Genesis 5:2

5:2 He created them male and female; when they were created, he blessed them and named them “humankind.” ¹ 

Genesis 9:26

9:26 He also said,

“Worthy of praise is ²  the Lord, the God of Shem!

May Canaan be the slave of Shem! ³ 

Genesis 14:20

14:20 Worthy of praise is ⁴  the Most High God,

who delivered ⁵  your enemies into your hand.”

Abram gave Melchizedek ⁶  a tenth of everything.

Genesis 18:18

18:18 After all, Abraham ⁷  will surely become ⁸  a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ⁹  using his name.

Genesis 22:18

22:18 Because you have obeyed me, ¹⁰  all the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ¹¹  using the name of your descendants.’”

Genesis 24:1

The Wife for Isaac

24:1 Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years, ¹²  and the Lord had blessed him ¹³  in everything.

Genesis 24:11

24:11 He made the camels kneel down by the well ¹⁴  outside the city. It was evening, ¹⁵  the time when the women would go out to draw water.

Genesis 24:31

24:31 Laban said to him, ¹⁶  “Come, you who are blessed by the Lord! ¹⁷  Why are you standing out here when I have prepared ¹⁸  the house and a place for the camels?”

Genesis 26:12

26:12 When Isaac planted in that land, he reaped in the same year a hundred times what he had sown, ¹⁹  because the Lord blessed him. ²⁰ 

Genesis 27:7

27:7 ‘Bring me some wild game and prepare for me some tasty food. Then I will eat ²¹  it and bless you ²²  in the presence of the Lord ²³  before I die.’

Genesis 27:23

27:23 He did not recognize him because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau’s hands. So Isaac blessed Jacob. ²⁴ 

Genesis 28:3

28:3 May the sovereign God ²⁵  bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! ²⁶  Then you will become ²⁷  a large nation. ²⁸ 

Genesis 30:27

30:27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, please stay here, ²⁹  for I have learned by divination ³⁰  that the Lord has blessed me on account of you.”

Genesis 32:26

32:26 Then the man ³¹  said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” ³²  “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, ³³  “unless you bless me.” ³⁴ 

Genesis 35:9

35:9 God appeared to Jacob again after he returned from Paddan Aram and blessed him.

Genesis 47:7

47:7 Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and presented him ³⁵  before Pharaoh. Jacob blessed ³⁶  Pharaoh.

[5:2]  ¹ tn The Hebrew word used here is אָדָם (’adam).

[9:26]  ² tn Heb “blessed be.”

[9:26]  ³ tn Heb “a slave to him”; the referent (Shem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:20]  ³ tn Heb “blessed be.” For God to be “blessed” means that is praised. His reputation is enriched in the world as his name is praised.

[14:20]  ⁴ sn Who delivered. The Hebrew verb מִגֵּן (miggen, “delivered”) foreshadows the statement by God to Abram in Gen 15:1, “I am your shield” (מָגֵן, magen). Melchizedek provided a theological interpretation of Abram’s military victory.

[14:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Melchizedek) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “And Abraham.” The disjunctive clause is probably causal, giving a reason why God should not hide his intentions from Abraham. One could translate, “Should I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation?”

[18:18]  ⁵ tn The infinitive absolute lends emphasis to the finite verb that follows.

[18:18]  ⁶ tn Theoretically the Niphal 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 Abram were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in later 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 [or “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 18:18 (like 12:2) predicts that Abraham will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.

[22:18]  ⁵ tn In the Hebrew text this causal clause comes at the end of the sentence. The translation alters the word order for stylistic reasons.

[22:18]  ⁶ tn Traditionally the verb is taken as passive (“will be blessed”) here, as if Abraham’s descendants were going to be a channel or source of blessing to the nations. But the Hitpael is better understood here as reflexive/reciprocal, “will bless [i.e., pronounce blessings on] themselves/one another” (see also Gen 26:4). Elsewhere the Hitpael of the verb “to bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 12:2 predicts that Abram will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11. Earlier formulations of this promise (see Gen 12:2; 18:18) use the Niphal stem. (See also Gen 28:14.)

[24:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “days.”

[24:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “Abraham.” The proper name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“he”) for stylistic reasons.

[24:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “well of water.”

[24:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “at the time of evening.”

[24:31]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent (Laban) has been specified and the words “to him” supplied in the translation for clarity.

[24:31]  ⁹ sn Laban’s obsession with wealth is apparent; to him it represents how one is blessed by the Lord. Already the author is laying the foundation for subsequent events in the narrative, where Laban’s greed becomes his dominant characteristic.

[24:31]  ¹⁰ tn The disjunctive clause is circumstantial.

[26:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “a hundredfold.”

[26:12]  ¹⁰ tn This final clause explains why Isaac had such a bountiful harvest.

[27:7]  ¹⁰ tn Following the imperative, the cohortative (with the prefixed conjunction) indicates purpose or result.

[27:7]  ¹¹ tn The cohortative, with the prefixed conjunction, also expresses logical sequence. See vv. 4, 19, 27.

[27:7]  ¹² tn In her report to Jacob, Rebekah plays down Isaac’s strong desire to bless Esau by leaving out נַפְשִׁי (nafshi, “my soul”), but by adding the phrase “in the presence of the Lord,” she stresses how serious this matter is.

[27:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he blessed him.” The referents of the pronouns “he” (Isaac) and “him” (Jacob) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[28:3]  ¹² tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.

[28:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “and make you fruitful and multiply you.” See Gen 17:6, 20 for similar terminology.

[28:3]  ¹⁴ tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here indicates consequence. The collocation הָיָה + preposition לְ (hayah + lÿ) means “become.”

[28:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “an assembly of peoples.”

[30:27]  ¹³ tn The words “please stay here” have been supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

[30:27]  ¹⁴ tn Or perhaps “I have grown rich and the Lord has blessed me” (cf. NEB). See J. Finkelstein, “An Old Babylonian Herding Contract and Genesis 31:38f.,” JAOS 88 (1968): 34, n. 19.

[32:26]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “dawn has arisen.”

[32:26]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he said, ‘I will not let you go.’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:26]  ¹⁷ sn Jacob wrestled with a man thinking him to be a mere man, and on that basis was equal to the task. But when it had gone on long enough, the night visitor touched Jacob and crippled him. Jacob’s request for a blessing can only mean that he now knew that his opponent was supernatural. Contrary to many allegorical interpretations of the passage that make fighting equivalent to prayer, this passage shows that Jacob stopped fighting, and then asked for a blessing.

[47:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “caused him to stand.”

[47:7]  ¹⁶ sn The precise meaning of the Hebrew verb translated “blessed” is difficult in this passage, because the content of Jacob’s blessing is not given. The expression could simply mean that he greeted Pharaoh, but that seems insufficient in this setting. Jacob probably praised Pharaoh, for the verb is used this way for praising God. It is also possible that he pronounced a formal prayer of blessing, asking God to reward Pharaoh for his kindness.