Genesis 17:5

17:5 No longer will your name be ¹  Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham ²  because I will make you ³  the father of a multitude of nations.

Genesis 17:15

17:15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; ⁴  Sarah ⁵  will be her name.

Genesis 33:20

33:20 There he set up an altar and called it “The God of Israel is God.” ⁶ 

Genesis 35:10

35:10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but your name will no longer be called Jacob; Israel will be your name.” So God named him Israel. ⁷ 

Numbers 13:16

13:16 These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to investigate the land. And Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua. ⁸ 

Numbers 13:2

13:2 “Send out men to investigate ⁹  the land of Canaan, which I am giving ¹⁰  to the Israelites. You are to send one man from each ancestral tribe, ¹¹  each one a leader among them.”

Numbers 12:1-2

Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses

12:1 ¹² Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against ¹³  Moses because of the Cushite ¹⁴  woman he had married ¹⁵  (for he had married an Ethiopian woman). 12:2 They ¹⁶  said, “Has the Lord only ¹⁷  spoken through Moses? Has he not also spoken through us?” ¹⁸  And the Lord heard it. ¹⁹ 

Numbers 17:1

The Budding of Aaron’s Staff

17:1 ²⁰ The Lord spoke to Moses:

Isaiah 62:2-4

62:2 Nations will see your vindication,

and all kings your splendor.

You will be called by a new name

that the Lord himself will give you. ²¹ 

62:3 You will be a majestic crown in the hand of the Lord,

a royal turban in the hand of your God.

62:4 You will no longer be called, “Abandoned,”

and your land will no longer be called “Desolate.”

Indeed, ²²  you will be called “My Delight is in Her,” ²³ 

and your land “Married.” ²⁴ 

For the Lord will take delight in you,

and your land will be married to him. ²⁵ 

Isaiah 65:15

65:15 Your names will live on in the curse formulas of my chosen ones. ²⁶ 

The sovereign Lord will kill you,

but he will give his servants another name.

John 1:42

1:42 Andrew brought Simon ²⁷  to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon, the son of John. ²⁸  You will be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter). ²⁹ 

Revelation 2:17

2:17 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, ³⁰  I will give him some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white ³¹  stone, ³²  and on that stone will be written a new name that no one can understand ³³  except the one who receives it.’

[17:5]  ¹ tn Heb “will your name be called.”

[17:5]  ² sn Your name will be Abraham. The renaming of Abram was a sign of confirmation to the patriarch. Every time the name was used it would be a reminder of God’s promise. “Abram” means “exalted father,” probably referring to Abram’s father Terah. The name looks to the past; Abram came from noble lineage. The name “Abraham” is a dialectical variant of the name Abram. But its significance is in the wordplay with אַב־הֲמוֹן (’av-hamon, “the father of a multitude,” which sounds like אַבְרָהָם, ’avraham, “Abraham”). The new name would be a reminder of God’s intention to make Abraham the father of a multitude. For a general discussion of renaming, see O. Eissfeldt, “Renaming in the Old Testament,” Words and Meanings, 70-83.

[17:5]  ³ tn The perfect verbal form is used here in a rhetorical manner to emphasize God’s intention.

[17:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “[As for] Sarai your wife, you must not call her name Sarai, for Sarah [will be] her name.”

[17:15]  ⁵ 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.

[33:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “God, the God of Israel.” Rather than translating the name, a number of modern translations merely transliterate it from the Hebrew as “El Elohe Israel” (cf. NIV, NRSV, REB). It is not entirely clear how the name should be interpreted grammatically. One option is to supply an equative verb, as in the translation: “The God of Israel [is] God.” Another interpretive option is “the God of Israel [is] strong [or “mighty”].” Buying the land and settling down for a while was a momentous step for the patriarch, so the commemorative naming of the altar is significant.

[35:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he called his name Israel.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:16]  ⁸ sn The difference in the names is slight, a change from “he saves” to “the Lord saves.” The Greek text of the OT used Iesoun for Hebrew Yeshua.

[13:2]  ⁹ tn The imperfect tense with the conjunction is here subordinated to the preceding imperative to form the purpose clause. It can thus be translated “send…to investigate.”

[13:2]  ¹⁰ tn The participle here should be given a future interpretation, meaning “which I am about to give” or “which I am going to give.”

[13:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “one man one man of the tribe of his fathers.”

[12:1]  ¹² sn In this short chapter we find a prime example of jealousy among leaders and how God dealt with it. Miriam and Aaron are envious of Moses’ leadership, but they use an occasion – his marriage – to criticize him. Often the immediate criticism is simply a surface issue for a deeper matter. God indicates very clearly he will speak through many people, including them, but Moses is different. Moses is the mediator of the covenant. The chapter is a lesson of what not to do. They should have fulfilled their duties before God and not tried to compete or challenge the leader in this way. There is a touch of divine irony here, for Miriam is turned white with leprosy. The chapter falls easily into the sections of the story: the accusation (vv. 1-3), the Lord’s response (vv. 4-10), the intercession of Moses (vv. 11-16). For further information, see J. S. Kselman, “A Note on Numbers 12:6-8,” VT 26 (1976): 500-504.

