Genesis 17:16

17:16 I will bless her and will give you a son through her. I will bless her and she will become a mother of nations. ¹  Kings of countries ²  will come from her!”

Genesis 18:10

18:10 One of them ³  said, “I will surely return ⁴  to you when the season comes round again, ⁵  and your wife Sarah will have a son!” ⁶  (Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, not far behind him. ⁷ 

Genesis 20:18

20:18 For the Lord ⁸  had caused infertility to strike every woman ⁹  in the household of Abimelech because he took ¹⁰  Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

Genesis 25:21

25:21 Isaac prayed to ¹¹  the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.

Genesis 30:2-3

30:2 Jacob became furious ¹²  with Rachel and exclaimed, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” ¹³  30:3 She replied, “Here is my servant Bilhah! Have sexual relations with ¹⁴  her so that she can bear ¹⁵  children ¹⁶  for me ¹⁷  and I can have a family through her.” ¹⁸ 

Genesis 30:9

30:9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave ¹⁹  her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife.

Genesis 30:22

30:22 Then God took note of ²⁰  Rachel. He paid attention to her and enabled her to become pregnant. ²¹ 

Psalms 127:3

127:3 Yes, ²²  sons ²³  are a gift from the Lord,

the fruit of the womb is a reward.

[17:16]  ¹ tn Heb “she will become nations.”

[17:16]  ² tn Heb “peoples.”

[18:10]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (one of the three men introduced in v. 2) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Some English translations have specified the referent as the Lord (cf. RSV, NIV) based on vv. 1, 13, but the Hebrew text merely has “he said” at this point, referring to one of the three visitors. Aside from the introductory statement in v. 1, the incident is narrated from Abraham’s point of view, and the suspense is built up for the reader as Abraham’s elaborate banquet preparations in the preceding verses suggest he suspects these are important guests. But not until the promise of a son later in this verse does it become clear who is speaking. In v. 13 the Hebrew text explicitly mentions the Lord.

[18:10]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, using the infinitive absolute with the imperfect tense.

[18:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “as/when the time lives” or “revives,” possibly referring to the springtime.

[18:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “and there will be (הִנֵּה, hinneh) a son for Sarah.”

[18:10]  ⁷ tn This is the first of two disjunctive parenthetical clauses preparing the reader for Sarah’s response (see v. 12).

[20:18]  ⁸ tn In the Hebrew text the clause begins with “because.”

[20:18]  ⁹ tn Heb had completely closed up every womb.” In the Hebrew text infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis.

[20:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “because of.” The words “he took” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[25:21]  ¹¹ 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.

[30:2]  ¹² tn Heb “and the anger of Jacob was hot.”

[30:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb.”

[30:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “go in to.” The expression “go in to” in this context refers to sexual intercourse.

[30:3]  ¹⁵ tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with the conjunction indicates the immediate purpose of the proposed activity.

[30:3]  ¹⁶ tn The word “children” is not in the Hebrew text but has been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “upon my knees.” This is an idiomatic way of saying that Bilhah will be simply a surrogate mother. Rachel will adopt the child as her own.

[30:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and I will be built up, even I, from her.” The prefixed verbal form with the conjunction is subordinated to the preceding prefixed verbal form and gives the ultimate purpose for the proposed action. The idiom of “built up” here refers to having a family (see Gen 16:2, as well as Ruth 4:11 and BDB 125 s.v. בָנָה).

[30:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “she took her servant Zilpah and gave her.” The verbs “took” and “gave” are treated as a hendiadys in the translation: “she gave.”

[30:22]  ²⁰ tn Heb “remembered.”

[30:22]  ²¹ tn Heb “and God listened to her and opened up her womb.” Since “God” is the subject of the previous clause, the noun has been replaced by the pronoun “he” in the translation for stylistic reasons

[127:3]  ²² tn or “look.”

[127:3]  ²³ 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.