn Heb “Laughter God has made for me.”
5 tn The words “about this” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
6 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).
7 sn The rhetorical questions expect the answer, “Of course not!”
8 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.
9 tn The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See ExSyn 618-19.