Genesis 18:14

18:14 Is anything impossible ¹  for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” ² 

Genesis 28:3

28:3 May the sovereign God ³  bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! ⁴  Then you will become ⁵  a large nation. ⁶ 

Genesis 35:11

35:11 Then God said to him, “I am the sovereign God. ⁷  Be fruitful and multiply! A nation – even a company of nations – will descend from you; kings will be among your descendants! ⁸ 

Exodus 6:3

6:3 I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as ⁹  God Almighty, ¹⁰  but by ¹¹  my name ‘the Lord’ ¹²  I was not known to them. ¹³ 

Numbers 11:23

11:23 And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s hand shortened? ¹⁴  Now you will see whether my word to you will come true ¹⁵  or not!”

Deuteronomy 10:17

10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe,

Job 11:7

11:7 “Can you discover ¹⁶  the essence ¹⁷  of God?

Can you find out ¹⁸ 

the perfection of the Almighty? ¹⁹ 

Psalms 115:3

115:3 Our God is in heaven!

He does whatever he pleases! ²⁰ 

Jeremiah 32:17

32:17 ‘Oh, Lord God, ²¹  you did indeed ²²  make heaven and earth by your mighty power and great strength. ²³  Nothing is too hard for you!

Daniel 4:35

4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. ²⁴ 

He does as he wishes with the army of heaven

and with those who inhabit the earth.

No one slaps ²⁵  his hand

and says to him, ‘What have you done?’

Matthew 19:26

19:26 Jesus ²⁶  looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, ²⁷  but for God all things are possible.”

Ephesians 3:20

3:20 Now to him who by the power that is working within us ²⁸  is able to do far beyond ²⁹  all that we ask or think,

Philippians 4:13

4:13 I am able to do all things ³⁰  through the one ³¹  who strengthens me.

Hebrews 7:25

7:25 So he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

[18:14]  ¹ tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”

[18:14]  ² sn Sarah will have a son. The passage brings God’s promise into clear focus. As long as it was a promise for the future, it really could be believed without much involvement. But now, when it seemed so impossible from the human standpoint, when the Lord fixed an exact date for the birth of the child, the promise became rather overwhelming to Abraham and Sarah. But then this was the Lord of creation, the one they had come to trust. The point of these narratives is that the creation of Abraham’s offspring, which eventually became Israel, is no less a miraculous work of creation than the creation of the world itself.

[28:3]  ³ tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.

[28:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and make you fruitful and multiply you.” See Gen 17:6, 20 for similar terminology.

[28:3]  ⁵ tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here indicates consequence. The collocation הָיָה + preposition לְ (hayah + lÿ) means “become.”

[28:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “an assembly of peoples.”

[35:11]  ⁷ tn The name אֵל שַׁדַּי (’el shadday, “El Shaddai”) has often been translated “God Almighty,” primarily because Jerome translated it omnipotens (“all powerful”) in the Latin Vulgate. There has been much debate over the meaning of the name. For discussion see W. F. Albright, “The Names Shaddai and Abram,” JBL 54 (1935): 173-210; R. Gordis, “The Biblical Root sdy-sd,” JTS 41 (1940): 34-43; and especially T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 69-72. Shaddai/El Shaddai is the sovereign king of the world who grants, blesses, and judges. In the Book of Genesis he blesses the patriarchs with fertility and promises numerous descendants. Outside Genesis he both blesses/protects and takes away life/happiness. The patriarchs knew God primarily as El Shaddai (Exod 6:3). While the origin and meaning of this name are uncertain its significance is clear. The name is used in contexts where God appears as the source of fertility and life. For a fuller discussion see the note on “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.

[35:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “A nation and a company of nations will be from you and kings from your loins will come out.”

[6:3]  ⁹ tn The preposition bet (ב) in this construction should be classified as a bet essentiae, a bet of essence (see also GKC 379 §119.i).

[6:3]  ¹⁰ tn The traditional rendering of the title as “Almighty” is reflected in LXX and Jerome. But there is still little agreement on the etymology and exact meaning of אֵל־שַׁדַּי (’el-shadday). Suggestions have included the idea of “mountain God,” meaning the high God, as well as “the God with breasts.” But there is very little evidence supporting such conclusions and not much reason to question the ancient versions.

