Genesis 11:31-32

11:31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (the son of Haran), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and with them he set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. When they came to Haran, they settled there. 11:32 The lifetime ¹  of Terah was 205 years, and he ²  died in Haran.

Genesis 12:4

12:4 So Abram left, ³  just as the Lord had told him to do, ⁴  and Lot went with him. (Now ⁵  Abram was 75 years old ⁶  when he departed from Haran.)

Genesis 12:2

12:2 Then I will make you ⁷  into a great nation, and I will bless you, ⁸ 

and I will make your name great, ⁹ 

so that you will exemplify divine blessing. ¹⁰ 

Genesis 19:12

19:12 Then the two visitors ¹¹  said to Lot, “Who else do you have here? ¹²  Do you have ¹³  any sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or other relatives in the city? ¹⁴  Get them out of this ¹⁵  place

Isaiah 37:12

37:12 Were the nations whom my predecessors ¹⁶  destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods? ¹⁷ 

Acts 7:4

7:4 Then he went out from the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God ¹⁸  made him move ¹⁹  to this country where you now live.

[11:32]  ¹ tn Heb “And the days of Terah were.”

[11:32]  ² tn Heb “Terah”; the pronoun has been substituted for the proper name in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[12:4]  ³ sn So Abram left. This is the report of Abram’s obedience to God’s command (see v. 1).

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

[12:4]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “was the son of five years and seventy year[s].”

[12:2]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Or “I will make you famous.”

[12:2]  ¹⁰ 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.

[19:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the men,” referring to the angels inside Lot’s house. The word “visitors” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[19:12]  ¹² tn Heb “Yet who [is there] to you here?”

[19:12]  ¹³ tn The words “Do you have” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[19:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a son-in-law and your sons and your daughters and anyone who (is) to you in the city.”

[19:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the place.” The Hebrew article serves here as a demonstrative.

[37:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “fathers” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NIV “forefathers”; NCV “ancestors.”

[37:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed rescue them – Gozan and Haran, and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who are in Telassar?”

[7:4]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:4]  ¹⁹ tn The translation “made him move” for the verb μετοικίζω (metoikizw) is given by L&N 85.83. The verb has the idea of “resettling” someone (BDAG 643 s.v.); see v. 43, where it reappears.