Kejadian 30:2

30:2 Jacob became furious ¹  with Rachel and exclaimed, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” ² 

Kejadian 48:9

48:9 Joseph said to his father, “They are the ³  sons God has given me in this place.” His father ⁴  said, “Bring them to me so I may bless them.” ⁵ 

Rut 4:13

A Grandson is Born to Naomi

4:13 So Boaz married Ruth and had sexual relations with her. ⁶  The Lord enabled her to conceive ⁷  and she gave birth to a son.

Rut 4:1

Boaz Settles the Matter

4:1 Now Boaz went up ⁸  to the village gate and sat there. Then along came the guardian ⁹  whom Boaz had mentioned to Ruth! ¹⁰  Boaz said, “Come ¹¹  here and sit down, ‘John Doe’!” ¹²  So he came ¹³  and sat down.

1 Samuel 1:27

1:27 I prayed for this boy, and the Lord has given me the request that I asked of him.

1 Samuel 1:1

Hannah Gives Birth to Samuel

1:1 There was a man from Ramathaim Zophim, ¹⁴  from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

1 Samuel 28:5

28:5 When Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was absolutely terrified. ¹⁵ 

Mazmur 127:3

127:3 Yes, ¹⁶  sons ¹⁷  are a gift from the Lord,

the fruit of the womb is a reward.

Yesaya 8:18

8:18 Look, I and the sons whom the Lord has given me ¹⁸  are reminders and object lessons ¹⁹  in Israel, sent from the Lord who commands armies, who lives on Mount Zion.

Ibrani 2:13

2:13 Again he says, ²⁰  “I will be confident in him,” and again, “Here I am, ²¹  with ²²  the children God has given me.” ²³ 

[30:2]  ¹ tn Heb “and the anger of Jacob was hot.”

[30:2]  ² tn Heb “who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb.”

[48:9]  ³ tn Heb “my.”

[48:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Joseph’s father) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[48:9]  ⁵ tn The cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose after the imperative.

[4:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “and Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife and he went in to her.” Here the phrase “went in to her” (so NASB) is a euphemism for having sexual relations (cf. NCV); NLT “When he slept with her.”

[4:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “gave her conception” (so KJV); NRSV “made her conceive”; NLT “enabled her to become pregnant.”

[4:1]  ⁸ tn The disjunctive clause structure (note the pattern vav [ו] + subject + verb) here signals the beginning of a new scene.

[4:1]  ⁹ tn Sometimes translated “redeemer.” See the note on the phrase “guardian of the family interests” in 3:9.

[4:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “look, the guardian was passing by of whom Boaz had spoken.”

[4:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “turn aside” (so KJV, NASB); NIV, TEV, NLT “Come over here.”

[4:1]  ¹² tn Heb “a certain one”; KJV, ASV “such a one.” The expression פְלֹנִי אַלְמֹנִי (pÿloni ’almoni) is not the name of the nearest relative, but an idiom which literally means “such and such” or “a certain one” (BDB 811-12 s.v. פְלֹנִי), which is used when one wishes to be ambiguous (1 Sam 21:3; 2 Kgs 6:8). Certainly Boaz would have known his relative’s name, especially in such a small village, and would have uttered his actual name. However the narrator refuses to record his name in a form of poetic justice because he refused to preserve Mahlon’s “name” (lineage) by marrying his widow (see 4:5, 9-10). This close relative, who is a literary foil for Boaz, refuses to fulfill the role of family guardian. Because he does nothing memorable, he remains anonymous in a chapter otherwise filled with names. His anonymity contrasts sharply with Boaz’s prominence in the story and the fame he attains through the child born to Ruth. Because the actual name of this relative is not recorded, the translation of this expression is difficult since contemporary English style expects either a name or title. This is usually supplied in modern translations: “friend” (NASB, NIV, RSV, NRSV, NLT), “so-and-so” (JPS, NJPS). Perhaps “Mr. So-And-So!” or “Mr. No-Name!” makes the point. For discussion see Adele Berlin, Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative, 99-101; R. L. Hubbard, Jr., Ruth (NICOT), 233-35; F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 196-97. In the present translation “John Doe” is used since it is a standard designation for someone who is a party to legal proceedings whose true name is unknown.

[4:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “and he turned aside” (so KJV, NASB); NRSV “And he went over.”

[1:1]  ¹⁴ tc The translation follows the MT. The LXX reads “a man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite”; this is followed by a number of recent English translations. It is possible the MT reading צוֹפִים (tsofim) arose from dittography of the mem (מ) at the beginning of the following word.

[28:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he was afraid, and his heart was very terrified.”

[127:3]  ¹⁶ tn or “look.”

[127:3]  ¹⁷ tn Some prefer to translate this term with the gender neutral “children,” but “sons” are plainly in view here, as the following verses make clear. Daughters are certainly wonderful additions to a family, but in ancient Israelite culture sons were the “arrows” that gave a man security in his old age, for they could defend the family interests at the city gate, where the legal and economic issues of the community were settled.

[8:18]  ¹⁸ sn This refers to Shear-jashub (7:3) and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (8:1, 3).

[8:18]  ¹⁹ tn Or “signs and portents” (NAB, NRSV). The names of all three individuals has symbolic value. Isaiah’s name (which meant “the Lord delivers”) was a reminder that the Lord was the nation’s only source of protection; Shear-jashub’s name was meant, at least originally, to encourage Ahaz (see the note at 7:3), and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz’s name was a guarantee that God would defeat Israel and Syria (see the note at 8:4). The word מוֹפֶת (mofet, “portent”) can often refer to some miraculous event, but in 20:3 it is used, along with its synonym אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) of Isaiah’s walking around half-naked as an object lesson of what would soon happen to the Egyptians.

[2:13]  ²⁰ tn Grk “and again,” as a continuation of the preceding.

[2:13]  ²¹ tn Grk “behold, I,” but this construction often means “here is/there is” (cf. BDAG 468 s.v. ἰδού 2).

[2:13]  ²² tn Grk “and.”

[2:13]  ²³ sn A quotation from Isa 8:17-18.