Kejadian 18:14

18:14 Is anything impossible ¹  for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” ² 

Mazmur 65:7

65:7 You calm the raging seas ³ 

and their roaring waves,

as well as the commotion made by the nations. ⁴ 

Yesaya 40:31

40:31 But those who wait for the Lord’s help ⁵  find renewed strength;

they rise up as if they had eagles’ wings, ⁶ 

they run without growing weary,

they walk without getting tired.

[18:14]  ¹ tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”

[18:14]  ² 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.

[65:7]  ³ tn Heb “the roar of the seas.”

[65:7]  ⁴ sn The raging seas…the commotion made by the nations. The raging seas symbolize the turbulent nations of the earth (see Ps 46:2-3, 6; Isa 17:12).

[40:31]  ⁵ tn The words “for the Lord’s help” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[40:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “they rise up [on] wings like eagles” (TEV similar).