Genesis 14:11-12

14:11 The four victorious kings ¹  took all the possessions and food of Sodom and Gomorrah and left. 14:12 They also took Abram’s nephew ²  Lot and his possessions when ³  they left, for Lot ⁴  was living in Sodom. ⁵ 

Genesis 12:2

12:2 Then I will make you ⁶  into a great nation, and I will bless you, ⁷ 

and I will make your name great, ⁸ 

so that you will exemplify divine blessing. ⁹ 

Genesis 12:1

The Obedience of Abram

12:1 Now the Lord said ¹⁰  to Abram, ¹¹ 

“Go out ¹²  from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household

to the land that I will show you. ¹³ 

Genesis 30:8

30:8 Then Rachel said, “I have fought a desperate struggle with my sister, but I have won.” ¹⁴  So she named him Naphtali. ¹⁵ 

Genesis 30:18-19

30:18 Then Leah said, “God has granted me a reward ¹⁶  because I gave my servant to my husband as a wife.” ¹⁷  So she named him Issachar. ¹⁸ 

30:19 Leah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a son for the sixth time. ¹⁹ 

Isaiah 41:2

41:2 Who stirs up this one from the east? ²⁰ 

Who ²¹  officially commissions him for service? ²² 

He hands nations over to him, ²³ 

and enables him to subdue ²⁴  kings.

He makes them like dust with his sword,

like windblown straw with his bow. ²⁵ 

[14:11]  ¹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the four victorious kings, see v. 9) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[14:12]  ² tn Heb “Lot the son of his brother.”

[14:12]  ³ tn Heb “and.”

[14:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Lot) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:12]  ⁵ tn This disjunctive clause is circumstantial/causal, explaining that Lot was captured because he was living in Sodom at the time.

[12:2]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Or “I will make you famous.”

[12:2]  ⁹ 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.

[12:1]  ¹⁰ sn The Lord called Abram while he was in Ur (see Gen 15:7; Acts 7:2); but the sequence here makes it look like it was after the family left to migrate to Canaan (11:31-32). Genesis records the call of Abram at this place in the narrative because it is the formal beginning of the account of Abram. The record of Terah was brought to its end before this beginning.

[12:1]  ¹¹ tn The call of Abram begins with an imperative לֶךְ־לְךָ (lekh-lÿkha, “go out”) followed by three cohortatives (v. 2a) indicating purpose or consequence (“that I may” or “then I will”). If Abram leaves, then God will do these three things. The second imperative (v. 2b, literally “and be a blessing”) is subordinated to the preceding cohortatives and indicates God’s ultimate purpose in calling and blessing Abram. On the syntactical structure of vv. 1-2 see R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 37. For a similar sequence of volitive forms see Gen 45:18.

[12:1]  ¹² tn The initial command is the direct imperative (לֶךְ, lekh) from the verb הָלַךְ (halakh). It is followed by the lamed preposition with a pronominal suffix (לְךָ, lÿkha) emphasizing the subject of the imperative: “you leave.”

[12:1]  ¹³ sn To the land that I will show you. The call of Abram illustrates the leading of the Lord. The command is to leave. The Lord’s word is very specific about what Abram is to leave (the three prepositional phrases narrow to his father’s household), but is not specific at all about where he is to go. God required faith, a point that Heb 11:8 notes.

[30:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister, also I have prevailed.” The phrase “mighty struggle” reads literally “struggles of God.” The plural participle “struggles” reflects the ongoing nature of the struggle, while the divine name is used here idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the struggle. See J. Skinner, Genesis (ICC), 387.

[30:8]  ¹⁵ sn The name Naphtali (נַפְתָּלִי, naftali) must mean something like “my struggle” in view of the statement Rachel made in the preceding clause. The name plays on this earlier statement, “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister.”

[30:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “God has given my reward.”

[30:18]  ¹⁷ tn The words “as a wife” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for clarity (cf. v. 9).

[30:18]  ¹⁸ sn The name Issachar (יְשָּׁשכָר, yishakhar) appears to mean “man of reward” or possibly “there is reward.” The name plays on the word used in the statement made earlier in the verse. The Hebrew noun translated “reward” is derived from the same root as the name Issachar. The irony is that Rachel thought the mandrakes would work for her, and she was willing to trade one night for them. But in that one night Leah became pregnant.

[30:19]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and she bore a sixth son for Jacob,” i.e., this was the sixth son that Leah had given Jacob.

[41:2]  ²⁰ sn The expression this one from the east refers to the Persian conqueror Cyrus, as later texts indicate (see 44:28-45:6; 46:11; 48:14-16).

[41:2]  ²¹ tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis.

[41:2]  ²² tn Heb “[in] righteousness called him to his foot.”

[41:2]  ²³ tn Heb “he [the Lord] places before him [Cyrus] nations.”

[41:2]  ²⁴ tn The verb יַרְדְּ (yardÿ) is an otherwise unattested Hiphil form from רָדָה (radah, “rule”). But the Hiphil makes no sense with “kings” as object; one must understand an ellipsis and supply “him” (Cyrus) as the object. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has יוֹרִד (yorid), which appears to be a Hiphil form from יָרַד (yarad, “go down”). Others suggest reading יָרֹד (yarod), a Qal form from רָדַד (radad, “beat down”).

[41:2]  ²⁵ sn The point is that they are powerless before Cyrus’ military power and scatter before him.