Genesis 17:5-7
Context17:5 No longer will your name be 1 Abram. Instead, your name will be Abraham 2 because I will make you 3 the father of a multitude of nations. 17:6 I will make you 4 extremely 5 fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you. 6 17:7 I will confirm 7 my covenant as a perpetual 8 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. 9
Genesis 17:16
Context17:16 I will bless her and will give you a son through her. I will bless her and she will become a mother of nations. 10 Kings of countries 11 will come from her!”
1 tn Heb “will your name be called.”
2 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.
3 tn The perfect verbal form is used here in a rhetorical manner to emphasize God’s intention.
4 tn This verb starts a series of perfect verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive to express God’s intentions.
5 tn Heb “exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.
6 tn Heb “and I will make you into nations, and kings will come out from you.”
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).
8 tn Or “as an eternal.”
9 tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”
10 tn Heb “she will become nations.”
11 tn Heb “peoples.”