“Our sister, may you become the mother 2 of thousands of ten thousands!
May your descendants possess the strongholds 3 of their enemies.”
1 tn Heb “and said to her.”
2 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).
3 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.
4 tn Heb “El Shaddai.” See the extended note on the phrase “sovereign God” in Gen 17:1.
5 tn Heb “and make you fruitful and multiply you.” See Gen 17:6, 20 for similar terminology.
6 tn The perfect verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here indicates consequence. The collocation הָיָה + preposition לְ (hayah + lÿ) means “become.”
7 tn Heb “an assembly of peoples.”