Genesis 12:2

12:2 Then I will make you ¹  into a great nation, and I will bless you, ² 

and I will make your name great, ³ 

so that you will exemplify divine blessing. ⁴ 

Genesis 12:12

12:12 When the Egyptians see you they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will keep you alive. ⁵ 

Genesis 28:13-14

28:13 and the Lord stood at its top. He said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. ⁶  I will give you and your descendants the ground ⁷  you are lying on. 28:14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, ⁸  and you will spread out ⁹  to the west, east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ¹⁰  using your name and that of your descendants. ¹¹ 

Genesis 28:1

28:1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman! ¹² 

Genesis 16:2

16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, “Since ¹³  the Lord has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with ¹⁴  my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.” ¹⁵  Abram did what ¹⁶  Sarai told him.

Genesis 27:1

Jacob Cheats Esau out of the Blessing

27:1 When ¹⁷  Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he was almost blind, ¹⁸  he called his older ¹⁹  son Esau and said to him, “My son!” “Here I am!” Esau ²⁰  replied.

Romans 4:18-20

4:18 Against hope Abraham ²¹  believed ²²  in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations ²³  according to the pronouncement, ²⁴  “so will your descendants be.” ²⁵  4:19 Without being weak in faith, he considered ²⁶  his own body as dead ²⁷  (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 4:20 He ²⁸  did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God.

[12:2]  ¹ tn The three first person verbs in v. 2a should be classified as cohortatives. The first two have pronominal suffixes, so the form itself does not indicate a cohortative. The third verb form is clearly cohortative.

[12:2]  ² sn I will bless you. The blessing of creation is now carried forward to the patriarch. In the garden God blessed Adam and Eve; in that blessing he gave them (1) a fruitful place, (2) endowed them with fertility to multiply, and (3) made them rulers over creation. That was all ruined at the fall. Now God begins to build his covenant people; in Gen 12-22 he promises to give Abram (1) a land flowing with milk and honey, (2) a great nation without number, and (3) kingship.

[12:2]  ³ tn Or “I will make you famous.”

[12:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and be a blessing.” The verb form הְיֵה (hÿyeh) is the Qal imperative of the verb הָיָה (hayah). The vav (ו) with the imperative after the cohortatives indicates purpose or consequence. What does it mean for Abram to “be a blessing”? Will he be a channel or source of blessing for others, or a prime example of divine blessing? A similar statement occurs in Zech 8:13, where God assures his people, “You will be a blessing,” in contrast to the past when they “were a curse.” Certainly “curse” here does not refer to Israel being a source of a curse, but rather to the fact that they became a curse-word or byword among the nations, who regarded them as the epitome of an accursed people (see 2 Kgs 22:19; Jer 42:18; 44:8, 12, 22). Therefore the statement “be a blessing” seems to refer to Israel being transformed into a prime example of a blessed people, whose name will be used in blessing formulae, rather than in curses. If the statement “be a blessing” is understood in the same way in Gen 12:2, then it means that God would so bless Abram that other nations would hear of his fame and hold him up as a paradigm of divine blessing in their blessing formulae.

[12:12]  ⁵ tn The Piel of the verb חָיָה (khayah, “to live”) means “to keep alive, to preserve alive,” and in some places “to make alive.” See D. Marcus, “The Verb ‘to Live’ in Ugaritic,” JSS 17 (1972): 76-82.

[28:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.” The Hebrew word for “father” can typically be used in a broader sense than the English word, in this case referring to Abraham (who was Jacob’s grandfather). For stylistic reasons and for clarity, the words “your father” are supplied with “Isaac” in the translation.

[28:13]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term אֶרֶץ (’erets) can mean “[the] earth,” “land,” “region,” “piece of ground,” or “ground” depending on the context. Here the term specifically refers to the plot of ground on which Jacob was lying, but at the same time this stands by metonymy for the entire land of Canaan.

[28:14]  ⁸ tn This is the same Hebrew word translated “ground” in the preceding verse.

[28:14]  ⁹ tn The verb is singular in the Hebrew; Jacob is addressed as the representative of his descendants.

[28:14]  ¹⁰ tn Theoretically the Niphal stem can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of “bless” is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Jacob were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in other formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation “will bless (i.e., pronounce blessings upon) themselves/one another.” The Hitpael of “bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 28:14 predicts that Jacob will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae (see Gen 12:2 and 18:18 as well, where Abram/Abraham receives this promise). For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.

[28:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and they will pronounce blessings by you, all the families of the earth, and by your offspring.”

[28:1]  ¹² tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”

[16:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “look.” The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) introduces the foundational clause for the imperative to follow.

[16:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “enter to.” The expression is a euphemism for sexual relations (also in v. 4).

[16:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “perhaps I will be built from her.” Sarai hopes to have a family established through this surrogate mother.

[16:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “listened to the voice of,” which is an idiom meaning “obeyed.”

[27:1]  ¹⁷ tn The clause begins with the temporal indicator (“and it happened”), making it subordinate to the main clause that follows later in the sentence.

[27:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and his eyes were weak from seeing.”

[27:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “greater” (in terms of age).

[27:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Esau) is specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:18]  ²¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:18]  ²² tn Grk “who against hope believed,” referring to Abraham. The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:18]  ²³ sn A quotation from Gen 17:5.

[4:18]  ²⁴ tn Grk “according to that which had been spoken.”

[4:18]  ²⁵ sn A quotation from Gen 15:5.

[4:19]  ²⁶ tc Most mss (D F G Ψ 33 1881 Ï it) read “he did not consider” by including the negative particle (οὐ, ou), but others (א A B C 6 81 365 1506 1739 pc co) lack οὐ. The reading which includes the negative particle probably represents a scribal attempt to exalt the faith of Abraham by making it appear that his faith was so strong that he did not even consider the physical facts. But “here Paul does not wish to imply that faith means closing one’s eyes to reality, but that Abraham was so strong in faith as to be undaunted by every consideration” (TCGNT 451). Both on external and internal grounds, the reading without the negative particle is preferred.

[4:19]  ²⁷ tc ‡ Most witnesses (א A C D Ψ 33 Ï bo) have ἤδη (hdh, “already”) at this point in v. 19. But B F G 630 1739 1881 pc lat sa lack it. Since it appears to heighten the style of the narrative and since there is no easy accounting for an accidental omission, it is best to regard the shorter text as original. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.

[4:20]  ²⁸ 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, δέ (de) has not been translated here.