Kejadian 17:5

17:5 No longer will your name be ¹  Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham ²  because I will make you ³  the father of a multitude of nations.

Kejadian 17:15-21

17:15 Then God said to Abraham, “As for your wife, you must no longer call her Sarai; ⁴  Sarah ⁵  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. ⁶  Kings of countries ⁷  will come from her!”

17:17 Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed ⁸  as he said to himself, ⁹  “Can ¹⁰  a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? ¹¹  Can Sarah ¹²  bear a child at the age of ninety?” ¹³  17:18 Abraham said to God, “O that ¹⁴  Ishmael might live before you!” ¹⁵ 

17:19 God said, “No, Sarah your wife is going to bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. ¹⁶  I will confirm my covenant with him as a perpetual ¹⁷  covenant for his descendants after him. 17:20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you. ¹⁸  I will indeed bless him, make him fruitful, and give him a multitude of descendants. ¹⁹  He will become the father of twelve princes; ²⁰  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.”

[17:5]  ¹ tn Heb “will your name be called.”

[17:5]  ² 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]  ³ tn The perfect verbal form is used here in a rhetorical manner to emphasize God’s intention.

[17:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “[As for] Sarai your wife, you must not call her name Sarai, for Sarah [will be] her name.”

[17:15]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “she will become nations.”

[17:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “peoples.”

[17:17]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “And he fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart.”

[17:17]  ¹⁰ tn The imperfect verbal form here carries a potential nuance, as it expresses the disbelief of Abraham.

[17:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to the son of a hundred years.”

[17:17]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Heb “the daughter of ninety years.”

[17:18]  ¹⁴ tn The wish is introduced with the Hebrew particle לוּ (lu), “O that.”

[17:18]  ¹⁵ tn Or “live with your blessing.”

[17:19]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Or “as an eternal.”

[17:20]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “And I will multiply him exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.

[17:20]  ²⁰ 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.