Genesis 12:2

12:2 Then I will make you ¹  into a great nation, and I will bless you, ² 

and I will make your name great, ³ 

so that you will exemplify divine blessing. ⁴ 

Genesis 24:35

24:35 “The Lord has richly blessed my master and he has become very wealthy. ⁵  The Lord ⁶  has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female servants, and camels and donkeys.

Genesis 26:12

26:12 When Isaac planted in that land, he reaped in the same year a hundred times what he had sown, ⁷  because the Lord blessed him. ⁸ 

Genesis 30:27

30:27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, please stay here, ⁹  for I have learned by divination ¹⁰  that the Lord has blessed me on account of you.”

Genesis 39:5

39:5 From the time ¹¹  Potiphar ¹²  appointed him over his household and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed ¹³  the Egyptian’s household for Joseph’s sake. The blessing of the Lord was on everything that he had, both ¹⁴  in his house and in his fields. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 90:17

90:17 May our sovereign God extend his favor to us! ¹⁶ 

Make our endeavors successful!

Yes, make them successful! ¹⁷ 

[12:2]  ¹ tn The three first person verbs in v. 2a should be classified as cohortatives. The first two have pronominal suffixes, so the form itself does not indicate a cohortative. The third verb form is clearly cohortative.

[12:2]  ² sn I will bless you. The blessing of creation is now carried forward to the patriarch. In the garden God blessed Adam and Eve; in that blessing he gave them (1) a fruitful place, (2) endowed them with fertility to multiply, and (3) made them rulers over creation. That was all ruined at the fall. Now God begins to build his covenant people; in Gen 12-22 he promises to give Abram (1) a land flowing with milk and honey, (2) a great nation without number, and (3) kingship.

[12:2]  ³ tn Or “I will make you famous.”

[12:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and be a blessing.” The verb form הְיֵה (hÿyeh) is the Qal imperative of the verb הָיָה (hayah). The vav (ו) with the imperative after the cohortatives indicates purpose or consequence. What does it mean for Abram to “be a blessing”? Will he be a channel or source of blessing for others, or a prime example of divine blessing? A similar statement occurs in Zech 8:13, where God assures his people, “You will be a blessing,” in contrast to the past when they “were a curse.” Certainly “curse” here does not refer to Israel being a source of a curse, but rather to the fact that they became a curse-word or byword among the nations, who regarded them as the epitome of an accursed people (see 2 Kgs 22:19; Jer 42:18; 44:8, 12, 22). Therefore the statement “be a blessing” seems to refer to Israel being transformed into a prime example of a blessed people, whose name will be used in blessing formulae, rather than in curses. If the statement “be a blessing” is understood in the same way in Gen 12:2, then it means that God would so bless Abram that other nations would hear of his fame and hold him up as a paradigm of divine blessing in their blessing formulae.

[24:35]  ⁵ tn Heb “great.” In this context the statement refers primarily to Abraham’s material wealth, although reputation and influence are not excluded.

[24:35]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he.” The referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[26:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “a hundredfold.”

[26:12]  ⁸ tn This final clause explains why Isaac had such a bountiful harvest.

[30:27]  ⁹ tn The words “please stay here” have been supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

[30:27]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps “I have grown rich and the Lord has blessed me” (cf. NEB). See J. Finkelstein, “An Old Babylonian Herding Contract and Genesis 31:38f.,” JAOS 88 (1968): 34, n. 19.

[39:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and it was from then.”

[39:5]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Potiphar) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[39:5]  ¹³ sn The Hebrew word translated blessed carries the idea of enrichment, prosperity, success. It is the way believers describe success at the hand of God. The text illustrates the promise made to Abraham that whoever blesses his descendants will be blessed (Gen 12:1-3).

[39:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the house and in the field.” The word “both” has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[39:5]  ¹⁵ sn The passage gives us a good picture of Joseph as a young man who was responsible and faithful, both to his master and to his God. This happened within a very short time of his being sold into Egypt. It undermines the view that Joseph was a liar, a tattletale, and an arrogant adolescent.

[90:17]  ¹⁶ 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 Lord’s “beauty,” but here it seems to refer to his favor (see BDB 653 s.v.) or kindness (HALOT 706 s.v.).

[90:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and the work of our hands establish over us, and the work of our hands, establish it.”