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 

Imamat 25:21

25:21 I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year so that it may yield ⁵  the produce ⁶  for three years,

Mazmur 128:1-6

Psalm 128 ⁷ 

A song of ascents. ⁸ 

128:1 How blessed is every one of the Lord’s loyal followers, ⁹ 

each one who keeps his commands! ¹⁰ 

128:2 You ¹¹  will eat what you worked so hard to grow. ¹² 

You will be blessed and secure. ¹³ 

128:3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine ¹⁴ 

in the inner rooms of your house;

your children ¹⁵  will be like olive branches,

as they sit all around your table.

128:4 Yes indeed, the man who fears the Lord

will be blessed in this way. ¹⁶ 

128:5 May the Lord bless you ¹⁷  from Zion,

that you might see ¹⁸  Jerusalem ¹⁹  prosper

all the days of your life,

128:6 and that you might see ²⁰  your grandchildren. ²¹ 

May Israel experience peace! ²² 

Yoel 2:14

2:14 Who knows?

Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve, ²³ 

and leave blessing in his wake ²⁴  –

a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God! ²⁵ 

[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.

[25:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it [i.e., the land] shall make the produce.” The Hebrew term וְעָשָׂת (vÿ’asat, “and it shall make”) is probably an older third feminine singular form of the verb (GKC 210 §75.m). Smr has the normal form.

[25:21]  ⁶ tn Smr and LXX have “its produce” (cf. 25:3, 7, etc.) rather than “the produce.”

[128:1]  ⁷ sn Psalm 128. The psalmist observes that the godly individual has genuine happiness because the Lord rewards such a person with prosperity and numerous children.

[128:1]  ⁸ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[128:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “every fearer of the Lord.”

[128:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the one who walks in his ways.”

[128:2]  ¹¹ tn The psalmist addresses the representative God-fearing man, as indicated by the references to “your wife” (v. 3) and “the man” (v. 4), as well as the second masculine singular pronominal and verbal forms in vv. 2-6.

[128:2]  ¹² tn Heb “the work of your hands, indeed you will eat.”

[128:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “how blessed you [will be] and it will be good for you.”

[128:3]  ¹⁴ sn The metaphor of the fruitful vine pictures the wife as fertile; she will give her husband numerous children (see the next line).

[128:3]  ¹⁵ tn One could translate “sons” (see Ps 127:3 and the note on the word “sons” there), but here the term seems to refer more generally to children of both genders.

[128:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “look, indeed thus will the man, the fearer of the Lord, be blessed.”

[128:5]  ¹⁷ tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive of prayer (note the imperatives that are subordinated to this clause in vv. 5b-6a). Having described the blessings that typically come to the godly, the psalmist concludes by praying that this ideal may become reality for the representative godly man being addressed.

[128:5]  ¹⁸ tn The imperative with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding jussive.

[128:5]  ¹⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[128:6]  ²⁰ tn The imperative with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the jussive in v. 5a.

[128:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “sons to your sons.”

[128:6]  ²² tn Heb “peace [be] upon Israel.” The statement is understood as a prayer (see Ps 125:5).

[2:14]  ²³ tn Heb “turn” or “turn back.”

[2:14]  ²⁴ tn Heb “leave a blessing behind him.”

[2:14]  ²⁵ tn The phrase “for you to offer” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity.