Genesis 7:17

7:17 The flood engulfed the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark and raised it above the earth.

Genesis 9:1

God’s Covenant with Humankind through Noah

9:1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Genesis 17:20

17:20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you. ¹  I will indeed bless him, make him fruitful, and give him a multitude of descendants. ²  He will become the father of twelve princes; ³  I will make him into a great nation.

Genesis 26:4

26:4 I will multiply your descendants so they will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them ⁴  all these lands. All the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants. ⁵ 

Genesis 34:12

34:12 You can make the bride price and the gift I must bring very expensive, ⁶  and I’ll give ⁷  whatever you ask ⁸  of me. Just give me the young woman as my wife!”

Genesis 35:11

35:11 Then God said to him, “I am the sovereign God. ⁹  Be fruitful and multiply! A nation – even a company of nations – will descend from you; kings will be among your descendants! ¹⁰ 

Genesis 38:12

38:12 After some time ¹¹  Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. After Judah was consoled, he left for Timnah to visit his sheepshearers, along with ¹²  his friend Hirah the Adullamite.

Genesis 41:49

41:49 Joseph stored up a vast amount of grain, like the sand of the sea, ¹³  until he stopped measuring it because it was impossible to measure.

Genesis 43:34

43:34 He gave them portions of the food set before him, ¹⁴  but the portion for Benjamin was five times greater than the portions for any of the others. They drank with Joseph until they all became drunk. ¹⁵ 

Genesis 48:4

48:4 He said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful ¹⁶  and will multiply you. ¹⁷  I will make you into a group of nations, and I will give this land to your descendants ¹⁸  as an everlasting possession.’ ¹⁹ 

[17:20]  ¹ sn The Hebrew verb translated “I have heard you” forms a wordplay with the name Ishmael, which means “God hears.” See the note on the name “Ishmael” in 16:11.

[17:20]  ² tn Heb “And I will multiply him exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.

[17:20]  ³ tn For a discussion of the Hebrew word translated “princes,” see E. A. Speiser, “Background and Function of the Biblical Nasi’,” CBQ 25 (1963): 111-17.

[26:4]  ¹ tn Heb “your descendants.”

[26:4]  ² 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 22:18). 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.)

[34:12]  ¹ tn Heb “Make very great upon me the bride price and gift.” The imperatives are used in a rhetorical manner. Shechem’s point is that he will pay the price, no matter how expensive it might be.

[34:12]  ² tn The cohortative expresses Shechem’s resolve to have Dinah as his wife.

[34:12]  ³ tn Heb “say.”

[35:11]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “A nation and a company of nations will be from you and kings from your loins will come out.”

[38:12]  ¹ sn After some time. There is not enough information in the narrative to know how long this was. The text says “the days increased.” It was long enough for Shelah to mature and for Tamar to realize she would not have him.

[38:12]  ² tn Heb “and he went up to the shearers of his sheep, he and.”

[41:49]  ¹ tn Heb “and Joseph gathered grain like the sand of the sea, multiplying much.” To emphasize the vast amount of grain he stored up, the Hebrew text modifies the verb “gathered” with an infinitive absolute and an adverb.

[43:34]  ¹ tn Heb “and he lifted up portions from before his face to them.”

[43:34]  ² tn Heb “and they drank and were intoxicated with him” (cf. NIV “drank freely with him”; NEB “grew merry”; NRSV “were merry”). The brothers were apparently relaxed and set at ease, despite Joseph’s obvious favoritism toward Benjamin.

[48:4]  ¹ tn Heb “Look, I am making you fruitful.” The participle following הִנֵּה (hinneh) has the nuance of a certain and often imminent future.

[48:4]  ² tn The perfect verbal form with vav consecutive carries on the certain future idea.

[48:4]  ³ tn The Hebrew text adds “after you,” which has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[48:4]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew word אֲחֻזָּה (’akhuzzah), translated “possession,” describes a permanent holding in the land. It is the noun form of the same verb (אָחַז, ’akhaz) that was used for the land given to them in Goshen (Gen 47:27).