Kejadian 18:18

18:18 After all, Abraham ¹  will surely become ²  a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ³  using his name.

Kejadian 25:25

25:25 The first came out reddish ⁴  all over, ⁵  like a hairy ⁶  garment, so they named him Esau. ⁷ 

Kejadian 28:3

28:3 May the sovereign God ⁸  bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! ⁹  Then you will become ¹⁰  a large nation. ¹¹ 

Kejadian 48:18

48:18 Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.”

[18:18]  ¹ tn Heb “And Abraham.” The disjunctive clause is probably causal, giving a reason why God should not hide his intentions from Abraham. One could translate, “Should I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation?”

[18:18]  ² tn The infinitive absolute lends emphasis to the finite verb that follows.

[18:18]  ³ tn Theoretically the Niphal can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of “bless” is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Abram were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in later formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation “will bless [i.e., “pronounce blessings upon”] themselves [or “one another”].” The Hitpael of “bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 18:18 (like 12:2) predicts that Abraham will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.

[25:25]  ⁴ sn Reddish. The Hebrew word translated “reddish” is אַדְמוֹנִי (’admoni), which forms a wordplay on the Edomites, Esau’s descendants. The writer sees in Esau’s appearance at birth a sign of what was to come. After all, the reader has already been made aware of the “nations” that were being born.

[25:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “all of him.”

[25:25]  ⁶ sn Hairy. Here is another wordplay involving the descendants of Esau. The Hebrew word translated “hairy” is שֵׂעָר (se’ar); the Edomites will later live in Mount Seir, perhaps named for its wooded nature.

[25:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “And they called his name Esau.” The name “Esau” (עֵשָׂו, ’esav) is not etymologically related to שֵׂעָר (se’ar), but it draws on some of the sounds.

[28:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.

[28:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “and make you fruitful and multiply you.” See Gen 17:6, 20 for similar terminology.

[28:3]  ¹⁰ tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here indicates consequence. The collocation הָיָה + preposition לְ (hayah + lÿ) means “become.”

[28:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “an assembly of peoples.”