Genesis 1:22

1:22 God blessed them ¹  and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” ² 

Genesis 2:3

2:3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy ³  because on it he ceased all the work that he ⁴  had been doing in creation. ⁵ 

Genesis 9:1

God’s Covenant with Humankind through Noah

9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Genesis 25:11

25:11 After Abraham’s death, God blessed ⁶  his son Isaac. Isaac lived near Beer Lahai Roi. ⁷ 

Genesis 28:1

28:1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman! ⁸ 

Genesis 30:30

30:30 Indeed, ⁹  you had little before I arrived, ¹⁰  but now your possessions have increased many times over. ¹¹  The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. ¹²  But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?” ¹³ 

Genesis 31:55

31:55 (32:1) ¹⁴  Early in the morning Laban kissed ¹⁵  his grandchildren ¹⁶  and his daughters goodbye and blessed them. Then Laban left and returned home. ¹⁷ 

Genesis 32:29

32:29 Then Jacob asked, “Please tell me your name.” ¹⁸  “Why ¹⁹  do you ask my name?” the man replied. ²⁰  Then he blessed ²¹  Jacob ²²  there.

Genesis 48:3

48:3 Jacob said to Joseph, “The sovereign God ²³  appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.

Genesis 48:15

48:15 Then he blessed Joseph and said,

“May the God before whom my fathers

Abraham and Isaac walked –

the God who has been my shepherd ²⁴ 

all my life long to this day,

Genesis 49:28

49:28 These ²⁵  are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them when he blessed them. He gave each of them an appropriate blessing. ²⁶ 

[1:22]  ¹ tn While the translation “blessed” has been retained here for the sake of simplicity, it would be most helpful to paraphrase it as “God endowed them with fruitfulness” or something similar, for here it refers to God’s giving the animals the capacity to reproduce. The expression “blessed” needs clarification in its different contexts, for it is one of the unifying themes of the Book of Genesis. The divine blessing occurs after works of creation and is intended to continue that work – the word of blessing guarantees success. The word means “to enrich; to endow,” and the most visible evidence of that enrichment is productivity or fruitfulness. See C. Westermann, Blessing in the Bible and the Life of the Church (OBT).

[1:22]  ² sn The instruction God gives to creation is properly a fuller expression of the statement just made (“God blessed them”), that he enriched them with the ability to reproduce. It is not saying that these were rational creatures who heard and obeyed the word; rather, it stresses that fruitfulness in the animal world is a result of the divine decree and not of some pagan cultic ritual for fruitfulness. The repeated emphasis of “be fruitful – multiply – fill” adds to this abundance God has given to life. The meaning is underscored by the similar sounds: בָּרָךְ (barakh) with בָּרָא (bara’), and פָּרָה (parah) with רָבָה (ravah).

[2:3]  ³ tn The verb is usually translated “and sanctified it.” The Piel verb קִדֵּשׁ (qiddesh) means “to make something holy; to set something apart; to distinguish it.” On the literal level the phrase means essentially that God made this day different. But within the context of the Law, it means that the day belonged to God; it was for rest from ordinary labor, worship, and spiritual service. The day belonged to God.

[2:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “God.” The pronoun (“he”) has been employed in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[2:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “for on it he ceased from all his work which God created to make.” The last infinitive construct and the verb before it form a verbal hendiadys, the infinitive becoming the modifier – “which God creatively made,” or “which God made in his creating.”

[25:11]  ⁵ sn God blessed Isaac. The Hebrew verb “bless” in this passage must include all the gifts that God granted to Isaac. But fertility was not one of them, at least not for twenty years, because Rebekah was barren as well (see v. 21).

[25:11]  ⁶ sn Beer Lahai Roi. See the note on this place name in Gen 24:62.

[28:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”

[30:30]  ⁹ tn Or “for.”

[30:30]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “before me.”

[30:30]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and it has broken out with respect to abundance.”

[30:30]  ¹² tn Heb “at my foot.”

[30:30]  ¹³ tn Heb “How long [until] I do, also I, for my house?”

[31:55]  ¹¹ sn Beginning with 31:55, the verse numbers in the English Bible through 32:32 differ by one from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 31:55 ET = 32:1 HT, 32:1 ET = 32:2 HT, etc., through 32:32 ET = 32:33 HT. From 33:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[31:55]  ¹² tn Heb “and Laban got up early in the morning and he kissed.”

[31:55]  ¹³ tn Heb “his sons.”

[31:55]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to his place.”

[32:29]  ¹³ sn Tell me your name. In primitive thought to know the name of a deity or supernatural being would enable one to use it for magical manipulation or power (A. S. Herbert, Genesis 12-50 [TBC], 108). For a thorough structural analysis of the passage discussing the plays on the names and the request of Jacob, see R. Barthes, “The Struggle with the Angel: Textual Analysis of Genesis 32:23-33,” Structural Analysis and Biblical Exegesis (PTMS), 21-33.

[32:29]  ¹⁴ tn The question uses the enclitic pronoun “this” to emphasize the import of the question.

[32:29]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’” 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.

[32:29]  ¹⁶ tn The verb here means that the Lord endowed Jacob with success; he would be successful in everything he did, including meeting Esau.

[32:29]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[48:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.

[48:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “shepherded me.” The verb has been translated as an English noun for stylistic reasons.

[49:28]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “All these.”

[49:28]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and he blessed them, each of whom according to his blessing, he blessed them.”