What Does Genesis 18:18 Mean?
And Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?THE KEY
The root of “blessed” links blessing with bending the knee, while the verse shows that blessing reaching the nations through Abraham.
THE MEANING
The promise binds Abraham’s becoming a great and mighty nation to all the nations of the earth being blessed in him. His growing reach carries something beyond himself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Greatness is only for the benefit of the one who becomes great.
THE ROOT
וְנִבְרְכוּ
wenivrekhu
GROWS FROM
ברך
Bend the knee; bless.
“blessed” in this verse is wenivrekhu. The Hebrew verb comes from ברך, a root that also names the knee. The verse places the nations’ blessing “in” Abraham, showing it as something that reaches outward through him.
ALSO GROWS
berekh: Knee
בֶּרֶךְ
This branch preserves the root’s image of bending the knee beneath the verse’s word for blessing.
berakhah: Blessing
בְּרָכָה
This noun from the same root names the blessing that the verse says reaches all nations in Abraham.
THE PATTERN
The promise links blessing for the nations with a person through whom it reaches them.
And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the ground will be blessed.Let his name endure for the ages, and sprout before the sun; all nations bless themselves in him, and call him flourishing.And the writing, seeing ahead that God would align the nations out of trust, announced the good message beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you all the nations will be blessed.THE THREAD
And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the ground will be blessed.The same ברך (barak, bless) root appears in “bless” and “be blessed,” linking this promise to the earlier words spoken to Abraham. Genesis 18:18 names all the nations of the earth; Genesis 12:3 names all the families of the earth.
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