Genesis 17:15-19

17:15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; ¹  Sarah ²  will be her name. 17:16 I will bless her and will give you a son through her. I will bless her and she will become a mother of nations. ³  Kings of countries ⁴  will come from her!”

17:17 Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed ⁵  as he said to himself, ⁶  “Can ⁷  a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? ⁸  Can Sarah ⁹  bear a child at the age of ninety?” ¹⁰  17:18 Abraham said to God, “O that ¹¹  Ishmael might live before you!” ¹² 

17:19 God said, “No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. ¹³  I will confirm my covenant with him as a perpetual ¹⁴  covenant for his descendants after him.

Genesis 18:10-14

18:10 One of them ¹⁵  said, “I will surely return ¹⁶  to you when the season comes round again, ¹⁷  and your wife Sarah will have a son!” ¹⁸  (Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, not far behind him. ¹⁹  18:11 Abraham and Sarah were old and advancing in years; ²⁰  Sarah had long since passed menopause.) ²¹  18:12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, ²²  “After I am worn out will I have pleasure, ²³  especially when my husband is old too?” ²⁴ 

18:13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why ²⁵  did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really ²⁶  have a child when I am old?’ 18:14 Is anything impossible ²⁷  for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” ²⁸ 

Genesis 21:1-2

The Birth of Isaac

21:1 The Lord visited ²⁹  Sarah just as he had said he would and did ³⁰  for Sarah what he had promised. ³¹  21:2 So Sarah became pregnant ³²  and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him.

Romans 4:18-21

4:18 Against hope Abraham ³³  believed ³⁴  in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations ³⁵  according to the pronouncement, ³⁶  “so will your descendants be.” ³⁷  4:19 Without being weak in faith, he considered ³⁸  his own body as dead ³⁹  (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 4:20 He ⁴⁰  did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. 4:21 He was ⁴¹  fully convinced that what God ⁴²  promised he was also able to do.

Romans 10:8

10:8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” ⁴³  (that is, the word of faith that we preach),

Hebrews 11:11

11:11 By faith, even though Sarah herself was barren and he was too old, ⁴⁴  he received the ability to procreate, ⁴⁵  because he regarded the one who had given the promise to be trustworthy.

[17:15]  ¹ tn Heb “[As for] Sarai your wife, you must not call her name Sarai, for Sarah [will be] her name.”

[17:15]  ² sn Sarah. The name change seems to be a dialectical variation, both spellings meaning “princess” or “queen.” Like the name Abram, the name Sarai symbolized the past. The new name Sarah, like the name Abraham, would be a reminder of what God intended to do for Sarah in the future.

[17:16]  ³ tn Heb “she will become nations.”

[17:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “peoples.”

[17:17]  ⁵ sn Laughed. The Hebrew verb used here provides the basis for the naming of Isaac: “And he laughed” is וַיִּצְחָק (vayyitskhaq); the name “Isaac” is יִצְחָק (yitskhaq), “he laughs.” Abraham’s (and Sarah’s, see 18:12) laughter signals disbelief, but when the boy is born, the laughter signals surprise and joy.

[17:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “And he fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart.”

[17:17]  ⁷ tn The imperfect verbal form here carries a potential nuance, as it expresses the disbelief of Abraham.

[17:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “to the son of a hundred years.”

[17:17]  ⁹ sn It is important to note that even though Abraham staggers at the announcement of the birth of a son, finding it almost too incredible, he nonetheless calls his wife Sarah, the new name given to remind him of the promise of God (v. 15).

[17:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the daughter of ninety years.”

[17:18]  ¹¹ tn The wish is introduced with the Hebrew particle לוּ (lu), “O that.”

[17:18]  ¹² tn Or “live with your blessing.”

[17:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “will call his name Isaac.” The name means “he laughs,” or perhaps “may he laugh” (see the note on the word “laughed” in v. 17).

