Kejadian 17:16-21

17:16 I will bless her and will give you a son through her. I will bless her and she will become a mother of nations. ¹  Kings of countries ²  will come from her!”

17:17 Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed ³  as he said to himself, ⁴  “Can ⁵  a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? ⁶  Can Sarah ⁷  bear a child at the age of ninety?” ⁸  17:18 Abraham said to God, “O that ⁹  Ishmael might live before you!” ¹⁰ 

17:19 God said, “No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. ¹¹  I will confirm my covenant with him as a perpetual ¹²  covenant for his descendants after him. 17:20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you. ¹³  I will indeed bless him, make him fruitful, and give him a multitude of descendants. ¹⁴  He will become the father of twelve princes; ¹⁵  I will make him into a great nation. 17:21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.”

Kejadian 18:10-14

18:10 One of them ¹⁶  said, “I will surely return ¹⁷  to you when the season comes round again, ¹⁸  and your wife Sarah will have a son!” ¹⁹  (Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, not far behind him. ²⁰  18:11 Abraham and Sarah were old and advancing in years; ²¹  Sarah had long since passed menopause.) ²²  18:12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, ²³  “After I am worn out will I have pleasure, ²⁴  especially when my husband is old too?” ²⁵ 

18:13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why ²⁶  did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really ²⁷  have a child when I am old?’ 18:14 Is anything impossible ²⁸  for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” ²⁹ 

Kejadian 21:1

The Birth of Isaac

21:1 The Lord visited ³⁰  Sarah just as he had said he would and did ³¹  for Sarah what he had promised. ³² 

[17:16]  ¹ tn Heb “she will become nations.”

[17:16]  ² tn Heb “peoples.”

[17:17]  ³ sn Laughed. The Hebrew verb used here provides the basis for the naming of Isaac: “And he laughed” is וַיִּצְחָק (vayyitskhaq); the name “Isaac” is יִצְחָק (yitskhaq), “he laughs.” Abraham’s (and Sarah’s, see 18:12) laughter signals disbelief, but when the boy is born, the laughter signals surprise and joy.

[17:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “And he fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart.”

[17:17]  ⁵ tn The imperfect verbal form here carries a potential nuance, as it expresses the disbelief of Abraham.

[17:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “to the son of a hundred years.”

[17:17]  ⁷ sn It is important to note that even though Abraham staggers at the announcement of the birth of a son, finding it almost too incredible, he nonetheless calls his wife Sarah, the new name given to remind him of the promise of God (v. 15).

[17:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “the daughter of ninety years.”

[17:18]  ⁹ tn The wish is introduced with the Hebrew particle לוּ (lu), “O that.”

[17:18]  ¹⁰ tn Or “live with your blessing.”

[17:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will call his name Isaac.” The name means “he laughs,” or perhaps “may he laugh” (see the note on the word “laughed” in v. 17).

[17:19]  ¹² tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:20]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And I will multiply him exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.

[17:20]  ¹⁵ 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.

[18:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (one of the three men introduced in v. 2) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Some English translations have specified the referent as the Lord (cf. RSV, NIV) based on vv. 1, 13, but the Hebrew text merely has “he said” at this point, referring to one of the three visitors. Aside from the introductory statement in v. 1, the incident is narrated from Abraham’s point of view, and the suspense is built up for the reader as Abraham’s elaborate banquet preparations in the preceding verses suggest he suspects these are important guests. But not until the promise of a son later in this verse does it become clear who is speaking. In v. 13 the Hebrew text explicitly mentions the Lord.

[18:10]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, using the infinitive absolute with the imperfect tense.

[18:10]  sn I will surely return. If Abraham had not yet figured out who this was, this interchange would have made it clear. Otherwise, how would a return visit from this man mean Sarah would have a son?

[18:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “as/when the time lives” or “revives,” possibly referring to the springtime.

[18:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and there will be (הִנֵּה, hinneh) a son for Sarah.”

[18:10]  ²⁰ tn This is the first of two disjunctive parenthetical clauses preparing the reader for Sarah’s response (see v. 12).

[18:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “days.”

[18:11]  ²² tn Heb “it had ceased to be for Sarah [after] a way like women.”

[18:12]  ²³ tn Heb “saying.”

[18:12]  ²⁴ tn It has been suggested that this word should be translated “conception,” not “pleasure.” See A. A. McIntosh, “A Third Root ‘adah in Biblical Hebrew,” VT 24 (1974): 454-73.

[18:12]  ²⁵ tn The word “too” has been added in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[18:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Why, this?” The demonstrative pronoun following the interrogative pronoun is enclitic, emphasizing the Lord’s amazement: “Why on earth did Sarah laugh?”

[18:13]  ²⁷ tn The Hebrew construction uses both הַאַף (ha’af) and אֻמְנָם (’umnam): “Indeed, truly, will I have a child?”

[18:14]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”

[18:14]  ²⁹ sn Sarah will have a son. The passage brings God’s promise into clear focus. As long as it was a promise for the future, it really could be believed without much involvement. But now, when it seemed so impossible from the human standpoint, when the Lord fixed an exact date for the birth of the child, the promise became rather overwhelming to Abraham and Sarah. But then this was the Lord of creation, the one they had come to trust. The point of these narratives is that the creation of Abraham’s offspring, which eventually became Israel, is no less a miraculous work of creation than the creation of the world itself.

[21:1]  ³⁰ sn The Hebrew verb translated “visit” (פָּקַד, paqad ) often describes divine intervention for blessing or cursing; it indicates God’s special attention to an individual or a matter, always with respect to his people’s destiny. He may visit (that is, destroy) the Amalekites; he may visit (that is, deliver) his people in Egypt. Here he visits Sarah, to allow her to have the promised child. One’s destiny is changed when the Lord “visits.” For a more detailed study of the term, see G. André, Determining the Destiny (ConBOT).

[21:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “and the Lord did.” The divine name has not been repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[21:1]  ³² tn Heb “spoken.”