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 

Kejadian 16:10

16:10 I will greatly multiply your descendants,” the Lord’s angel added, ⁵  “so that they will be too numerous to count.” ⁶ 

Kejadian 17:20

17:20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you. ⁷  I will indeed bless him, make him fruitful, and give him a multitude of descendants. ⁸  He will become the father of twelve princes; ⁹  I will make him into a great nation.

Kejadian 21:13

21:13 But I will also make the son of the slave wife into a great nation, for he is your descendant too.”

Kejadian 21:18

21:18 Get up! Help the boy up and hold him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

Kejadian 25:16

25:16 These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names by their settlements and their camps – twelve princes ¹⁰  according to their clans.

Bilangan 23:10

23:10 Who ¹¹  can count ¹²  the dust ¹³  of Jacob,

Or number ¹⁴  the fourth part of Israel?

Let me ¹⁵  die the death of the upright, ¹⁶ 

and let the end of my life ¹⁷  be like theirs.” ¹⁸ 

[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.

[16:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “The Lord’s angel said, ‘I will greatly multiply your descendants….” The order of the clauses has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “cannot be numbered because of abundance.”

[17:20]  ⁷ sn The Hebrew verb translated “I have heard you” forms a wordplay with the name Ishmael, which means “God hears.” See the note on the name “Ishmael” in 16:11.

[17:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “And I will multiply him exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.

[17:20]  ⁹ tn For a discussion of the Hebrew word translated “princes,” see E. A. Speiser, “Background and Function of the Biblical Nasi’,” CBQ 25 (1963): 111-17.

[25:16]  ¹⁰ tn Or “tribal chieftains.”

[23:10]  ¹¹ tn The question is again rhetorical; it means no one can count them – they are innumerable.

[23:10]  ¹² tn The perfect tense can also be classified as a potential nuance. It does not occur very often, but does occur several times.

[23:10]  ¹³ sn The reference in the oracle is back to Gen 13:16, which would not be clear to Balaam. But God had described their growth like the dust of the earth. Here it is part of the description of the vast numbers.

[23:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and as a number, the fourth part of Israel.” The noun in the MT is not in the construct state, and so it should be taken as an adverbial accusative, forming a parallel with the verb “count.” The second object of the verse then follows, “the fourth part of Israel.” Smr and the LXX have “and who has numbered” (וּמִסְפָּר, umispar), making this colon more parallel to the preceding one. The editor of BHS prefers this reading.

[23:10]  ¹⁵ tn The use of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) for the subject of the verb stresses the personal nature – me.

[23:10]  ¹⁶ sn Here the seer’s words link with the promise of Gen 12:3, that whoever blesses Israel will be blessed. Since the blessing belongs to them, the upright (and not Balak), Balaam would like his lot to be with them.

[23:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “my latter end.”

[23:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “his.”