24:1 Joshua assembled all the Israelite tribes at Shechem. He summoned Israel’s elders, rulers, judges, and leaders, and they appeared before God.
1:1 After Moses the Lord’s servant died, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant:
51:2 Look at Abraham, your father,
and Sarah, who gave you birth. 11
When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, 12
but I blessed him 13 and gave him numerous descendants. 14
1 tn Or “she conceived.”
2 tn Heb “the one born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.” The two modifying clauses, the first introduced with an article and the second with the relative pronoun, are placed in the middle of the sentence, before the name Isaac is stated. They are meant to underscore that this was indeed an actual birth to Abraham and Sarah in fulfillment of the promise.
3 tn Heb “Isaac his son, the son of eight days.” The name “Isaac” is repeated in the translation for clarity.
4 sn Just as God had commanded him to do. With the birth of the promised child, Abraham obeyed the
5 tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause underscores how miraculous this birth was. Abraham was 100 years old. The fact that the genealogies give the ages of the fathers when their first son is born shows that this was considered a major milestone in one’s life (G. J. Wenham, Genesis [WBC], 2:80).
6 tn Heb “your fathers.”
7 tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.
8 tn Or “served.”
9 tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tn Or “through.”
11 sn Although Abraham and Sarah are distant ancestors of the people the prophet is addressing, they are spoken of as the immediate parents.
12 tn Heb “one”; NLT “was alone”; TEV “was childless.”
13 tn “Bless” may here carry the sense of “endue with potency, reproductive power.” See Gen 1:28.
14 tn Heb “and I made him numerous.”
15 sn The list now picks up names from Gen 11:10-26; 5:1-32; 1 Chr 1:1-26, especially 1:24-26.
16 tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
17 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 sn God gave…the covenant. Note how the covenant of promise came before Abraham’s entry into the land and before the building of the temple.
19 tn Grk “circumcised him on the eighth day,” but many modern readers will not understand that this procedure was done on the eighth day after birth. The temporal clause “when he was eight days old” conveys this idea more clearly. See Gen 17:11-12.
20 tn The words “became the father of” are not in the Greek text due to an ellipsis, but must be supplied for the English translation. The ellipsis picks up the verb from the previous clause describing how Abraham fathered Isaac.
21 sn The twelve patriarchs refers to the twelve sons of Jacob, the famous ancestors of the Jewish race (see Gen 35:23-26).
22 tn Grk “be called.” The emphasis here is upon God’s divine sovereignty in choosing Isaac as the child through whom Abraham’s lineage would be counted as opposed to Ishmael.
23 tn Grk “That is,” or “That is to say.”
24 tn Because it forms the counterpoint to “the children of promise” the expression “children of the flesh” has been retained in the translation.
25 tn Grk “For this is the word of promise.”
26 tn Grk “About this time I will return.” Since this refers to the time when the promised child would be born, it would be approximately a year later.
27 sn A quotation from Gen 18:10, 14.
28 tn Grk “past the time of maturity.”
29 tn Grk “power to deposit seed.” Though it is not as likely, some construe this phrase to mean “power to conceive seed,” making the whole verse about Sarah: “by faith, even though Sarah herself was barren and too old, she received ability to conceive, because she regarded the one who had given the promise to be trustworthy.”
30 tn Here “received the promises” refers to the pledges themselves, not to the things God promised.
31 tn Grk “he was offering up.” The tense of this verb indicates the attempt or readiness to sacrifice Isaac without the actual completion of the deed.
32 tn Grk “in Isaac seed will be named for you.”