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 13:16

13:16 And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone is able to count the dust of the earth, then your descendants also can be counted. ⁵ 

Kejadian 15:5

15:5 The Lord ⁶  took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars – if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”

Kejadian 17:5-7

17:5 No longer will your name be ⁷  Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham ⁸  because I will make you ⁹  the father of a multitude of nations. 17:6 I will make you ¹⁰  extremely ¹¹  fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you. ¹²  17:7 I will confirm ¹³  my covenant as a perpetual ¹⁴  covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ¹⁵ 

Kejadian 17:16

17:16 I will bless her and will give you a son through her. I will bless her and she will become a mother of nations. ¹⁶  Kings of countries ¹⁷  will come from her!”

Kejadian 18:18

18:18 After all, Abraham ¹⁸  will surely become ¹⁹  a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ²⁰  using his name.

Kejadian 22:17

22:17 I will indeed bless you, ²¹  and I will greatly multiply ²²  your descendants ²³  so that they will be as countless as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession ²⁴  of the strongholds ²⁵  of their enemies.

Kejadian 28:3-4

28:3 May the sovereign God ²⁶  bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! ²⁷  Then you will become ²⁸  a large nation. ²⁹  28:4 May he give you and your descendants the blessing he gave to Abraham ³⁰  so that you may possess the land ³¹  God gave to Abraham, the land where you have been living as a temporary resident.” ³² 

Kejadian 28:14

28:14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, ³³  and you will spread out ³⁴  to the west, east, north, and south. All the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ³⁵  using your name and that of your descendants. ³⁶ 

Kejadian 32:12

32:12 But you ³⁷  said, ‘I will certainly make you prosper ³⁸  and will make ³⁹  your descendants like the sand on the seashore, too numerous to count.’” ⁴⁰ 

Kejadian 46:3

46:3 He said, “I am God, ⁴¹  the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.

[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.

[13:16]  ⁵ tn The translation “can be counted” (potential imperfect) is suggested by the use of יוּכַל (yukhal, “is able”) in the preceding clause.

[15:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “will your name be called.”

[17:5]  ⁸ sn Your name will be Abraham. The renaming of Abram was a sign of confirmation to the patriarch. Every time the name was used it would be a reminder of God’s promise. “Abram” means “exalted father,” probably referring to Abram’s father Terah. The name looks to the past; Abram came from noble lineage. The name “Abraham” is a dialectical variant of the name Abram. But its significance is in the wordplay with אַב־הֲמוֹן (’av-hamon, “the father of a multitude,” which sounds like אַבְרָהָם, ’avraham, “Abraham”). The new name would be a reminder of God’s intention to make Abraham the father of a multitude. For a general discussion of renaming, see O. Eissfeldt, “Renaming in the Old Testament,” Words and Meanings, 70-83.

[17:5]  ⁹ tn The perfect verbal form is used here in a rhetorical manner to emphasize God’s intention.

[17:6]  ¹⁰ tn This verb starts a series of perfect verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive to express God’s intentions.

[17:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.

[17:6]  ¹² tn Heb “and I will make you into nations, and kings will come out from you.”

[17:7]  ¹³ tn The verb קוּם (qum, “to arise, to stand up”) in the Hiphil verbal stem means “to confirm, to give effect to, to carry out” (i.e., a covenant or oath; see BDB 878-79 s.v. קוּם).

[17:7]  ¹⁴ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”

[17:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “she will become nations.”

[17:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “peoples.”

[18:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “And Abraham.” The disjunctive clause is probably causal, giving a reason why God should not hide his intentions from Abraham. One could translate, “Should I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation?”

[18:18]  ¹⁹ tn The infinitive absolute lends emphasis to the finite verb that follows.

[18:18]  ²⁰ tn Theoretically the Niphal can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of “bless” is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Abram were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in later formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation “will bless [i.e., “pronounce blessings upon”] themselves [or “one another”].” The Hitpael of “bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 18:18 (like 12:2) predicts that Abraham will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.

[22:17]  ²¹ tn The use of the infinitive absolute before the finite verbal form (either an imperfect or cohortative) emphasizes the certainty of the blessing.

[22:17]  ²² tn Here too the infinitive absolute is used for emphasis before the following finite verb (either an imperfect or cohortative).

[22:17]  sn I will greatly multiply. The Lord here ratifies his earlier promise to give Abram a multitude of descendants. For further discussion see R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 35-54.

[22:17]  ²³ tn The Hebrew term זֶרַע (zera’) occurring here and in v. 18 may mean “seed” (for planting), “offspring” (occasionally of animals, but usually of people), or “descendants” depending on the context.

[22:17]  ²⁴ tn Or “inherit.”

[22:17]  ²⁵ tn Heb “gate,” which here stands for a walled city. To break through the gate complex would be to conquer the city, for the gate complex was the main area of defense (hence the translation “stronghold”).

[28:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.

[28:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and make you fruitful and multiply you.” See Gen 17:6, 20 for similar terminology.

[28:3]  ²⁸ tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here indicates consequence. The collocation הָיָה + preposition לְ (hayah + lÿ) means “become.”

[28:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “an assembly of peoples.”

[28:4]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and may he give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your offspring with you.” The name “Abraham” is an objective genitive here; this refers to the blessing that God gave to Abraham.

[28:4]  ³¹ tn The words “the land” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[28:4]  ³² tn Heb “the land of your sojournings,” that is, the land where Jacob had been living as a resident alien, as his future descendants would after him.

[28:14]  ³³ tn This is the same Hebrew word translated “ground” in the preceding verse.

[28:14]  ³⁴ tn The verb is singular in the Hebrew; Jacob is addressed as the representative of his descendants.

[28:14]  ³⁵ tn Theoretically the Niphal stem can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of “bless” is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Jacob were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in other formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation “will bless (i.e., pronounce blessings upon) themselves/one another.” The Hitpael of “bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 28:14 predicts that Jacob will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae (see Gen 12:2 and 18:18 as well, where Abram/Abraham receives this promise). For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.

[28:14]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and they will pronounce blessings by you, all the families of the earth, and by your offspring.”

[32:12]  ³⁷ tn Heb “But you, you said.” One of the occurrences of the pronoun “you” has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.

[32:12]  sn Some commentators have thought this final verse of the prayer redundant, but it actually follows the predominant form of a lament in which God is motivated to act. The primary motivation Jacob can offer to God is God’s promise, and so he falls back on that at the end of the prayer.

[32:12]  ³⁸ tn Or “will certainly deal well with you.” The infinitive absolute appears before the imperfect, underscoring God’s promise to bless. The statement is more emphatic than in v. 9.

[32:12]  ³⁹ tn The form is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the nuance of the preceding verb forward.

[32:12]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “which cannot be counted because of abundance.” The imperfect verbal form indicates potential here.

[46:3]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “the God.”