Isaiah 62:4

62:4 You will no longer be called, “Abandoned,”

and your land will no longer be called “Desolate.”

Indeed, ¹  you will be called “My Delight is in Her,” ² 

and your land “Married.” ³ 

For the Lord will take delight in you,

and your land will be married to him. ⁴ 

Isaiah 62:12

62:12 They will be called, “The Holy People,

the Ones Protected ⁵  by the Lord.”

You will be called, “Sought After,

City Not Abandoned.”

Isaiah 65:15

65:15 Your names will live on in the curse formulas of my chosen ones. ⁶ 

The sovereign Lord will kill you,

but he will give his servants another name.

Genesis 17:5

17:5 No longer will your name be ⁷  Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham ⁸  because I will make you ⁹  the father of a multitude of nations.

Genesis 17:15

17:15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; ¹⁰  Sarah ¹¹  will be her name.

Genesis 32:28

32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, ¹²  “but Israel, ¹³  because you have fought ¹⁴  with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Jeremiah 33:16

33:16 Under his rule Judah will enjoy safety ¹⁵  and Jerusalem ¹⁶  will live in security. At that time Jerusalem will be called “The Lord has provided us with justice.” ¹⁷ 

Acts 11:26

11:26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. ¹⁸  So ¹⁹  for a whole year Barnabas and Saul ²⁰  met with the church and taught a significant number of people. ²¹  Now it was in Antioch ²²  that the disciples were first called Christians. ²³ 

Revelation 2:17

2:17 The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, ²⁴  I will give him some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white ²⁵  stone, ²⁶  and on that stone will be written a new name that no one can understand ²⁷  except the one who receives it.’

[62:4]  ¹ tn Or “for”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “but.”

[62:4]  ² tn Hebrew חֶפְצִי־בָהּ (kheftsi-vah), traditionally transliterated “Hephzibah” (so KJV, ASV, NIV).

[62:4]  ³ tn Hebrew בְּעוּלָה (bÿ’ulah), traditionally transliterated “Beulah” (so KJV, ASV, NIV).

[62:4]  ⁴ tn That is, the land will be restored to the Lord’s favor and once again enjoy his blessing and protection. To indicate the land’s relationship to the Lord, the words “to him” have been supplied at the end of the clause.

[62:12]  ⁵ tn Or “the redeemed of the Lord” (KJV, NAB).

[65:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “you will leave your name for an oath to my chosen ones.”

[17:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “will your name be called.”

[17:5]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn The perfect verbal form is used here in a rhetorical manner to emphasize God’s intention.

[17:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[As for] Sarai your wife, you must not call her name Sarai, for Sarah [will be] her name.”

[17:15]  ¹¹ sn Sarah. The name change seems to be a dialectical variation, both spellings meaning “princess” or “queen.” Like the name Abram, the name Sarai symbolized the past. The new name Sarah, like the name Abraham, would be a reminder of what God intended to do for Sarah in the future.

[32:28]  ¹² tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with 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.

[32:28]  ¹³ sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the Lord was saying that Jacob would have victory and receive the promises because God would fight for him.

[32:28]  ¹⁴ sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).

[33:16]  ¹⁵ tn For the translation of this term in this context see the parallel context in 23:6 and consult the translator’s note there.

[33:16]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[33:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “And this is what will be called to it: ‘The Lord our righteousness.’”

[11:26]  ¹⁸ sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19.

[11:26]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “So it happened that” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[11:26]  ²⁰ tn Grk “year they”; the referents (Barnabas and Saul) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:26]  ²¹ tn Grk “a significant crowd.”

[11:26]  ²² sn Antioch was a city in Syria (not Antioch in Pisidia). See the note in 11:19.

[11:26]  ²³ sn The term Christians appears only here, in Acts 26:28, and 1 Pet 4:16 in the NT.

[2:17]  ²⁴ tn Or “who is victorious”; traditionally, “who overcomes.” The pendent dative is allowed to stand in the English translation because it is characteristic of the author’s style in Revelation.

[2:17]  ²⁵ tn Or “bright.” The Greek term λευκός (leukos) can refer either to the color white (traditional here) or to an object that is bright or shining, either from itself or from an outside source of illumination (L&N 14.50; 79.27).

[2:17]  ²⁶ tn On the interpretation of the stone, L&N 2.27 states, “A number of different suggestions have been made as to the reference of ψῆφος in this context. Some scholars believe that the white ψῆφος indicates a vote of acquittal in court. Others contend that it is simply a magical amulet; still others, a token of Roman hospitality; and finally, some have suggested that it may represent a ticket to the gladiatorial games, that is to say, to martyrdom. The context, however, suggests clearly that this is something to be prized and a type of reward for those who have ‘won the victory.’”

[2:17]  ²⁷ tn Or “know”; for the meaning “understand” see L&N 32.4.