[17:19]  ¹⁴ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[18:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (one of the three men introduced in v. 2) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Some English translations have specified the referent as the Lord (cf. RSV, NIV) based on vv. 1, 13, but the Hebrew text merely has “he said” at this point, referring to one of the three visitors. Aside from the introductory statement in v. 1, the incident is narrated from Abraham’s point of view, and the suspense is built up for the reader as Abraham’s elaborate banquet preparations in the preceding verses suggest he suspects these are important guests. But not until the promise of a son later in this verse does it become clear who is speaking. In v. 13 the Hebrew text explicitly mentions the Lord.

[18:10]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, using the infinitive absolute with the imperfect tense.

[18:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “as/when the time lives” or “revives,” possibly referring to the springtime.

[18:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and there will be (הִנֵּה, hinneh) a son for Sarah.”

[18:10]  ¹⁹ tn This is the first of two disjunctive parenthetical clauses preparing the reader for Sarah’s response (see v. 12).

[18:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “days.”

[18:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “it had ceased to be for Sarah [after] a way like women.”

[18:12]  ²² tn Heb “saying.”

[18:12]  ²³ tn It has been suggested that this word should be translated “conception,” not “pleasure.” See A. A. McIntosh, “A Third Root ‘adah in Biblical Hebrew,” VT 24 (1974): 454-73.

[18:12]  ²⁴ tn The word “too” has been added in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[18:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Why, this?” The demonstrative pronoun following the interrogative pronoun is enclitic, emphasizing the Lord’s amazement: “Why on earth did Sarah laugh?”

[18:13]  ²⁶ tn The Hebrew construction uses both הַאַף (ha’af) and אֻמְנָם (’umnam): “Indeed, truly, will I have a child?”

[18:14]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”

[18:14]  ²⁸ sn Sarah will have a son. The passage brings God’s promise into clear focus. As long as it was a promise for the future, it really could be believed without much involvement. But now, when it seemed so impossible from the human standpoint, when the Lord fixed an exact date for the birth of the child, the promise became rather overwhelming to Abraham and Sarah. But then this was the Lord of creation, the one they had come to trust. The point of these narratives is that the creation of Abraham’s offspring, which eventually became Israel, is no less a miraculous work of creation than the creation of the world itself.

[21:1]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and the Lord did.” The divine name has not been repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “spoken.”

[21:2]  ³² tn Or “she conceived.”

[4:18]  ³³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:18]  ³⁴ tn Grk “who against hope believed,” referring to Abraham. The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:18]  ³⁵ sn A quotation from Gen 17:5.

[4:18]  ³⁶ tn Grk “according to that which had been spoken.”

[4:18]  ³⁷ sn A quotation from Gen 15:5.

[4:19]  ³⁸ tc Most mss (D F G Ψ 33 1881 Ï it) read “he did not consider” by including the negative particle (οὐ, ou), but others (א A B C 6 81 365 1506 1739 pc co) lack οὐ. The reading which includes the negative particle probably represents a scribal attempt to exalt the faith of Abraham by making it appear that his faith was so strong that he did not even consider the physical facts. But “here Paul does not wish to imply that faith means closing one’s eyes to reality, but that Abraham was so strong in faith as to be undaunted by every consideration” (TCGNT 451). Both on external and internal grounds, the reading without the negative particle is preferred.

[4:19]  ³⁹ tc ‡ Most witnesses (א A C D Ψ 33 Ï bo) have ἤδη (hdh, “already”) at this point in v. 19. But B F G 630 1739 1881 pc lat sa lack it. Since it appears to heighten the style of the narrative and since there is no easy accounting for an accidental omission, it is best to regard the shorter text as original. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.

[4:20]  ⁴⁰ 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, δέ (de) has not been translated here.

[4:21]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “and being.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:21]  ⁴² tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:8]  ⁴³ sn A quotation from Deut 30:14.

[11:11]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “past the time of maturity.”

[11:11]  ⁴⁵ 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.”