Luke 1:13

1:13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, ¹  and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son; you ²  will name him John. ³ 

Genesis 21:1-2

The Birth of Isaac

21:1 The Lord visited ⁴  Sarah just as he had said he would and did ⁵  for Sarah what he had promised. ⁶  21:2 So Sarah became pregnant ⁷  and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him.

Genesis 25:21

25:21 Isaac prayed to ⁸  the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.

Genesis 30:22

30:22 Then God took note of ⁹  Rachel. He paid attention to her and enabled her to become pregnant. ¹⁰ 

Genesis 30:1

30:1 When Rachel saw that she could not give Jacob children, she ¹¹  became jealous of her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children ¹²  or I’ll die!”

Genesis 1:19-20

1:19 There was evening, and there was morning, a fourth day.

1:20 God said, “Let the water swarm with swarms ¹³  of living creatures and let birds fly ¹⁴  above the earth across the expanse of the sky.”

Genesis 2:21-22

2:21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, ¹⁵  and while he was asleep, ¹⁶  he took part of the man’s side ¹⁷  and closed up the place with flesh. ¹⁸  2:22 Then the Lord God made ¹⁹  a woman from the part he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

Hebrews 11:11

11:11 By faith, even though Sarah herself was barren and he was too old, ²⁰  he received the ability to procreate, ²¹  because he regarded the one who had given the promise to be trustworthy.

[1:13]  ¹ tn The passive means that the prayer was heard by God.

[1:13]  ² tn Grk “a son, and you”; καί (kai) has not been translated. Instead a semicolon is used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[1:13]  ³ tn Grk “you will call his name John.” The future tense here functions like a command (see ExSyn 569-70). This same construction occurs in v. 31.

[21:1]  ⁴ sn The Hebrew verb translated “visit” (פָּקַד, paqad ) often describes divine intervention for blessing or cursing; it indicates God’s special attention to an individual or a matter, always with respect to his people’s destiny. He may visit (that is, destroy) the Amalekites; he may visit (that is, deliver) his people in Egypt. Here he visits Sarah, to allow her to have the promised child. One’s destiny is changed when the Lord “visits.” For a more detailed study of the term, see G. André, Determining the Destiny (ConBOT).

[21:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the Lord did.” The divine name has not been repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “spoken.”

[21:2]  ⁷ tn Or “she conceived.”

[25:21]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew verb עָתַר (’atar), translated “prayed [to]” here, appears in the story of God’s judgment on Egypt in which Moses asked the Lord to remove the plagues. The cognate word in Arabic means “to slaughter for sacrifice,” and the word is used in Zeph 3:10 to describe worshipers who bring offerings. Perhaps some ritual accompanied Isaac’s prayer here.

[30:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “remembered.”

[30:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and God listened to her and opened up her womb.” Since “God” is the subject of the previous clause, the noun has been replaced by the pronoun “he” in the translation for stylistic reasons

[30:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Rachel.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“she”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[30:1]  ¹² tn Heb “sons.”

[1:20]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text again uses a cognate construction (“swarm with swarms”) to emphasize the abundant fertility. The idea of the verb is one of swift movement back and forth, literally swarming. This verb is used in Exod 1:7 to describe the rapid growth of the Israelite population in bondage.

[1:20]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses the Polel form of the verb instead of the simple Qal; it stresses a swarming flight again to underscore the abundant fruitfulness.

[2:21]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man.”

[2:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he slept.” In the sequence the verb may be subordinated to the following verb to indicate a temporal clause (“while…”).

[2:21]  ¹⁷ tn Traditionally translated “rib,” the Hebrew word actually means “side.” The Hebrew text reads, “and he took one from his sides,” which could be rendered “part of his sides.” That idea may fit better the explanation by the man that the woman is his flesh and bone.

[2:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “closed up the flesh under it.”

[2:22]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew verb is בָּנָה (banah, “to make, to build, to construct”). The text states that the Lord God built the rib into a woman. Again, the passage gives no indication of precisely how this was done.

[11:11]  ²⁰ tn Grk “past the time of maturity.”

[11:11]  ²¹ tn Grk “power to deposit seed.” Though it is not as likely, some construe this phrase to mean “power to conceive seed,” making the whole verse about Sarah: “by faith, even though Sarah herself was barren and too old, she received ability to conceive, because she regarded the one who had given the promise to be trustworthy.”