Keluaran 1:7

1:7 The Israelites, ¹  however, ²  were fruitful, increased greatly, multiplied, and became extremely strong, ³  so that the land was filled with them.

Keluaran 1:20

1:20 So God treated the midwives well, ⁴  and the people multiplied and became very strong.

Mazmur 107:38

107:38 He blessed ⁵  them so that they became very numerous.

He would not allow their cattle to decrease in number. ⁶ 

Yesaya 9:3

9:3 You ⁷  have enlarged the nation;

you give them great joy. ⁸ 

They rejoice in your presence

as harvesters rejoice;

as warriors celebrate ⁹  when they divide up the plunder.

Yesaya 26:15

26:15 You have made the nation larger, ¹⁰  O Lord,

you have made the nation larger and revealed your splendor, ¹¹ 

you have extended all the borders of the land.

Yesaya 27:6

27:6 The time is coming when Jacob will take root; ¹² 

Israel will blossom and grow branches.

The produce ¹³  will fill the surface of the world. ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 51:2

51:2 Look at Abraham, your father,

and Sarah, who gave you birth. ¹⁵ 

When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, ¹⁶ 

but I blessed him ¹⁷  and gave him numerous descendants. ¹⁸ 

Yesaya 60:22

60:22 The least of you will multiply into ¹⁹  a thousand;

the smallest of you will become a large nation.

When the right time comes, I the Lord will quickly do this!” ²⁰ 

Yeremia 30:19

30:19 Out of those places you will hear songs of thanksgiving ²¹ 

and the sounds of laughter and merriment.

I will increase their number and they will not dwindle away. ²² 

I will bring them honor and they will no longer be despised.

Yeremia 33:22

33:22 I will make the children who follow one another in the line of my servant David very numerous. I will also make the Levites who minister before me very numerous. I will make them all as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sands which are on the seashore.’” ²³ 

Zakharia 10:8

10:8 I will signal for them and gather them, for I have already redeemed them; then they will become as numerous as they were before.

[1:7]  ¹ tn Heb “the sons of Israel.”

[1:7]  ² tn The disjunctive vav marks a contrast with the note about the deaths of the first generation.

[1:7]  ³ tn Using מְאֹד (mÿ’od) twice intensifies the idea of their becoming strong (see GKC 431-32 §133.k).

[1:7]  sn The text is clearly going out of its way to say that the people of Israel flourished in Egypt. The verbs פָּרָה (parah, “be fruitful”), שָׁרַץ (sharats, “swarm, teem”), רָבָה (ravah, “multiply”), and עָצַם (’atsam, “be strong, mighty”) form a literary link to the creation account in Genesis. The text describes Israel’s prosperity in the terms of God’s original command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, to show that their prosperity was by divine blessing and in compliance with the will of God. The commission for the creation to fill the earth and subdue it would now begin to materialize through the seed of Abraham.

[1:20]  ⁴ tn The verb וַיֵּיטֶב (vayyetev) is the Hiphil preterite of יָטַב (yatav). In this stem the word means “to cause good, treat well, treat favorably.” The vav (ו) consecutive shows that this favor from God was a result of their fearing and obeying him.

[107:38]  ⁵ tn “Bless” here carries the nuance “endue with sexual potency, make fertile.” See Gen 1:28, where the statement “he blessed them” directly precedes the command “be fruitful and populate the earth” (see also 1:22). The verb “bless” carries this same nuance in Gen 17:16 (where God’s blessing of Sarai imparts to her the capacity to bear a child); 48:16 (where God’s blessing of Joseph’s sons is closely associated with their having numerous descendants); and Deut 7:13 (where God’s blessing is associated with fertility in general, including numerous descendants). See also Gen 49:25 (where Jacob uses the noun derivative in referring to “blessings of the breast and womb,” an obvious reference to fertility) and Gen 27:27 (where the verb is used of a field to which God has given the capacity to produce vegetation).

[107:38]  ⁶ tn The verbal form in this line appears to be an imperfect, which may be taken as customary (drawing attention to typical action in a past time frame) or as generalizing (in which case one should use the English present tense, understanding a move from narrative to present reality).

