Genesis 18:32-33

18:32 Finally Abraham ¹  said, “May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”

18:33 The Lord went on his way ²  when he had finished speaking ³  to Abraham. Then Abraham returned home. ⁴ 

Genesis 32:26-28

32:26 Then the man ⁵  said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” ⁶  “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, ⁷  “unless you bless me.” ⁸  32:27 The man asked him, ⁹  “What is your name?” ¹⁰  He answered, “Jacob.” 32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ¹¹  “but Israel, ¹²  because you have fought ¹³  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Numbers 14:19-20

14:19 Please forgive ¹⁴  the iniquity of this people according to your great loyal love, ¹⁵  just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.”

14:20 Then the Lord said, “I have forgiven them as you asked. ¹⁶ 

Numbers 16:22

16:22 Then they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground ¹⁷  and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all people, ¹⁸  will you be angry with the whole community when only one man sins?” ¹⁹ 

Numbers 16:45-48

16:45 “Get away from this community, so that I can consume them in an instant!” But they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground. ²⁰  16:46 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take the censer, put burning coals from the altar in it, place incense on it, and go quickly into the assembly and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord – the plague has begun!” 16:47 So Aaron did ²¹  as Moses commanded ²²  and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague was just beginning among the people. So he placed incense on the coals and made atonement for the people. 16:48 He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.

Deuteronomy 9:14

9:14 Stand aside ²³  and I will destroy them, obliterating their very name from memory, ²⁴  and I will make you into a stronger and more numerous nation than they are.”

Deuteronomy 9:19

9:19 For I was terrified at the Lord’s intense anger ²⁵  that threatened to destroy you. But he ²⁶  listened to me this time as well.

Jeremiah 14:11

Judgment for Believing the Misleading Lies of the False Prophets

14:11 Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for good to come to these people! ²⁷ 

Jeremiah 15:1

15:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for ²⁸  these people, I would not feel pity for them! ²⁹  Get them away from me! Tell them to go away! ³⁰ 

James 5:16

5:16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. ³¹ 

[18:32]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:33]  ² tn Heb “And the Lord went.”

[18:33]  ³ tn The infinitive construct (“speaking”) serves as the direct object of the verb “finished.”

[18:33]  ⁴ tn Heb “to his place.”

[32:26]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:26]  ⁴ tn Heb “dawn has arisen.”

[32:26]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he said, ‘I will not let you go.’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:26]  ⁶ sn Jacob wrestled with a man thinking him to be a mere man, and on that basis was equal to the task. But when it had gone on long enough, the night visitor touched Jacob and crippled him. Jacob’s request for a blessing can only mean that he now knew that his opponent was supernatural. Contrary to many allegorical interpretations of the passage that make fighting equivalent to prayer, this passage shows that Jacob stopped fighting, and then asked for a blessing.

[32:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he said to him.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:27]  ⁵ sn What is your name? The question is rhetorical, since the Lord obviously knew Jacob’s identity. But since the Lord is going to change Jacob’s name, this question is designed to bring focus Jacob’s attention on all that his name had come to signify.

[32:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:28]  ⁶ sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the Lord was saying that Jacob would have victory and receive the promises because God would fight for him.

[32:28]  ⁷ sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).

[14:19]  ⁶ tn The verb סְלַח־נָא (selakh-na’), the imperative form, means “forgive” (see Ps 130:4), “pardon,” “excuse.” The imperative is of course a prayer, a desire, and not a command.

[14:19]  ⁷ tn The construct unit is “the greatness of your loyal love.” This is the genitive of specification, the first word being the modifier.

[14:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “forgiven according to your word.” The direct object, “them,” is implied.

[16:22]  ⁸ sn It is Moses and Aaron who prostrate themselves; they have the good of the people at heart.

[16:22]  ⁹ tn The expression “the God of the spirits of all humanity [flesh]” is somewhat difficult. The Hebrew text says אֱלֹהֵי הָרוּחֹת לְכָל־בָּשָׂר (’elohey harukhot lÿkhol-basar). This expression occurs in Num 27:16 again. It also occurs in some postbiblical texts, a fact which has prompted some scholars to conclude that it is a late addition. The words clearly show that Moses is interceding for the congregation. The appeal in the verse is that it is better for one man to die for the whole nation than the whole nation for one man (see also John 11:50).

[16:22]  ¹⁰ tn The verb is the Qal imperfect יֶחֱטָא (yekheta’); it refers to the sinful rebellion of Korah, but Moses is stating something of a principle: “One man sins, and will you be angry….” A past tense translation would assume that this is a preterite use of the imperfect (without vav [ו] consecutive).

[16:45]  ⁹ tn Heb “they fell on their faces.”

[16:47]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “took.”

[16:47]  ¹¹ tn Or “had spoken” (NASB); NRSV “had ordered.”

[9:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “leave me alone.”

[9:14]  ¹² tn Heb “from under heaven.”

[9:19]  ¹² tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” Although many English versions translate as two terms, this construction is a hendiadys which serves to intensify the emotion (cf. NAB, TEV “fierce anger”).

[9:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 9:3.

[14:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “on behalf of these people for benefit.”

[15:1]  ¹⁴ tn The words “pleading for” have been supplied in the translation to explain the idiom (a metonymy). For parallel usage see BDB 763 s.v. עָמַד Qal.1.a and compare usage in Gen 19:27, Deut 4:10.

[15:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my soul would not be toward them.” For the usage of “soul” presupposed here see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 6 in the light of the complaints and petitions in Jeremiah’s prayer in 14:19, 21.

[15:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Send them away from my presence and let them go away.”

[5:16]  ¹⁵ tn Or “the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful”; Grk “is very powerful in its working.”