Genesis 17:4-8

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Genesis 17:4 tn Heb “I.”
2. Genesis 17:4 tn Heb “is” (הִנֵּה, hinneh).
3. Genesis 17:5 tn Heb “will your name be called.”
4. Genesis 17:5 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 (ʾav hamon, “the father of a multitude,” which sounds like אַבְרָהָם, ʾavraham, “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.
5. Genesis 17:5 tn The perfect verbal form is used here in a rhetorical manner to emphasize God’s intention.
6. Genesis 17:6 tn This verb starts a series of perfect verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive to express God’s intentions.
7. Genesis 17:6 tn Heb “exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.
8. Genesis 17:6 tn Heb “and I will make you into nations, and kings will come out from you.”
9. Genesis 17:7 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).
10. Genesis 17:7 tn Or “as an eternal.”
11. Genesis 17:7 tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”
12. Genesis 17:8 tn The verbal root is גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to reside temporarily,” i.e., as a resident foreigner). It is the land in which Abram resides, but does not yet possess as his very own.
13. Genesis 17:8 tn Or “as an eternal.”