1 Chronicles 28:5

28:5 From all the many sons the Lord has given me, he chose Solomon my son to rule on his behalf over Israel. ¹ 

Genesis 33:5

33:5 When Esau ²  looked up ³  and saw the women and the children, he asked, “Who are these people with you?” Jacob ⁴  replied, “The children whom God has graciously given ⁵  your servant.”

Psalms 127:3

127:3 Yes, ⁶  sons ⁷  are a gift from the Lord,

the fruit of the womb is a reward.

Isaiah 8:18

8:18 Look, I and the sons whom the Lord has given me ⁸  are reminders and object lessons ⁹  in Israel, sent from the Lord who commands armies, who lives on Mount Zion.

[28:5]  ¹ tn Heb “from all my sons, for many sons the Lord has given to me, he chose Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel.”

[33:5]  ² tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:5]  ³ tn Heb “lifted up his eyes.”

[33:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:5]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew verb means “to be gracious; to show favor”; here it carries the nuance “to give graciously.”

[127:3]  ⁶ tn or “look.”

[127:3]  ⁷ tn Some prefer to translate this term with the gender neutral “children,” but “sons” are plainly in view here, as the following verses make clear. Daughters are certainly wonderful additions to a family, but in ancient Israelite culture sons were the “arrows” that gave a man security in his old age, for they could defend the family interests at the city gate, where the legal and economic issues of the community were settled.

[8:18]  ⁸ sn This refers to Shear-jashub (7:3) and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (8:1, 3).

[8:18]  ⁹ tn Or “signs and portents” (NAB, NRSV). The names of all three individuals has symbolic value. Isaiah’s name (which meant “the Lord delivers”) was a reminder that the Lord was the nation’s only source of protection; Shear-jashub’s name was meant, at least originally, to encourage Ahaz (see the note at 7:3), and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz’s name was a guarantee that God would defeat Israel and Syria (see the note at 8:4). The word מוֹפֶת (mofet, “portent”) can often refer to some miraculous event, but in 20:3 it is used, along with its synonym אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) of Isaiah’s walking around half-naked as an object lesson of what would soon happen to the Egyptians.