Kejadian 17:4-7

17:4 “As for me, ¹  this ²  is my covenant with you: You will be the father of a multitude of nations. 17:5 No longer will your name be ³  Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham ⁴  because I will make you ⁵  the father of a multitude of nations. 17:6 I will make you ⁶  extremely ⁷  fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you. ⁸  17:7 I will confirm ⁹  my covenant as a perpetual ¹⁰  covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ¹¹ 

Kejadian 17:15-19

17:15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; ¹²  Sarah ¹³  will be her name. 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. ¹⁴  Kings of countries ¹⁵  will come from her!”

17:17 Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed ¹⁶  as he said to himself, ¹⁷  “Can ¹⁸  a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? ¹⁹  Can Sarah ²⁰  bear a child at the age of ninety?” ²¹  17:18 Abraham said to God, “O that ²²  Ishmael might live before you!” ²³ 

17:19 God said, “No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. ²⁴  I will confirm my covenant with him as a perpetual ²⁵  covenant for his descendants after him.

[17:4]  ¹ tn Heb “I.”

[17:4]  ² tn Heb “is” (הִנֵּה, hinneh).

[17:5]  ³ tn Heb “will your name be called.”

[17:5]  ⁴ sn Your name will be Abraham. The renaming of Abram was a sign of confirmation to the patriarch. Every time the name was used it would be a reminder of God’s promise. “Abram” means “exalted father,” probably referring to Abram’s father Terah. The name looks to the past; Abram came from noble lineage. The name “Abraham” is a dialectical variant of the name Abram. But its significance is in the wordplay with אַב־הֲמוֹן (’av-hamon, “the father of a multitude,” which sounds like אַבְרָהָם, ’avraham, “Abraham”). The new name would be a reminder of God’s intention to make Abraham the father of a multitude. For a general discussion of renaming, see O. Eissfeldt, “Renaming in the Old Testament,” Words and Meanings, 70-83.

[17:5]  ⁵ tn The perfect verbal form is used here in a rhetorical manner to emphasize God’s intention.

[17:6]  ⁶ tn This verb starts a series of perfect verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive to express God’s intentions.

[17:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.

[17:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “and I will make you into nations, and kings will come out from you.”

[17:7]  ⁹ tn The verb קוּם (qum, “to arise, to stand up”) in the Hiphil verbal stem means “to confirm, to give effect to, to carry out” (i.e., a covenant or oath; see BDB 878-79 s.v. קוּם).

[17:7]  ¹⁰ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”

[17:15]  ¹² tn Heb “[As for] Sarai your wife, you must not call her name Sarai, for Sarah [will be] her name.”

[17:15]  ¹³ sn Sarah. The name change seems to be a dialectical variation, both spellings meaning “princess” or “queen.” Like the name Abram, the name Sarai symbolized the past. The new name Sarah, like the name Abraham, would be a reminder of what God intended to do for Sarah in the future.

[17:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “she will become nations.”

[17:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “peoples.”

[17:17]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “And he fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart.”

[17:17]  ¹⁸ tn The imperfect verbal form here carries a potential nuance, as it expresses the disbelief of Abraham.

[17:17]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to the son of a hundred years.”

[17:17]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Heb “the daughter of ninety years.”

[17:18]  ²² tn The wish is introduced with the Hebrew particle לוּ (lu), “O that.”

[17:18]  ²³ tn Or “live with your blessing.”

[17:19]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ tn Or “as an eternal.”