Genesis 7:3

7:3 and also seven ¹  of every kind of bird in the sky, male and female, ²  to preserve their offspring ³  on the face of the earth.

Genesis 8:22

8:22 “While the earth continues to exist, ⁴ 

planting time ⁵  and harvest,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

and day and night will not cease.”

Genesis 12:7

12:7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants ⁶  I will give this land.” So Abram ⁷  built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

Genesis 15:5

15:5 The Lord ⁸  took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars – if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”

Genesis 15:13

15:13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain ⁹  that your descendants will be strangers ¹⁰  in a foreign country. ¹¹  They will be enslaved and oppressed ¹²  for four hundred years.

Genesis 17:8

17:8 I will give the whole land of Canaan – the land where you are now residing ¹³  – to you and your descendants after you as a permanent ¹⁴  possession. I will be their God.”

Genesis 17:10

17:10 This is my requirement that you and your descendants after you must keep: ¹⁵  Every male among you must be circumcised. ¹⁶ 

Genesis 24:60

24:60 They blessed Rebekah with these words: ¹⁷ 

“Our sister, may you become the mother ¹⁸  of thousands of ten thousands!

May your descendants possess the strongholds ¹⁹  of their enemies.”

Genesis 28:4

28:4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham ²⁰  so that you may possess the land ²¹  God gave to Abraham, the land where you have been living as a temporary resident.” ²² 

Genesis 32:12

32:12 But you ²³  said, ‘I will certainly make you prosper ²⁴  and will make ²⁵  your descendants like the sand on the seashore, too numerous to count.’” ²⁶ 

Genesis 35:12

35:12 The land I gave ²⁷  to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you. To your descendants ²⁸  I will also give this land.”

Genesis 46:6

46:6 Jacob and all his descendants took their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and they went to Egypt. ²⁹ 

Genesis 47:23-24

47:23 Joseph said to the people, “Since I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you. Cultivate ³⁰  the land. 47:24 When you gather in the crop, ³¹  give ³²  one-fifth of it to Pharaoh, and the rest ³³  will be yours for seed for the fields and for you to eat, including those in your households and your little children.”

Genesis 48:4

48:4 He said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful ³⁴  and will multiply you. ³⁵  I will make you into a group of nations, and I will give this land to your descendants ³⁶  as an everlasting possession.’ ³⁷ 

Genesis 48:11

48:11 Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected ³⁸  to see you ³⁹  again, but now God has allowed me to see your children ⁴⁰  too.”

[7:3]  ¹ tn Or “seven pairs” (cf. NRSV).

[7:3]  ² tn Here (and in v. 9) the Hebrew text uses the normal generic terms for “male and female” (זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה, zakhar unÿqevah).

[7:3]  ³ tn Heb “to keep alive offspring.”

[8:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “yet all the days of the earth.” The idea is “[while there are] yet all the days of the earth,” meaning, “as long as the earth exists.”

[8:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “seed,” which stands here by metonymy for the time when seed is planted.

[12:7]  ⁷ tn The same Hebrew term זֶרַע (zera’) may mean “seed” (for planting), “offspring” (occasionally of animals, but usually of people), or “descendants” depending on the context.

[12:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[15:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:13]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, with the Qal infinitive absolute followed by the imperfect from יָדַע (yada’, “know”). The imperfect here has an obligatory or imperatival force.

[15:13]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger, “sojourner, stranger”) is related to the verb גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to stay for awhile”). Abram’s descendants will stay in a land as resident aliens without rights of citizenship.

[15:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in a land not theirs.”

[15:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and they will serve them and they will oppress them.” The verb עִנּוּ, (’innu, a Piel form from עָנָה, ’anah, “to afflict, to oppress, to treat harshly”), is used in Exod 1:11 to describe the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt.

[17:8]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “This is my covenant that you must keep between me and you and your descendants after you.”

[17:10]  ²⁰ sn For a discussion of male circumcision as the sign of the covenant in this passage see M. V. Fox, “The Sign of the Covenant: Circumcision in the Light of the Priestly ‘ot Etiologies,” RB 81 (1974): 557-96.

[24:60]  ²² tn Heb “and said to her.”

[24:60]  ²³ tn Heb “become thousands of ten thousands.”

[24:60]  ²⁴ tn Heb “gate,” which here stands for a walled city. In an ancient Near Eastern city the gate complex was the main area of defense (hence the translation “stronghold”). A similar phrase occurs in Gen 22:17.

[28:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and may he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you.” The name “Abraham” is an objective genitive here; this refers to the blessing that God gave to Abraham.

[28:4]  ²⁶ tn The words “the land” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[28:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the land of your sojournings,” that is, the land where Jacob had been living as a resident alien, as his future descendants would after him.

[32:12]  ²⁸ tn Heb “But you, you said.” One of the occurrences of the pronoun “you” has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.

[32:12]  ²⁹ tn Or “will certainly deal well with you.” The infinitive absolute appears before the imperfect, underscoring God’s promise to bless. The statement is more emphatic than in v. 9.

[32:12]  ³⁰ tn The form is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the nuance of the preceding verb forward.

[32:12]  ³¹ tn Heb “which cannot be counted because of abundance.” The imperfect verbal form indicates potential here.

[35:12]  ³¹ tn The Hebrew verb translated “gave” refers to the Abrahamic promise of the land. However, the actual possession of that land lay in the future. The decree of the Lord made it certain; but it has the sense “promised to give.”

[35:12]  ³² tn Heb “and to your offspring after you.”

[46:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and they took their livestock and their possessions which they had acquired in the land of Canaan and they went to Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[47:23]  ³⁷ tn The perfect verbal form with the vav consecutive is equivalent to a command here.

[47:24]  ⁴⁰ tn The words “the crop” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[47:24]  ⁴¹ tn The perfect form with the vav (ו) consecutive is equivalent to an imperfect of instruction here.

[47:24]  ⁴² tn Heb “four parts.”

[48:4]  ⁴³ 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]  ⁴⁴ tn The perfect verbal form with vav consecutive carries on the certain future idea.

[48:4]  ⁴⁵ tn The Hebrew text adds “after you,” which has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[48:4]  ⁴⁶ 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).

[48:11]  ⁴⁶ tn On the meaning of the Hebrew verb פָּלַל (palal) here, see E. A. Speiser, “The Stem pll in Hebrew,” JBL 82 (1963): 301-6. Speiser argues that this verb means “to estimate” as in Exod 21:22.

[48:11]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “your face.”

[48:11]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “offspring.”