Genesis 17:4-8

17:4 “As for me, ¹  this ²  is my covenant with you: You will be the father of a multitude of nations. 17:5 No longer will your name be ³  Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham ⁴  because I will make you ⁵  the father of a multitude of nations. 17:6 I will make you ⁶  extremely ⁷  fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you. ⁸  17:7 I will confirm ⁹  my covenant as a perpetual ¹⁰  covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ¹¹  17:8 I will give the whole land of Canaan – the land where you are now residing ¹²  – to you and your descendants after you as a permanent ¹³  possession. I will be their God.”

[17:4]  ¹ tn Heb “I.”

[17:4]  ² tn Heb “is” (הִנֵּה, hinneh).

[17:5]  ³ tn Heb “will your name be called.”

[17:5]  ⁴ sn Your name will be Abraham. The renaming of Abram was a sign of confirmation to the patriarch. Every time the name was used it would be a reminder of God’s promise. “Abram” means “exalted father,” probably referring to Abram’s father Terah. The name looks to the past; Abram came from noble lineage. The name “Abraham” is a dialectical variant of the name Abram. But its significance is in the wordplay with אַב־הֲמוֹן (’av-hamon, “the father of a multitude,” which sounds like אַבְרָהָם, ’avraham, “Abraham”). The new name would be a reminder of God’s intention to make Abraham the father of a multitude. For a general discussion of renaming, see O. Eissfeldt, “Renaming in the Old Testament,” Words and Meanings, 70-83.

[17:5]  ⁵ tn The perfect verbal form is used here in a rhetorical manner to emphasize God’s intention.

[17:6]  ⁵ tn This verb starts a series of perfect verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive to express God’s intentions.

[17:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.

[17:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “and I will make you into nations, and kings will come out from you.”

[17:7]  ⁷ tn The verb קוּם (qum, “to arise, to stand up”) in the Hiphil verbal stem means “to confirm, to give effect to, to carry out” (i.e., a covenant or oath; see BDB 878-79 s.v. קוּם).

[17:7]  ⁸ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”

[17:8]  ⁹ tn The verbal root is גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to reside temporarily,” i.e., as a resident alien). It is the land in which Abram resides, but does not yet possess as his very own.

[17:8]  ¹⁰ tn Or “as an eternal.”