Genesis 4:25

4:25 And Adam had marital relations ¹  with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son. She named him Seth, saying, “God has given ²  me another child ³  in place of Abel because Cain killed him.”

Genesis 16:11

16:11 Then the Lord’s angel said to her,

“You are now ⁴  pregnant

and are about to give birth ⁵  to a son.

You are to name him Ishmael, ⁶ 

for the Lord has heard your painful groans. ⁷ 

Genesis 16:1

The Birth of Ishmael

16:1 Now Sarai, ⁸  Abram’s wife, had not given birth to any children, ⁹  but she had an Egyptian servant ¹⁰  named Hagar. ¹¹ 

Genesis 1:20

1:20 God said, “Let the water swarm with swarms ¹²  of living creatures and let birds fly ¹³  above the earth across the expanse of the sky.”

Matthew 1:21

1:21 She will give birth to a son and you will name him ¹⁴  Jesus, ¹⁵  because he will save his people from their sins.”

[4:25]  ¹ tn Heb “knew,” a frequent euphemism for sexual relations.

[4:25]  ² sn The name Seth probably means something like “placed”; “appointed”; “set”; “granted,” assuming it is actually related to the verb that is used in the sentiment. At any rate, the name שֵׁת (shet) and the verb שָׁת (shat, “to place, to appoint, to set, to grant”) form a wordplay (paronomasia).

[4:25]  ³ tn Heb “offspring.”

[16:11]  ⁴ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) focuses on her immediate situation: “Here you are pregnant.”

[16:11]  ⁵ tn The active participle refers here to something that is about to happen.

[16:11]  ⁶ sn The name Ishmael consists of the imperfect or jussive form of the Hebrew verb with the theophoric element added as the subject. It means “God hears” or “may God hear.”

[16:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “affliction,” which must refer here to Hagar’s painful groans of anguish.

[16:1]  ⁸ tn The disjunctive clause signals the beginning of a new episode in the story.

[16:1]  ⁹ sn On the cultural background of the story of Sarai’s childlessness see J. Van Seters, “The Problem of Childlessness in Near Eastern Law and the Patriarchs of Israel,” JBL 87 (1968): 401-8.

[16:1]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term שִׁפְחָה (shifkhah, translated “servant” here and in vv. 2, 3, 5, 6, and 8) refers to a menial female servant.

[16:1]  ¹¹ sn The passage records the birth of Ishmael to Abram through an Egyptian woman. The story illustrates the limits of Abram’s faith as he tries to obtain a son through social custom. The barrenness of Sarai poses a challenge to Abram’s faith, just as the famine did in chap. 12. As in chap. 12, an Egyptian figures prominently. (Perhaps Hagar was obtained as a slave during Abram’s stay in Egypt.)

[1:20]  ¹² tn The Hebrew text again uses a cognate construction (“swarm with swarms”) to emphasize the abundant fertility. The idea of the verb is one of swift movement back and forth, literally swarming. This verb is used in Exod 1:7 to describe the rapid growth of the Israelite population in bondage.

[1:20]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text uses the Polel form of the verb instead of the simple Qal; it stresses a swarming flight again to underscore the abundant fruitfulness.

[1:21]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “you will call his name.”

[1:21]  ¹⁵ sn The Greek form of the name Ihsous, which was translated into Latin as Jesus, is the same as the Hebrew Yeshua (Joshua), which means “Yahweh saves” (Yahweh is typically rendered as “Lord” in the OT). It was a fairly common name among Jews in 1st century Palestine, as references to a number of people by this name in the LXX and Josephus indicate.