Genesis 17:6-7

17:6 I will make you ¹  extremely ²  fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you. ³  17:7 I will confirm ⁴  my covenant as a perpetual ⁵  covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ⁶ 

Genesis 17:20

17:20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you. ⁷  I will indeed bless him, make him fruitful, and give him a multitude of descendants. ⁸  He will become the father of twelve princes; ⁹  I will make him into a great nation.

Genesis 26:4

26:4 I will multiply your descendants so they will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them ¹⁰  all these lands. All the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants. ¹¹ 

Genesis 28:3

28:3 May the sovereign God ¹²  bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! ¹³  Then you will become ¹⁴  a large nation. ¹⁵ 

Genesis 28:14

28:14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, ¹⁶  and you will spread out ¹⁷  to the west, east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ¹⁸  using your name and that of your descendants. ¹⁹ 

Exodus 1:7

1:7 The Israelites, ²⁰  however, ²¹  were fruitful, increased greatly, multiplied, and became extremely strong, ²²  so that the land was filled with them.

Deuteronomy 28:4

28:4 Your children ²³  will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.

Deuteronomy 28:11

28:11 The Lord will greatly multiply your children, ²⁴  the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he ²⁵  promised your ancestors ²⁶  he would give you.

Nehemiah 9:23

9:23 You multiplied their descendants like the stars of the sky. You brought them to the land you had told their ancestors to enter in order to possess.

Psalms 107:38

107:38 He blessed ²⁷  them so that they became very numerous.

He would not allow their cattle to decrease in number. ²⁸ 

[17:6]  ¹ tn This verb starts a series of perfect verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive to express God’s intentions.

[17:6]  ² tn Heb “exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.

[17:6]  ³ tn Heb “and I will make you into nations, and kings will come out from you.”

[17:7]  ⁴ tn The verb קוּם (qum, “to arise, to stand up”) in the Hiphil verbal stem means “to confirm, to give effect to, to carry out” (i.e., a covenant or oath; see BDB 878-79 s.v. קוּם).

[17:7]  ⁵ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”

[17:20]  ⁷ sn The Hebrew verb translated “I have heard you” forms a wordplay with the name Ishmael, which means “God hears.” See the note on the name “Ishmael” in 16:11.

[17:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “And I will multiply him exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.

[17:20]  ⁹ tn For a discussion of the Hebrew word translated “princes,” see E. A. Speiser, “Background and Function of the Biblical Nasi’,” CBQ 25 (1963): 111-17.

[26:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “your descendants.”

[26:4]  ¹¹ tn Traditionally the verb is taken as passive (“will be blessed”) here, as if Abraham’s descendants were going to be a channel or source of blessing to the nations. But the Hitpael is better understood here as reflexive/reciprocal, “will bless [i.e., pronounce blessings on] themselves/one another” (see also Gen 22:18). Elsewhere the Hitpael of the verb “to 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. Earlier formulations of this promise (see Gen 12:2; 18:18) use the Niphal stem. (See also Gen 28:14.)

[28:3]  ¹² tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.

[28:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “and make you fruitful and multiply you.” See Gen 17:6, 20 for similar terminology.

[28:3]  ¹⁴ tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here indicates consequence. The collocation הָיָה + preposition לְ (hayah + lÿ) means “become.”

[28:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “an assembly of peoples.”

[28:14]  ¹⁶ tn This is the same Hebrew word translated “ground” in the preceding verse.

[28:14]  ¹⁷ tn The verb is singular in the Hebrew; Jacob is addressed as the representative of his descendants.

[28:14]  ¹⁸ tn Theoretically the Niphal stem 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 Jacob were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in other 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 upon) themselves/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 28:14 predicts that Jacob will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae (see Gen 12:2 and 18:18 as well, where Abram/Abraham receives this promise). For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.

[28:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and they will pronounce blessings by you, all the families of the earth, and by your offspring.”

[1:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the sons of Israel.”

[1:7]  ²¹ tn The disjunctive vav marks a contrast with the note about the deaths of the first generation.

[1:7]  ²² tn Using מְאֹד (mÿ’od) twice intensifies the idea of their becoming strong (see GKC 431-32 §133.k).

[28:4]  ²³ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[28:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”

[28:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.

[28:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).

[107:38]  ²⁷ tn “Bless” here carries the nuance “endue with sexual potency, make fertile.” See Gen 1:28, where the statement “he blessed them” directly precedes the command “be fruitful and populate the earth” (see also 1:22). The verb “bless” carries this same nuance in Gen 17:16 (where God’s blessing of Sarai imparts to her the capacity to bear a child); 48:16 (where God’s blessing of Joseph’s sons is closely associated with their having numerous descendants); and Deut 7:13 (where God’s blessing is associated with fertility in general, including numerous descendants). See also Gen 49:25 (where Jacob uses the noun derivative in referring to “blessings of the breast and womb,” an obvious reference to fertility) and Gen 27:27 (where the verb is used of a field to which God has given the capacity to produce vegetation).

[107:38]  ²⁸ tn The verbal form in this line appears to be an imperfect, which may be taken as customary (drawing attention to typical action in a past time frame) or as generalizing (in which case one should use the English present tense, understanding a move from narrative to present reality).