[9:3]  ⁷ sn The Lord is addressed directly in vv. 3-4.

[9:3]  ⁸ tc The Hebrew consonantal text reads “You multiply the nation, you do not make great the joy.” The particle לֹא (lo’, “not”) is obviously incorrect; the marginal reading has לוֹ (lo, “to him”). In this case, one should translate, “You multiply the nation, you increase his (i.e., their) joy.” However, the parallelism is tighter if one emends הַגּוֹי לוֹ (hagoy lo, “the nation, to him”) to הַגִּילָה (haggilah, “the joy,” a noun attested in Isa 65:18), which corresponds to הַשִּׂמְחָה (hasimkhah, “the joy”) later in the verse (H. Wildberger, Isaiah, 1:386). As attractive as this reading is, it has not textual evidence supporting it. The MT reading (accepting the marginal reading “to him” for the negative particle “not”) affirms that Yahweh caused the nation to grow in population and increased their joy.

[9:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “as they are happy.” The word “warriors” is supplied in the translation to clarify the word picture. This last simile comes close to reality, for vv. 4-5 indicate that the people have won a great military victory over their oppressors.

[26:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you have added to the nation.” The last line of the verse suggests that geographical expansion is in view. “The nation” is Judah.

[26:15]  ¹¹ tn Or “brought honor to yourself.”

[27:6]  ¹² tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “the coming ones, let Jacob take root.” הַבָּאִים (habba’im, “the coming ones”) should probably be emended to יָמִים בָאִים (yamim va’im, “days [are] coming”) or בְּיָמִים הַבָּאִים (biyamim habba’im, “in the coming days”).

[27:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “fruit” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[27:6]  ¹⁴ sn This apparently refers to a future population explosion. See 26:18.

[51:2]  ¹⁵ sn Although Abraham and Sarah are distant ancestors of the people the prophet is addressing, they are spoken of as the immediate parents.

[51:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “one”; NLT “was alone”; TEV “was childless.”

[51:2]  ¹⁷ tn “Bless” may here carry the sense of “endue with potency, reproductive power.” See Gen 1:28.

[51:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and I made him numerous.”

[60:22]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “will become” (so NASB, NIV).

[60:22]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I, the Lord, in its time, I will quickly do it.”

[30:19]  ²¹ tn Heb “Out of them will come thanksgiving and a sound of those who are playful.”

[30:19]  ²² sn Compare Jer 29:6.

[33:22]  ²³ tn Heb “Just as the stars in the sky cannot be numbered or the sand on the seashore cannot be measured, so I will greatly increase [or multiply] the seed of my servant David and the Levites who minister before me.” The word “seed of” does not carry over to the “the Levites” as a noun governing two genitives because “the Levites” has the accusative marker in front of it. The sentence has been broken down in conformity with contemporary English style.

[33:22]  sn Context makes it clear that what is in view is an innumerable line of descendants from the righteous ruler that the Lord raises up over Israel and Judah after their regathering and restoration to the land. What is in view, then, is a reinstitution or reinstatement of the Davidic covenant of grant, the perpetual right of the Davidic dynasty to rule over the nation of Israel for all time (see also v. 26). This is guaranteed by the creation order which is the object of both God’s creative decree (Gen 1:14-19) and his covenant with Noah after the flood (Gen 8:22). (For further discussion on the nature of a covenant of grant see the study note on 32:40.) The rejection of the lines of Jehoiakim (36:30) and Jeconiah (22:30) and the certain captivity and death of Zedekiah (32:4) may have called into question the continuance of the Davidic promise which always had a certain conditional nature to it (cf. 1 Kgs 2:4; 8:25; 9:5). This promise and this guarantee show that the covenant of grant still stands and will ultimately find its fulfillment. Because this promise never found its fulfillment after the return from exile, it is left to the NT to show how it is fulfilled (cf., e.g., Matt 1:1-17 where it is emphasized that Jesus is the son (and heir) of both Abraham and David).