Kejadian 1:31

1:31 God saw all that he had made – and it was very good! ¹  There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.

Kejadian 12:2

12:2 Then I will make you ²  into a great nation, and I will bless you, ³ 

and I will make your name great, ⁴ 

so that you will exemplify divine blessing. ⁵ 

Kejadian 16:7

16:7 The Lord’s angel ⁶  found Hagar near a spring of water in the desert – the spring that is along the road to Shur. ⁷ 

Kejadian 21:22

21:22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you ⁸  in all that you do.

Kejadian 21:30

21:30 He replied, “You must take these seven ewe lambs from my hand as legal proof ⁹  that I dug this well.” ¹⁰ 

Kejadian 39:3

39:3 His master observed that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he was doing successful. ¹¹ 

[1:31]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text again uses הִנֵּה (hinneh) for the sake of vividness. It is a particle that goes with the gesture of pointing, calling attention to something.

[12:2]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Or “I will make you famous.”

[12:2]  ⁵ 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.

[16:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “the messenger of the Lord.” Some identify the angel of the Lord as the preincarnate Christ because in some texts the angel is identified with the Lord himself. However, it is more likely that the angel merely represents the Lord; he can speak for the Lord because he is sent with the Lord’s full authority. In some cases the angel is clearly distinct from the Lord (see Judg 6:11-23). It is not certain if the same angel is always in view. Though the proper name following the noun “angel” makes the construction definite, this may simply indicate that a definite angel sent from the Lord is referred to in any given context. It need not be the same angel on every occasion. Note the analogous expression “the servant of the Lord,” which refers to various individuals in the OT (see BDB 714 s.v. עֶבֶד).

[16:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “And the angel of the Lord found her near the spring of water in the desert, near the spring on the way to Shur.”

[21:22]  ⁸ sn God is with you. Abimelech and Phicol recognized that Abraham enjoyed special divine provision and protection.

[21:30]  ⁹ tn Heb “that it be for me for a witness.”

[21:30]  ¹⁰ sn This well. Since the king wanted a treaty to share in Abraham’s good fortune, Abraham used the treaty to secure ownership of and protection for the well he dug. It would be useless to make a treaty to live in this territory if he had no rights to the water. Abraham consented to the treaty, but added his rider to it.

[39:3]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text adds “in his hand,” a phrase not included in the translation for stylistic reasons.