Genesis 18:18

After all, Abraham ¹  will surely become ²  a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ³  using his name.

Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.

since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?

"For Abraham will become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.

Abraham is going to become a large and strong nation; all the nations of the world are going to find themselves blessed through him.

Seeing that Abraham will certainly become a great and strong nation, and his name will be used by all the nations of the earth as a blessing?

seeing that Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

"since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

After all, Abraham ¹  will surely become ²  a great and powerful nation, and all the nations on the earth will pronounce blessings on one another ³  using his name.

¹ tn Heb “And Abraham.” The disjunctive clause is probably causal, giving a reason why God should not hide his intentions from Abraham. One could translate, “Should I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation?”

² tn The infinitive absolute lends emphasis to the finite verb that follows.

³ tn Theoretically the Niphal can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of “bless” is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Abram were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in later formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation “will bless [i.e., “pronounce blessings upon”] themselves [or “one another”].” The Hitpael of “bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 18:18 (like 12:2) predicts that Abraham will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.