Genesis 25:21

25:21 Isaac prayed to ¹  the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.

Genesis 30:1-2

30:1 When Rachel saw that she could not give Jacob children, she ²  became jealous of her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children ³  or I’ll die!” 30:2 Jacob became furious ⁴  with Rachel and exclaimed, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” ⁵ 

Genesis 30:1

30:1 When Rachel saw that she could not give Jacob children, she ⁶  became jealous of her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children ⁷  or I’ll die!”

Genesis 1:11

1:11 God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: ⁸  plants yielding seeds according to their kinds, ⁹  and ¹⁰  trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” It was so.

Psalms 127:3

127:3 Yes, ¹¹  sons ¹²  are a gift from the Lord,

the fruit of the womb is a reward.

Proverbs 13:12

13:12 Hope ¹³  deferred ¹⁴  makes the heart sick, ¹⁵ 

but a longing fulfilled ¹⁶  is like ¹⁷  a tree of life.

Isaiah 56:5

56:5 I will set up within my temple and my walls a monument ¹⁸ 

that will be better than sons and daughters.

I will set up a permanent monument ¹⁹  for them that will remain.

Acts 7:5

7:5 He ²⁰  did not give any of it to him for an inheritance, ²¹  not even a foot of ground, ²²  yet God ²³  promised to give it to him as his possession, and to his descendants after him, ²⁴  even though Abraham ²⁵  as yet had no child.

[25:21]  ¹ tn The Hebrew verb עָתַר (’atar), translated “prayed [to]” here, appears in the story of God’s judgment on Egypt in which Moses asked the Lord to remove the plagues. The cognate word in Arabic means “to slaughter for sacrifice,” and the word is used in Zeph 3:10 to describe worshipers who bring offerings. Perhaps some ritual accompanied Isaac’s prayer here.

[30:1]  ² tn Heb “Rachel.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“she”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:1]  ³ tn Heb “sons.”

[30:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the anger of Jacob was hot.”

[30:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb.”

[30:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “Rachel.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“she”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “sons.”

[1:11]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew construction employs a cognate accusative, where the nominal object (“vegetation”) derives from the verbal root employed. It stresses the abundant productivity that God created.

[1:11]  ⁹ sn After their kinds. The Hebrew word translated “kind” (מִין, min) indicates again that God was concerned with defining and dividing time, space, and species. The point is that creation was with order, as opposed to chaos. And what God created and distinguished with boundaries was not to be confused (see Lev 19:19 and Deut 22:9-11).

[1:11]  ¹⁰ tn The conjunction “and” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation to clarify the relationship of the clauses.

[127:3]  ¹¹ tn or “look.”

[127:3]  ¹² tn Some prefer to translate this term with the gender neutral “children,” but “sons” are plainly in view here, as the following verses make clear. Daughters are certainly wonderful additions to a family, but in ancient Israelite culture sons were the “arrows” that gave a man security in his old age, for they could defend the family interests at the city gate, where the legal and economic issues of the community were settled.

[13:12]  ¹³ sn The word “hope” (תּוֹחֶלֶת [tokhelet] from יָחַל [yakhal]) also has the implication of a tense if not anxious wait.

[13:12]  ¹⁴ tn The verb is the Pual participle from מָשַׁךְ (mashakh,“to draw; to drag”).

[13:12]  ¹⁵ sn Failure in realizing one’s hopes can be depressing or discouraging. People can bear frustration only so long (W. G. Plaut, Proverbs, 153).

[13:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a desire that comes”; cf. CEV “a wish that comes true.”

[13:12]  ¹⁷ tn The comparative “like” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is implied by the metaphor; it is supplied for the sake of clarity.

[56:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a hand and a name.” For other examples where יָד (yad) refers to a monument, see HALOT 388 s.v.

[56:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “name” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).

[7:5]  ²⁰ 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, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[7:5]  ²¹ tn Grk “He did not give him an inheritance in it.” This could be understood to mean that God did not give something else to Abraham as an inheritance while he was living there. The point of the text is that God did not give any of the land to him as an inheritance, and the translation makes this clear.

[7:5]  ²² tn Grk “a step of a foot” (cf. Deut 2:5).

[7:5]  ²³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:5]  ²⁴ sn An allusion to Gen 12:7; 13:15; 15:2, 18; 17:8; 24:7; 48:4. On the theological importance of the promise and to his descendants after him, see Rom 4 and Gal 3.

[7:5]  ²⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.