Kejadian 12:2

12:2 Then I will make you ¹  into a great nation, and I will bless you, ² 

and I will make your name great, ³ 

so that you will exemplify divine blessing. ⁴ 

Kejadian 18:24-33

18:24 What if there are fifty godly people in the city? Will you really wipe it out and not spare ⁵  the place for the sake of the fifty godly people who are in it? 18:25 Far be it from you to do such a thing – to kill the godly with the wicked, treating the godly and the wicked alike! Far be it from you! Will not the judge ⁶  of the whole earth do what is right?” ⁷ 

18:26 So the Lord replied, “If I find in the city of Sodom fifty godly people, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

18:27 Then Abraham asked, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord ⁸  (although I am but dust and ashes), ⁹  18:28 what if there are five less than the fifty godly people? Will you destroy ¹⁰  the whole city because five are lacking?” ¹¹  He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.”

18:29 Abraham ¹²  spoke to him again, ¹³  “What if forty are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty.”

18:30 Then Abraham ¹⁴  said, “May the Lord not be angry ¹⁵  so that I may speak! ¹⁶  What if thirty are found there?” He replied, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

18:31 Abraham ¹⁷  said, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”

18:32 Finally Abraham ¹⁸  said, “May the Lord not be angry so that I may speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”

18:33 The Lord went on his way ¹⁹  when he had finished speaking ²⁰  to Abraham. Then Abraham returned home. ²¹ 

Kejadian 19:29

19:29 So when God destroyed ²²  the cities of the region, ²³  God honored ²⁴  Abraham’s request. He removed Lot ²⁵  from the midst of the destruction when he destroyed ²⁶  the cities Lot had lived in.

[12:2]  ¹ tn The three first person verbs in v. 2a should be classified as cohortatives. The first two have pronominal suffixes, so the form itself does not indicate a cohortative. The third verb form is clearly cohortative.

[12:2]  ² sn I will bless you. The blessing of creation is now carried forward to the patriarch. In the garden God blessed Adam and Eve; in that blessing he gave them (1) a fruitful place, (2) endowed them with fertility to multiply, and (3) made them rulers over creation. That was all ruined at the fall. Now God begins to build his covenant people; in Gen 12-22 he promises to give Abram (1) a land flowing with milk and honey, (2) a great nation without number, and (3) kingship.

[12:2]  ³ tn Or “I will make you famous.”

[12:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “and be a blessing.” The verb form הְיֵה (hÿyeh) is the Qal imperative of the verb הָיָה (hayah). The vav (ו) with the imperative after the cohortatives indicates purpose or consequence. What does it mean for Abram to “be a blessing”? Will he be a channel or source of blessing for others, or a prime example of divine blessing? A similar statement occurs in Zech 8:13, where God assures his people, “You will be a blessing,” in contrast to the past when they “were a curse.” Certainly “curse” here does not refer to Israel being a source of a curse, but rather to the fact that they became a curse-word or byword among the nations, who regarded them as the epitome of an accursed people (see 2 Kgs 22:19; Jer 42:18; 44:8, 12, 22). Therefore the statement “be a blessing” seems to refer to Israel being transformed into a prime example of a blessed people, whose name will be used in blessing formulae, rather than in curses. If the statement “be a blessing” is understood in the same way in Gen 12:2, then it means that God would so bless Abram that other nations would hear of his fame and hold him up as a paradigm of divine blessing in their blessing formulae.

[18:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “lift up,” perhaps in the sense of “bear with” (cf. NRSV “forgive”).

[18:25]  ⁶ tn Or “ruler.”

[18:25]  ⁷ sn Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right? For discussion of this text see J. L. Crenshaw, “Popular Questioning of the Justice of God in Ancient Israel,” ZAW 82 (1970): 380-95, and C. S. Rodd, “Shall Not the Judge of All the Earth Do What Is Just?” ExpTim 83 (1972): 137-39.

[18:27]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here and in vv. 30, 31, 32 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[18:27]  ⁹ tn The disjunctive clause is a concessive clause here, drawing out the humility as a contrast to the Lord.

[18:28]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew verb שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to destroy”) was used earlier to describe the effect of the flood.

[18:28]  ¹¹ tn Heb “because of five.”

[18:29]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:29]  ¹³ tn The construction is a verbal hendiadys – the preterite (“he added”) is combined with an adverb “yet” and an infinitive “to speak.”

[18:30]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:30]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “let it not be hot to the Lord.” This is an idiom which means “may the Lord not be angry.”

[18:30]  ¹⁶ tn After the jussive, the cohortative indicates purpose/result.

[18:31]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:32]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:33]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “And the Lord went.”

[18:33]  ²⁰ tn The infinitive construct (“speaking”) serves as the direct object of the verb “finished.”

[18:33]  ²¹ tn Heb “to his place.”

[19:29]  ²² tn The construction is a temporal clause comprised of the temporal indicator, an infinitive construct with a preposition, and the subjective genitive.

[19:29]  ²³ tn Or “of the plain”; Heb “of the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.

[19:29]  ²⁴ tn Heb “remembered,” but this means more than mental recollection here. Abraham’s request (Gen 18:23-32) was that the Lord not destroy the righteous with the wicked. While the requisite minimum number of righteous people (ten, v. 32) needed for God to spare the cities was not found, God nevertheless rescued the righteous before destroying the wicked.

[19:29]  sn God showed Abraham special consideration because of the covenantal relationship he had established with the patriarch. Yet the reader knows that God delivered the “righteous” (Lot’s designation in 2 Pet 2:7) before destroying their world – which is what he will do again at the end of the age.

[19:29]  ²⁵ sn God’s removal of Lot before the judgment is paradigmatic. He typically delivers the godly before destroying their world.

[19:29]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the overthrow when [he] overthrew.”