Discovery BoxGenesis 17:6-7 
Context17:6 I will make you 1 extremely 2 fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will descend from you. 3 17:7 I will confirm 4 my covenant as a perpetual 5 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. 6
Genesis 17:20
Context17:20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you. 7 I will indeed bless him, make him fruitful, and give him a multitude of descendants. 8 He will become the father of twelve princes; 9 I will make him into a great nation.
1 tn This verb starts a series of perfect verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive to express God’s intentions.
2 tn Heb “exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.
3 tn Heb “and I will make you into nations, and kings will come out from you.”
4 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).
5 tn Or “as an eternal.”
6 tn Heb “to be to you for God and to your descendants after you.”
7 sn The Hebrew verb translated “I have heard you” forms a wordplay with the name Ishmael, which means “God hears.” See the note on the name “Ishmael” in 16:11.
8 tn Heb “And I will multiply him exceedingly, exceedingly.” The repetition is emphatic.
9 tn For a discussion of the Hebrew word translated “princes,” see E. A. Speiser, “Background and Function of the Biblical Nasi’,” CBQ 25 (1963): 111-17.