[6:3]  ¹¹ tn The noun שְׁמִי (shÿmi, “my name,” and “Yahweh” in apposition to it), is an adverbial accusative, specifying how the patriarchs “knew” him.

[6:3]  ¹² tn Heb “Yahweh,” traditionally rendered in English as “the Lord.” The phrase has been placed in quotation marks in the translation to indicate it represents the tetragrammaton.

[6:3]  ¹³ tn The verb is the Niphal form נוֹדַעְתִּי (noda’ti). If the text had wanted to say, “I did not make myself known,” then a Hiphil form would have been more likely. It is saying, “but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them.”

[11:23]  ¹⁴ sn This anthropomorphic expression concerns the power of God. The “hand of the Lord” is idiomatic for his power, what he is able to do. The question is rhetorical; it is affirming that his hand is not shortened, i.e., that his power is not limited. Moses should have known this, and so this is a rebuke for him at this point. God had provided the manna, among all the other powerful acts they had witnessed. Meat would be no problem. But the lack of faith by the people was infectious.

[11:23]  ¹⁵ tn Or “will happen” (TEV); KJV “shall come to pass unto thee.”

[11:7]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is מָצָא (matsa’, “to find; to discover”). Here it should be given the nuance of potential imperfect. And, in the rhetorical question it is affirming that Job cannot find out the essence of God.

[11:7]  ¹⁷ tn The word means “search; investigation”; but it here means what is discovered in the search (so a metonymy of cause for the effect).

[11:7]  ¹⁸ tn The same verb is now found in the second half of the verse, with a slightly different sense – “attain, reach.” A. R. Ceresko notes this as an example of antanaclasis (repetition of a word with a lightly different sense – “find/attain”). See “The Function of Antanaclasis in Hebrew Poetry,” CBQ 44 (1982): 560-61.

[11:7]  ¹⁹ tn The abstract תַּכְלִית (takhlit) from כָּלָה (kalah, “to be complete; to be perfect”) may mean the end or limit of something, perhaps to perfection. So the NIV has “can you probe the limits of the Almighty?” The LXX has: “have you come to the end of that which the Almighty has made?”

[115:3]  ²⁰ sn He does whatever he pleases. Such sovereignty is characteristic of kings (see Eccl 8:3).

[32:17]  ²¹ tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” For an explanation of the rendering here see the study note on 1:6.

[32:17]  ²² tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle normally translated “behold.” See the translator’s note on 1:6 for the usage of this particle.

[32:17]  ²³ tn Heb “by your great power and your outstretched arm.” See 21:5; 27:5 and the marginal note on 27:5 for this idiom.

[4:35]  ²⁴ tc The present translation reads כְּלָא (kÿla’), with many medieval Hebrew MSS, rather than כְּלָה (kÿlah) of BHS.

[4:35]  ²⁵ tn Aram “strikes against.”

[19:26]  ²⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[19:26]  ²⁷ tn The plural Greek term ἄνθρωποις (anqrwpois) is used here in a generic sense, referring to both men and women (cf. NASB 1995 update, “people”). Because of the contrast here between mere mortals and God (“impossible for men, but for God all things are possible”) the phrase “mere humans” has been used in the translation. There may also be a slight wordplay with “the Son of Man” in v. 28.

[3:20]  ²⁸ sn On the power that is working within us see 1:19-20.

[3:20]  ²⁹ tn Or “infinitely beyond,” “far more abundantly than.”

[4:13]  ³⁰ tn The Greek word translated “all things” is in emphatic position at the beginning of the Greek sentence.

[4:13]  ³¹ tc Although some excellent witnesses lack explicit reference to the one strengthening Paul (so א* A B D* I 33 1739 lat co Cl), the majority of witnesses (א² D² [F G] Ψ 075 1881 Ï sy) add Χριστῷ (Cristw) here (thus, “through Christ who strengthens me”). But this kind of reading is patently secondary, and is a predictable variant. Further, the shorter reading is much harder, for it leaves the agent unspecified.