Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son.”
Parallel Translations
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Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son.”
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Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
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Is any thing too hard for the LORD. At the set time I will return unto thee, when the season cometh round, and Sarah shall have a son.'
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (2)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (30)
Passages linked to Genesis 18:14 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Luke 1:37 For nothing spoken by God is impossible.”
- Matthew 19:26 Looking at them, Jesus said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
- Mark 10:27 Jesus, looking at them, said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.”
- Jeremiah 32:27 “Behold, I am Yahweh, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me?
- Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
- Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained.
- Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
- Jeremiah 32:17 “Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you.
- Romans 4:21 and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.
- Numbers 11:23 Yahweh said to Moses, “Has Yahweh’s hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will happen to you or not.”
- 2 Kings 4:16 He 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.”
- Deuteronomy 7:21 You shall not be scared of them; for Yahweh your God is among you, a great and awesome God.
- Genesis 18:10 He 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.
- Matthew 14:31 Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
- Luke 1:13 But the angel said to him, “Don’t be afraid, Zacharias, because your request has been heard. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
- Deuteronomy 30:3 that then Yahweh your God will release you from captivity, have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples where Yahweh your God has scattered you.
- Psalms 95:3 For Yahweh is a great God, a great King above all gods.
- Zechariah 8:6 Yahweh of Armies says: “If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my eyes?” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Genesis 17:21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.”
- Micah 7:18 Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving kindness.
- Job 36:5 “Behold, God is mighty, and doesn’t despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding.
- Luke 8:50 But Jesus hearing it, answered him, “Don’t be afraid. Only believe, and she will be healed.”
- Hebrews 11:19 concluding that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Figuratively speaking, he also did receive him back from the dead.
- 1 Samuel 14:6 Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come! Let’s go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that Yahweh will work for us; for there is no restraint on Yahweh to save by many or by few.”
- Luke 1:18 Zacharias said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”
- Psalms 93:1 Yahweh reigns! He is clothed with majesty! Yahweh is armed with strength. The world also is established. It can’t be moved.
- Matthew 3:9 Don’t think to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
- Philippians 3:21 who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.
- 2 Kings 7:1-2 Elisha said, “Hear Yahweh’s word. Yahweh says, ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.’ ” Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, “Behold, if Yahweh made windows in heaven, could this thing be?” He said, “Behold, you will see it with your eyes, but will not eat of it.”
- Psalms 90:13 Relent, Yahweh! How long? Have compassion on your servants!
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Or, hid.
Or, hid.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 18:14 Is any thing too hard for the…
Gen 18:14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
Ver. 14. Is anything too hard for the Lord?] He can do all things possible and honourable. He cannot lie, die, deny himself, for that implieth impotency. "He could do no mighty work" in his own country "because of their unbelief." {Mar 6:5-6} He could not, because he would not. He can do more than he will, as "of stones raise up" churches, {Mat 3:9} call for "legions of angels," {Mat 26:53} create more worlds in an instant. But whatsoever he willeth, that he doeth in heaven and earth, and none can say, what doest thou? "Our God can deliver us". {Dan 3:17} "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean". {Mat 8:2, &c.}
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I will return to thee, according to the time of life.] He returned not personally, that we read of; but virtually he did, by making good his promise at the appointed time. That of Dr Sands, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, is wonderful, and worth relating. He, departing the land for fear of Queen Mary, took his leave of his host and hostess, who was childless, and had been married eight years. When the wind served, as he went toward the ship, he gave his hostess a fine handkerchief, and an old royal of gold in it, thanking her much, and said, Be of good comfort; ere that one whole year be past, God shall give you a child, a boy. And it came to pass, that day twelve months later, lacking one day, God gave her a fair son. {a}
{a} Act. and Mon., fol. 1894.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Is any thing too hard for the Lord? Heb.…
Is any thing too hard for the Lord? Heb. Hid from God? So the sense is: Though she laughed only in her heart, it is not unknown to me. Or rather, too wonderful for God to effect? Which best suits with the following words.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Is anything too hard for the Lord?.... Whose power…
Is anything too hard for the Lord?.... Whose power is infinite; or "too wonderful" (x), so wonderful and beyond all belief, that it can never be thought it will be done by him; and why then should it be thought incredible or impossible that Sarah should have a child, though she is old? Or, is "anything hidden from the Lord" (y)? Nothing can be, not Sarah's laughter.
