Kejadian 17:17

17:17 Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed ¹  as he said to himself, ²  “Can ³  a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? ⁴  Can Sarah ⁵  bear a child at the age of ninety?” ⁶ 

Kejadian 18:11-14

18:11 Abraham and Sarah were old and advancing in years; ⁷  Sarah had long since passed menopause.) ⁸  18:12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, ⁹  “After I am worn out will I have pleasure, ¹⁰  especially when my husband is old too?” ¹¹ 

18:13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why ¹²  did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really ¹³  have a child when I am old?’ 18:14 Is anything impossible ¹⁴  for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” ¹⁵ 

[17:17]  ¹ sn Laughed. The Hebrew verb used here provides the basis for the naming of Isaac: “And he laughed” is וַיִּצְחָק (vayyitskhaq); the name “Isaac” is יִצְחָק (yitskhaq), “he laughs.” Abraham’s (and Sarah’s, see 18:12) laughter signals disbelief, but when the boy is born, the laughter signals surprise and joy.

[17:17]  ² tn Heb “And he fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart.”

[17:17]  ³ tn The imperfect verbal form here carries a potential nuance, as it expresses the disbelief of Abraham.

[17:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “to the son of a hundred years.”

[17:17]  ⁵ sn It is important to note that even though Abraham staggers at the announcement of the birth of a son, finding it almost too incredible, he nonetheless calls his wife Sarah, the new name given to remind him of the promise of God (v. 15).

[17:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “the daughter of ninety years.”

[18:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “days.”

[18:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “it had ceased to be for Sarah [after] a way like women.”

[18:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “saying.”

[18:12]  ¹⁰ tn It has been suggested that this word should be translated “conception,” not “pleasure.” See A. A. McIntosh, “A Third Root ‘adah in Biblical Hebrew,” VT 24 (1974): 454-73.

[18:12]  ¹¹ tn The word “too” has been added in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[18:13]  ¹² tn Heb “Why, this?” The demonstrative pronoun following the interrogative pronoun is enclitic, emphasizing the Lord’s amazement: “Why on earth did Sarah laugh?”

[18:13]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew construction uses both הַאַף (ha’af) and אֻמְנָם (’umnam): “Indeed, truly, will I have a child?”

[18:14]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”

[18:14]  ¹⁵ sn Sarah will have a son. The passage brings God’s promise into clear focus. As long as it was a promise for the future, it really could be believed without much involvement. But now, when it seemed so impossible from the human standpoint, when the Lord fixed an exact date for the birth of the child, the promise became rather overwhelming to Abraham and Sarah. But then this was the Lord of creation, the one they had come to trust. The point of these narratives is that the creation of Abraham’s offspring, which eventually became Israel, is no less a miraculous work of creation than the creation of the world itself.