Discovery BoxGenesis 17:4-9 
Context17:4 “As for me, 1 this 2 is my covenant with you: You will be the father of a multitude of nations. 17:5 No longer will your name be 3 Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham 4 because I will make you 5 the father of a multitude of nations. 17:6 I will make you 6 extremely 7 fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you. 8 17:7 I will confirm 9 my covenant as a perpetual 10 covenant between me and you. It will extend to your descendants after you throughout their generations. I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 11 17:8 I will give the whole land of Canaan – the land where you are now residing 12 – to you and your descendants after you as a permanent 13 possession. I will be their God.”
17:9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep 14 the covenantal requirement 15 I am imposing on you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.
1 tn Heb “I.”
2 tn Heb “is” (הִנֵּה, hinneh).
3 tn Heb “will your name be called.”
4 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 (’av-hamon, “the father of a multitude,” which sounds like אַבְרָהָם, ’avraham, “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 tn The perfect verbal form is used here in a rhetorical manner to emphasize God’s intention.
6 tn This verb starts a series of perfect verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive to express God’s intentions.
7 tn Heb “exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.
8 tn Heb “and I will make you into nations, and kings will come out from you.”
9 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 tn Or “as an eternal.”
11 tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”
12 tn The verbal root is גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to reside temporarily,” i.e., as a resident alien). It is the land in which Abram resides, but does not yet possess as his very own.
13 tn Or “as an eternal.”
14 tn The imperfect tense could be translated “you shall keep” as a binding command; but the obligatory nuance (“must”) captures the binding sense better.
15 tn Heb “my covenant.” The Hebrew word בְּרִית (bÿrit) can refer to (1) the agreement itself between two parties (see v. 7), (2) the promise made by one party to another (see vv. 2-3, 7), (3) an obligation placed by one party on another, or (4) a reminder of the agreement. In vv. 9-10 the word refers to a covenantal obligation which God gives to Abraham and his descendants.