[12:1]  ¹³ tn The preposition bet (בְּ) has the adversative sense here, “[speak] against” (see also its use for hostile speech in 21:5, 7). Speaking against is equal to the murmuring throughout the wilderness period. The verb of the sentence is וַתְּדַבֵּר (vattÿdabber), the feminine form of the verb. This indicates that Miriam was the main speaker for the two, the verb agreeing with the first of the compound subject.

[12:1]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text has הַכֻּשִׁית (hakkushit, “the Cushite”) as the modifier of “woman.” The Greek text interpreted this correctly as “Ethiopian.” The word Cush in the Bible can describe the Cassites, east of Babylon of the later period (Gen 10:18), or Ethiopia (Isa 20:3; Nah 3:5; et al). Another suggestion is that it would refer to Cushan of Hab 3:7, perhaps close to Midian, and so the area Moses had been. This would suggest it could be Zipporah – but the Bible does not identify the Cushite as Zipporah. The most natural understanding would be that it refers to an Egyptian/Ethiopian woman. The text does not say when Moses married this woman, or what Miriam’s problem with her was. It is clear that it was a racial issue, by virtue of the use of “Cushite.” Whether she was of darker skin than the Hebrews would be hard to say, since the Bible gives no further detail. Neither does it say if this is a second wife, or a woman Moses married since Zipporah went home (Exod 18:2). These do not seem to be the issues the text wishes to elaborate on; it is simply stating that this woman was the occasion for a deeper challenge.

[12:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “taken.”

[12:2]  ¹⁶ tn Now the text changes to use a plural form of the verb. The indication is that Miriam criticized the marriage, and then the two of them raised questions about his sole leadership of the nation.

[12:2]  ¹⁷ tn The use of both רַק and אַךְ (raq and ’akh) underscore the point that the issue is Moses’ uniqueness.

[12:2]  ¹⁸ tn There is irony in the construction in the text. The expression “speak through us” also uses דִּבֵּר + בְּ(dibber + bÿ). They ask if God has not also spoken through them, after they have spoken against Moses. Shortly God will speak against them – their words are prophetic, but not as they imagined.

[12:2]  ¹⁹ sn The statement is striking. Obviously the Lord knows all things. But the statement of the obvious here is meant to indicate that the Lord was about to do something about this.

[17:1]  ²⁰ sn Num 17:1 in the English Bible is 17:16 in the Hebrew text (BHS). See also the note on 16:36.

[62:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “which the mouth of the Lord will designate.”

[62:4]  ²² tn Or “for”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “but.”

[62:4]  ²³ tn Hebrew חֶפְצִי־בָהּ (kheftsi-vah), traditionally transliterated “Hephzibah” (so KJV, ASV, NIV).

[62:4]  ²⁴ tn Hebrew בְּעוּלָה (bÿ’ulah), traditionally transliterated “Beulah” (so KJV, ASV, NIV).

[62:4]  ²⁵ tn That is, the land will be restored to the Lord’s favor and once again enjoy his blessing and protection. To indicate the land’s relationship to the Lord, the words “to him” have been supplied at the end of the clause.

[65:15]  ²⁶ tn Heb “you will leave your name for an oath to my chosen ones.”

[1:42]  ²⁷ tn Grk “He brought him”; both referents (Andrew, Simon) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:42]  ²⁸ tc The reading “Simon, son of John” is well attested in Ì^66,75,106 א B* L 33 pc it co. The majority of mss (A B² Ψ Ë^1,13 Ï) read “Simon, the son of Jonah” here instead, but that is perhaps an assimilation to Matt 16:17.

[1:42]  ²⁹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. The change of name from Simon to Cephas is indicative of the future role he will play. Only John among the gospel writers gives the Greek transliteration (Κηφᾶς, Khfas) of Simon’s new name, Qéphâ (which is Galilean Aramaic). Neither Πέτρος (Petros) in Greek nor Qéphâ in Aramaic is a normal proper name; it is more like a nickname.

[2:17]  ³⁰ tn Or “who is victorious”; traditionally, “who overcomes.” The pendent dative is allowed to stand in the English translation because it is characteristic of the author’s style in Revelation.

[2:17]  ³¹ tn Or “bright.” The Greek term λευκός (leukos) can refer either to the color white (traditional here) or to an object that is bright or shining, either from itself or from an outside source of illumination (L&N 14.50; 79.27).

[2:17]  ³² tn On the interpretation of the stone, L&N 2.27 states, “A number of different suggestions have been made as to the reference of ψῆφος in this context. Some scholars believe that the white ψῆφος indicates a vote of acquittal in court. Others contend that it is simply a magical amulet; still others, a token of Roman hospitality; and finally, some have suggested that it may represent a ticket to the gladiatorial games, that is to say, to martyrdom. The context, however, suggests clearly that this is something to be prized and a type of reward for those who have ‘won the victory.’”

[2:17]  ³³ tn Or “know”; for the meaning “understand” see L&N 32.4.