Kejadian 18:3

18:3 He said, “My lord, ¹  if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by and leave your servant. ² 

Kejadian 48:9

48:9 Joseph said to his father, “They are the ³  sons God has given me in this place.” His father ⁴  said, “Bring them to me so I may bless them.” ⁵ 

Mazmur 127:3

127:3 Yes, ⁶  sons ⁷  are a gift from the Lord,

the fruit of the womb is a reward.

Yesaya 8:18

8:18 Look, I and the sons whom the Lord has given me ⁸  are reminders and object lessons ⁹  in Israel, sent from the Lord who commands armies, who lives on Mount Zion.

[18:3]  ¹ tc The MT has the form אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “Master”) which is reserved for God. This may reflect later scribal activity. The scribes, knowing it was the Lord, may have put the proper pointing with the word instead of the more common אֲדֹנִי (’adoni, “my master”).

[18:3]  ² tn Heb “do not pass by from upon your servant.”

[48:9]  ³ tn Heb “my.”

[48:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Joseph’s father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[48:9]  ⁵ tn The cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the imperative.

[127:3]  ⁶ tn or “look.”

[127:3]  ⁷ tn Some prefer to translate this term with the gender neutral “children,” but “sons” are plainly in view here, as the following verses make clear. Daughters are certainly wonderful additions to a family, but in ancient Israelite culture sons were the “arrows” that gave a man security in his old age, for they could defend the family interests at the city gate, where the legal and economic issues of the community were settled.

[8:18]  ⁸ sn This refers to Shear-jashub (7:3) and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (8:1, 3).

[8:18]  ⁹ tn Or “signs and portents” (NAB, NRSV). The names of all three individuals has symbolic value. Isaiah’s name (which meant “the Lord delivers”) was a reminder that the Lord was the nation’s only source of protection; Shear-jashub’s name was meant, at least originally, to encourage Ahaz (see the note at 7:3), and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz’s name was a guarantee that God would defeat Israel and Syria (see the note at 8:4). The word מוֹפֶת (mofet, “portent”) can often refer to some miraculous event, but in 20:3 it is used, along with its synonym אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) of Isaiah’s walking around half-naked as an object lesson of what would soon happen to the Egyptians.