Kejadian 11:29

11:29 And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, ¹  and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; ²  she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.

Kejadian 21:1-7

The Birth of Isaac

21:1 The Lord visited ³  Sarah just as he had said he would and did ⁴  for Sarah what he had promised. ⁵  21:2 So Sarah became pregnant ⁶  and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him. 21:3 Abraham named his son – whom Sarah bore to him – Isaac. ⁷  21:4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, ⁸  Abraham circumcised him just as God had commanded him to do. ⁹  21:5 (Now Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.) ¹⁰ 

21:6 Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. ¹¹  Everyone who hears about this ¹²  will laugh ¹³  with me.” 21:7 She went on to say, ¹⁴  “Who would ¹⁵  have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son for him in his old age!”

[11:29]  ¹ sn The name Sarai (a variant spelling of “Sarah”) means “princess” (or “lady”). Sharratu was the name of the wife of the moon god Sin. The original name may reflect the culture out of which the patriarch was called, for the family did worship other gods in Mesopotamia.

[11:29]  ² sn The name Milcah means “Queen.” But more to the point here is the fact that Malkatu was a title for Ishtar, the daughter of the moon god. If the women were named after such titles (and there is no evidence that this was the motivation for naming the girls “Princess” or “Queen”), that would not necessarily imply anything about the faith of the two women themselves.

[21:1]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the Lord did.” The divine name has not been repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “spoken.”

[21:2]  ⁶ tn Or “she conceived.”

[21:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “the one born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac.” The two modifying clauses, the first introduced with an article and the second with the relative pronoun, are placed in the middle of the sentence, before the name Isaac is stated. They are meant to underscore that this was indeed an actual birth to Abraham and Sarah in fulfillment of the promise.

[21:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “Isaac his son, the son of eight days.” The name “Isaac” is repeated in the translation for clarity.

[21:4]  ⁹ sn Just as God had commanded him to do. With the birth of the promised child, Abraham obeyed the Lord by both naming (Gen 17:19) and circumcising Isaac (17:12).

[21:5]  ¹⁰ tn The parenthetical disjunctive clause underscores how miraculous this birth was. Abraham was 100 years old. The fact that the genealogies give the ages of the fathers when their first son is born shows that this was considered a major milestone in one’s life (G. J. Wenham, Genesis [WBC], 2:80).

[21:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Laughter God has made for me.”

[21:6]  ¹² tn The words “about this” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[21:6]  ¹³ sn Sarah’s words play on the name “Isaac” in a final triumphant manner. God prepared “laughter” (צְחֹק, ysÿkhoq ) for her, and everyone who hears about this “will laugh” (יִצְחַק, yitskhaq ) with her. The laughter now signals great joy and fulfillment, not unbelief (cf. Gen 18:12-15).

[21:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “said.”

[21:7]  ¹⁵ tn The perfect form of the verb is used here to describe a hypothetical situation.