Genesis 21:17

21:17 But God heard the boy’s voice. ¹  The angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and asked her, “What is the matter, ²  Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard ³  the boy’s voice right where he is crying.

Genesis 21:1

The Birth of Isaac

21:1 The Lord visited ⁴  Sarah just as he had said he would and did ⁵  for Sarah what he had promised. ⁶ 

Genesis 11:5

11:5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people ⁷  had started ⁸  building.

Genesis 11:2

11:2 When the people ⁹  moved eastward, ¹⁰  they found a plain in Shinar ¹¹  and settled there.

Genesis 14:5

14:5 In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings who were his allies came and defeated ¹²  the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim,

Genesis 14:2

14:2 went to war ¹³  against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). ¹⁴ 

Genesis 6:1

God’s Grief over Humankind’s Wickedness

6:1 When humankind ¹⁵  began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born ¹⁶  to them, ¹⁷ 

Psalms 114:5

114:5 Why do you flee, O sea?

Why do you turn back, O Jordan River?

Isaiah 22:1

The Lord Will Judge Jerusalem

22:1 Here is a message about the Valley of Vision: ¹⁸ 

What is the reason ¹⁹ 

that all of you go up to the rooftops?

[21:17]  ¹ sn God heard the boy’s voice. The text has not to this point indicated that Ishmael was crying out, either in pain or in prayer. But the text here makes it clear that God heard him. Ishmael is clearly central to the story. Both the mother and the Lord are focused on the child’s imminent death.

[21:17]  ² tn Heb “What to you?”

[21:17]  ³ sn Here the verb heard picks up the main motif of the name Ishmael (“God hears”), introduced back in chap. 16.

[21:1]  ⁴ sn The Hebrew verb translated “visit” (פָּקַד, paqad ) often describes divine intervention for blessing or cursing; it indicates God’s special attention to an individual or a matter, always with respect to his people’s destiny. He may visit (that is, destroy) the Amalekites; he may visit (that is, deliver) his people in Egypt. Here he visits Sarah, to allow her to have the promised child. One’s destiny is changed when the Lord “visits.” For a more detailed study of the term, see G. André, Determining the Destiny (ConBOT).

[21:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the Lord did.” The divine name has not been repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “spoken.”

[11:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “the sons of man.” The phrase is intended in this polemic to portray the builders as mere mortals, not the lesser deities that the Babylonians claimed built the city.

[11:5]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text simply has בָּנוּ (banu), but since v. 8 says they left off building the city, an ingressive idea (“had started building”) should be understood here.

[11:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:2]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps “from the east” (NRSV) or “in the east.”

[11:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in the land of Shinar.”

[14:5]  ¹² tn The Hebrew verb נָכָה (nakhah) means “to attack, to strike, to smite.” In this context it appears that the strike was successful, and so a translation of “defeated” is preferable.

[14:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “made war.”

[14:2]  ¹⁴ sn On the geographical background of vv. 1-2 see J. P. Harland, “Sodom and Gomorrah,” The Biblical Archaeologist Reader, 1:41-75; and D. N. Freedman, “The Real Story of the Ebla Tablets, Ebla and the Cities of the Plain,” BA 41 (1978): 143-64.

[6:1]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text has the article prefixed to the noun. Here the article indicates the generic use of the word אָדָם (’adam): “humankind.”

[6:1]  ¹⁶ tn This disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) is circumstantial to the initial temporal clause. It could be rendered, “with daughters being born to them.” For another example of such a disjunctive clause following the construction וַיְהִיכִּי (vayÿhiki, “and it came to pass when”), see 2 Sam 7:1.

[6:1]  ¹⁷ tn The pronominal suffix is third masculine plural, indicating that the antecedent “humankind” is collective.

[22:1]  ¹⁸ sn The following message pertains to Jerusalem. The significance of referring to the city as the Valley of Vision is uncertain. Perhaps the Hinnom Valley is in view, but why it is associated with a prophetic revelatory “vision” is not entirely clear. Maybe the Hinnom Valley is called this because the destruction that will take place there is the focal point of this prophetic message (see v. 5).

[22:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “What to you, then?”