God said, “No, but Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
Parallel translations
- KJV And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
- BSB But God replied, “Your wife Sarah will indeed bear you a son, and you are to name him Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
- NKJV Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.
- NASB But God said, “No, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
- NLT But God replied, “No—Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God insisted Sarah would bear Isaac, with whom He would establish His everlasting covenant. The covenant line is fixed in Isaac, not Ishmael.
Overview
God firmly answers that the covenant heir will be Isaac, born to Sarah, and names him before his birth. The everlasting covenant continues through this child of promise. Isaac, miraculously born and later offered on the altar, becomes a profound type of Christ, the promised seed through whom God's covenant blessings flow to the nations.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Gen 21:2–3Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.
- Luke 1:13–20But the angel said to him, “Don’t be afraid, Zacharias, because your request has been heard, and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
- Gen 18:10–14He said, “I will certainly return to you at about this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.
- 2 Kgs 4:16–17He said, “At this season, when the time comes around, you will embrace a son.” She said, “No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant.”
- Gen 21:6Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
- Gal 4:28–31Now we, brothers, as Isaac was, are children of promise.
- Rom 9:6–9But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel.
- Gen 26:3Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For I will give to you, and to your offspring, all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
- Gen 17:21But my covenant I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 17:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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