Genesis 15:7

15:7 The Lord said ¹  to him, “I am the Lord ²  who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans ³  to give you this land to possess.”

Genesis 24:60

24:60 They blessed Rebekah with these words: ⁴ 

“Our sister, may you become the mother ⁵  of thousands of ten thousands!

May your descendants possess the strongholds ⁶  of their enemies.”

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¹ tn Heb “And he said.”

² sn I am the Lord. The Lord initiates the covenant-making ceremony with a declaration of who he is and what he has done for Abram. The same form appears at the beginning of the covenant made at Sinai (see Exod 20:1).

³ sn The phrase of the Chaldeans is a later editorial clarification for the readers, designating the location of Ur. From all evidence there would have been no Chaldeans in existence at this early date; they are known in the time of the neo-Babylonian empire in the first millennium b.c.

⁴ tn Heb “and said to her.”

⁵ tn Heb “become thousands of ten thousands.”

sn May you become the mother of thousands of ten thousands. The blessing expresses their prayer that she produce children and start a family line that will greatly increase (cf. Gen 17:16).

⁶ tn Heb “gate,” which here stands for a walled city. In an ancient Near Eastern city the gate complex was the main area of defense (hence the translation “stronghold”). A similar phrase occurs in Gen 22:17.