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 12:1

The Obedience of Abram

12:1 Now the Lord said ⁵  to Abram, ⁶ 

“Go out ⁷  from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household

to the land that I will show you. ⁸ 

1 Samuel 2:8

2:8 He lifts the weak ⁹  from the dust;

he raises ¹⁰  the poor from the ash heap

to seat them with princes

and to bestow on them an honored position. ¹¹ 

The foundations of the earth belong to the Lord,

and he has placed the world on them.

1 Samuel 2:1

Hannah Exalts the Lord in Prayer

2:1 Hannah prayed, ¹² 

“My heart rejoices in the Lord;

my horn ¹³  is exalted high because of the Lord.

I loudly denounce ¹⁴  my enemies,

for I am happy that you delivered me. ¹⁵ 

1 Samuel 17:8

17:8 Goliath ¹⁶  stood and called to Israel’s troops, ¹⁷  “Why do you come out to prepare for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose ¹⁸  for yourselves a man so he may come down ¹⁹  to me!

Mazmur 113:7-8

113:7 He raises the poor from the dirt,

and lifts up the needy from the garbage pile, ²⁰ 

113:8 that he might seat him with princes,

with the princes of his people.

Lukas 1:52

1:52 He has brought down the mighty ²¹  from their thrones, and has lifted up those of lowly position; ²² 

[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.

[12:1]  ⁵ sn The Lord called Abram while he was in Ur (see Gen 15:7; Acts 7:2); but the sequence here makes it look like it was after the family left to migrate to Canaan (11:31-32). Genesis records the call of Abram at this place in the narrative because it is the formal beginning of the account of Abram. The record of Terah was brought to its end before this beginning.

[12:1]  ⁶ tn The call of Abram begins with an imperative לֶךְ־לְךָ (lekh-lÿkha, “go out”) followed by three cohortatives (v. 2a) indicating purpose or consequence (“that I may” or “then I will”). If Abram leaves, then God will do these three things. The second imperative (v. 2b, literally “and be a blessing”) is subordinated to the preceding cohortatives and indicates God’s ultimate purpose in calling and blessing Abram. On the syntactical structure of vv. 1-2 see R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 37. For a similar sequence of volitive forms see Gen 45:18.

[12:1]  sn It would be hard to overestimate the value of this call and this divine plan for the theology of the Bible. Here begins God’s plan to bring redemption to the world. The promises to Abram will be turned into a covenant in Gen 15 and 22 (here it is a call with conditional promises) and will then lead through the Bible to the work of the Messiah.

[12:1]  ⁷ tn The initial command is the direct imperative (לֶךְ, lekh) from the verb הָלַךְ (halakh). It is followed by the lamed preposition with a pronominal suffix (לְךָ, lÿkha) emphasizing the subject of the imperative: “you leave.”

[12:1]  ⁸ sn To the land that I will show you. The call of Abram illustrates the leading of the Lord. The command is to leave. The Lord’s word is very specific about what Abram is to leave (the three prepositional phrases narrow to his father’s household), but is not specific at all about where he is to go. God required faith, a point that Heb 11:8 notes.

[2:8]  ⁹ tn Or “lowly”; Heb “insignificant.”

[2:8]  ¹⁰ tn The imperfect verbal form, which is parallel to the participle in the preceding line, is best understood here as indicating what typically happens.

[2:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a seat of honor.”

[2:1]  ¹² tn Heb “prayed and said.” This is somewhat redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified in the translation.

[2:1]  ¹³ sn Horns of animals have always functioned as both offensive and defensive weapons for them. As a figure of speech the horn is therefore often used in the Bible as a symbol of human strength (see also in v. 10). The allusion in v. 1 to the horn being lifted high suggests a picture of an animal elevating its head in a display of strength or virility.

[2:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my mouth opens wide against.”

[2:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for I rejoice in your deliverance.”

[17:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:8]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to them.”

[17:8]  ¹⁸ tc The translation follows the ancient versions in reading “choose,” (from the root בחר, bkhr), rather than the MT. The verb in MT (ברה, brh) elsewhere means “to eat food”; the sense of “to choose,” required here by the context, is not attested for this root. The MT apparently reflects an early scribal error.

[17:8]  ¹⁹ tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (either an imperfect or jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result here.

[113:7]  ²⁰ sn The language of v. 7 is almost identical to that of 1 Sam 2:8.

[1:52]  ²¹ tn Or “rulers.”

[1:52]  ²² tn Or “those of humble position”

[1:52]  sn The contrast between the mighty and those of lowly position is fundamental for Luke. God cares for those that the powerful ignore (Luke 4:18-19).