Romans 4:18

4:18 Against hope Abraham ¹  believed ²  in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations ³  according to the pronouncement, ⁴  “so will your descendants be.” ⁵ 

Romans 9:8

9:8 This means ⁶  it is not the children of the flesh ⁷  who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants.

Romans 9:29

9:29 Just ⁸  as Isaiah predicted,

“If the Lord of armies ⁹  had not left us descendants,

we would have become like Sodom,

and we would have resembled Gomorrah.” ¹⁰ 

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¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Grk “who against hope believed,” referring to Abraham. The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

³ sn A quotation from Gen 17:5.

⁴ tn Grk “according to that which had been spoken.”

⁵ sn A quotation from Gen 15:5.

⁶ tn Grk “That is,” or “That is to say.”

⁷ tn Because it forms the counterpoint to “the children of promise” the expression “children of the flesh” has been retained in the translation.

sn The expression the children of the flesh refers to the natural offspring.

⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

⁹ tn Traditionally, “Lord of hosts”; Grk “Lord Sabaoth,” which means “Lord of the [heavenly] armies,” sometimes translated more generally as “Lord Almighty.”

¹⁰ sn A quotation from Isa 1:9.