Genesis 10:8-9

10:8 Cush was the father of ¹  Nimrod; he began to be a valiant warrior on the earth. 10:9 He was a mighty hunter ²  before the Lord. ³  (That is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord.”)

Genesis 10:2

10:2 The sons of Japheth ⁴  were Gomer, ⁵  Magog, ⁶  Madai, ⁷  Javan, ⁸  Tubal, ⁹  Meshech, ¹⁰  and Tiras. ¹¹ 

Genesis 12:2-4

12:2 Then I will make you ¹²  into a great nation, and I will bless you, ¹³ 

and I will make your name great, ¹⁴ 

so that you will exemplify divine blessing. ¹⁵ 

12:3 I will bless those who bless you, ¹⁶ 

but the one who treats you lightly ¹⁷  I must curse,

and all the families of the earth will bless one another ¹⁸  by your name.”

12:4 So Abram left, ¹⁹  just as the Lord had told him to do, ²⁰  and Lot went with him. (Now ²¹  Abram was 75 years old ²²  when he departed from Haran.)

Genesis 14:9

14:9 Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of nations, ²³  Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar. Four kings fought against ²⁴  five.

Genesis 16:8

16:8 He said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from ²⁵  my mistress, Sarai.”

[10:8]  ¹ tn Heb “fathered.” Embedded within Cush’s genealogy is an account of Nimrod, a mighty warrior. There have been many attempts to identify him, but none are convincing.

[10:9]  ² tn The Hebrew word for “hunt” is צַיִד (tsayid), which is used on occasion for hunting men (1 Sam 24:12; Jer 16:16; Lam 3:15).

[10:9]  ³ tn Another option is to take the divine name here, לִפְנֵי יִהוָה (lifne yÿhvah, “before the Lord [YHWH]”), as a means of expressing the superlative degree. In this case one may translate “Nimrod was the greatest hunter in the world.”

[10:2]  ⁴ sn The Greek form of the name Japheth, Iapetos, is used in Greek tradition for the ancestor of the Greeks.

[10:2]  ⁵ sn Gomer was the ancestor of the Cimmerians. For a discussion of the Cimmerians see E. M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier (SBA), 49-61.

[10:2]  ⁶ sn For a discussion of various proposals concerning the descendants of Magog see E. M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier (SBA), 22-24.

[10:2]  ⁷ sn Madai was the ancestor of the Medes, who lived east of Assyria.

[10:2]  ⁸ sn Javan was the father of the Hellenic race, the Ionians who lived in western Asia Minor.

[10:2]  ⁹ sn Tubal was the ancestor of militaristic tribes that lived north of the Black Sea. For a discussion of ancient references to Tubal see E. M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier (SBA), 24-26.

[10:2]  ¹⁰ sn Meshech was the ancestor of the people known in Assyrian records as the Musku. For a discussion of ancient references to them see E. M. Yamauchi, Foes from the Northern Frontier (SBA), 24-26.

[10:2]  ¹¹ sn Tiras was the ancestor of the Thracians, some of whom possibly became the Pelasgian pirates of the Aegean.

[12:2]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Or “I will make you famous.”

[12:2]  ¹⁵ 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.

[12:3]  ¹⁶ tn The Piel cohortative has as its object a Piel participle, masculine plural. Since the Lord binds himself to Abram by covenant, those who enrich Abram in any way share in the blessings.

[12:3]  ¹⁷ tn In this part of God’s statement there are two significant changes that often go unnoticed. First, the parallel and contrasting participle מְקַלֶּלְךָ (mÿqallelkha) is now singular and not plural. All the versions and a few Masoretic mss read the plural. But if it had been plural, there would be no reason to change it to the singular and alter the parallelism. On the other hand, if it was indeed singular, it is easy to see why the versions would change it to match the first participle. The MT preserves the original reading: “the one who treats you lightly.” The point would be a contrast with the lavish way that God desires to bless many. The second change is in the vocabulary. The English usually says, “I will curse those who curse you.” But there are two different words for curse here. The first is קָלַל (qalal), which means “to be light” in the Qal, and in the Piel “to treat lightly, to treat with contempt, to curse.” The second verb is אָרַר (’arar), which means “to banish, to remove from the blessing.” The point is simple: Whoever treats Abram and the covenant with contempt as worthless God will banish from the blessing. It is important also to note that the verb is not a cohortative, but a simple imperfect. Since God is binding himself to Abram, this would then be an obligatory imperfect: “but the one who treats you with contempt I must curse.”

[12:3]  ¹⁸ tn Theoretically the Niphal can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of “bless” is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Abram were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in later formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation “will bless [i.e., “pronounce blessings on”] themselves [or “one another”].” The Hitpael of “bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 12:2 predicts that Abram will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.

[12:4]  ¹⁹ sn So Abram left. This is the report of Abram’s obedience to God’s command (see v. 1).

[12:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “just as the Lord said to him.”

[12:4]  ²¹ tn The disjunctive clause (note the pattern conjunction + subject + implied “to be” verb) is parenthetical, telling the age of Abram when he left Haran.

[12:4]  ²² tn Heb “was the son of five years and seventy year[s].”

[14:9]  ²³ tn Or “Goyim.” See the note on the word “nations” in 14:1.

[14:9]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew text has simply “against.” The word “fought” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:8]  ²⁵ tn Heb “from the presence of.”