Genesis 15:13

15:13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain ¹  that your descendants will be strangers ²  in a foreign country. ³  They will be enslaved and oppressed ⁴  for four hundred years.

Genesis 17:8

17:8 I will give the whole land of Canaan – the land where you are now residing ⁵  – to you and your descendants after you as a permanent ⁶  possession. I will be their God.”

Genesis 23:4

23:4 “I am a temporary settler ⁷  among you. Grant ⁸  me ownership ⁹  of a burial site among you so that I may ¹⁰  bury my dead.” ¹¹ 

Genesis 26:3

26:3 Stay ¹²  in this land. Then I will be with you and will bless you, ¹³  for I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants, ¹⁴  and I will fulfill ¹⁵  the solemn promise I made ¹⁶  to your father Abraham.

Psalms 105:12

105:12 When they were few in number,

just a very few, and resident aliens within it,

Acts 7:5

7:5 He ¹⁷  did not give any of it to him for an inheritance, ¹⁸  not even a foot of ground, ¹⁹  yet God ²⁰  promised to give it to him as his possession, and to his descendants after him, ²¹  even though Abraham ²²  as yet had no child.

[15:13]  ¹ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, with the Qal infinitive absolute followed by the imperfect from יָדַע (yada’, “know”). The imperfect here has an obligatory or imperatival force.

[15:13]  ² tn The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger, “sojourner, stranger”) is related to the verb גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to stay for awhile”). Abram’s descendants will stay in a land as resident aliens without rights of citizenship.

[15:13]  ³ tn Heb “in a land not theirs.”

[15:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “and they will serve them and they will oppress them.” The verb עִנּוּ, (’innu, a Piel form from עָנָה, ’anah, “to afflict, to oppress, to treat harshly”), is used in Exod 1:11 to describe the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt.

[17:8]  ⁵ tn The verbal root is גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to reside temporarily,” i.e., as a resident alien). It is the land in which Abram resides, but does not yet possess as his very own.

[17:8]  ⁶ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[23:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “a resident alien and a settler.”

[23:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “give,” which is used here as an idiom for “sell” (see v. 9). The idiom reflects the polite bartering that was done in the culture at the time.

[23:4]  ⁹ tn Or “possession.”

[23:4]  ¹⁰ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative with the prefixed conjunction expresses purpose.

[23:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “bury my dead out of my sight.” The last phrase “out of my sight” has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:3]  ¹² tn The Hebrew verb גּוּר (gur) means “to live temporarily without ownership of land.” Abraham’s family will not actually possess the land of Canaan until the Israelite conquest hundreds of years later.

[26:3]  ¹³ tn After the imperative “stay” the two prefixed verb forms with prefixed conjunction here indicate consequence.

[26:3]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew term זֶרַע (zera’) occurring here and in v. 18 may mean “seed” (for planting), “offspring” (occasionally of animals, but usually of people), or “descendants” depending on the context.

[26:3]  ¹⁵ tn The Hiphil stem of the verb קוּם (qum) here means “to fulfill, to bring to realization.” For other examples of this use of this verb form, see Lev 26:9; Num 23:19; Deut 8:18; 9:5; 1 Sam 1:23; 1 Kgs 6:12; Jer 11:5.

[26:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the oath which I swore.”

[7:5]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “And he.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[7:5]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “He did not give him an inheritance in it.” This could be understood to mean that God did not give something else to Abraham as an inheritance while he was living there. The point of the text is that God did not give any of the land to him as an inheritance, and the translation makes this clear.

[7:5]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “a step of a foot” (cf. Deut 2:5).

[7:5]  ²⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:5]  ²¹ sn An allusion to Gen 12:7; 13:15; 15:2, 18; 17:8; 24:7; 48:4. On the theological importance of the promise and to his descendants after him, see Rom 4 and Gal 3.

[7:5]  ²² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.