At the time appointed will I return to thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son; which words are repeated not merely for the confirmation of Abraham's faith, which staggered not, but to remove Sarah's unbelief, and to encourage her faith in the divine promise.
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(x) "nunquid mirabile vel mirificabitur", Munster, Piscator, Schmidt. (y) "Nunquid abscondetur", Pagninus, Cartwright; "an potest occultari", Junius & Tremellius, Fagius; so the Targum of Jonathan and Aben Ezra.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 14. Is any thing too hard for the…
Verse 14. Is any thing too hard for the Lord?] היפלא מיהוה דבר hayippale meihovah dabar, shall a word (or thing) be wonderful from the Lord? i.e., Can any thing be too great a miracle for him to effect? The Septuagint translate the passage, Μη αδυνατησει παρα τῳ Θεῳ ῥημα; which St. Luke adopts almost literatim, only making it an affirmative position instead of a question: Ουκ αδυνατησει παρα τῳ Θεῳ παν ῥημα, which we translate, "With God nothing shall be impossible," Lu 1:37. Many copies of the Septuagint insert the word παν before ῥημα, as in St. Luke; but it makes little difference in the sense. It was to correct Sarah's unbelief, and to strengthen her faith, that God spoke these most important words; words which state that where human wisdom, prudence, and energy fall, and where nature herself ceases to be an agent, through lack of energy to act, or laws to direct and regulate energy, there also God has full sway, and by his own omnific power works all things after the counsel of his own will. Is there an effect to be produced? God can produce it as well without as with means. He produced nature, the whole system of causes and effects, when in the whole compass of his own eternity there was neither means nor being. HE spake, and it was done; HE commanded, and it stood fast. How great and wonderful is God!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Hard. So Gabriel says to the blessed Virgin: there…
Hard. So Gabriel says to the blessed Virgin: there is nothing impossible to God, Luke i. 37.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 14. too hard for the Lord] Lit., as marg,…
14. too hard for the Lord] Lit., as marg, wonderful. The LXX rendering μὴ ἀδυνατεῖ παρὰ τῷ θεῷ ῥῆμα finds an echo in St Luk_1:37. Compare Jer_32:17, “Ah! Lord God! behold, thou hast made, the heaven and the earth by thy great power …: there is nothing too hard for thee.”
He who thus speaks of Jehovah, is Himself Jehovah. Cf. Gen_16:11, Gen_19:13.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (14) Is anything too hard for the Lord?—Heb., Is…
(14) Is anything too hard for the Lord?—Heb., Is anything too wonderful for Jehovah? At last it is made evident that the travellers are messengers from God; but until this declaration, there could have been, at most, only a dim feeling that the visitation was more than human. Though the angel does not claim for himself divinity, yet the narrator prefixes to his words, And Jehovah said. In some ineffable way there was an identity between Jehovah and the angel.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Is any thing too hard for the Lord? Literally,…
Is any thing too hard for the Lord? Literally, Is any word too wonderful, i.e. impossible, for Jehovah mhsei para tw qew rJhma (LXX), with which may be compared Luk_1:37. At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life (vide supra, Ver. 10), and Sarah shall have a son. "Is anything too hard for the Lord?
I TAKE IT AS THE QUESTION WHICH GOD ASKS OF MAN.
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1. Remonstrance. The history of Divine manifestations proves that nothing is demanded of faith which is not justified by the bestowments of the past.
2. Invitation. We connect the question with the promise. He opens the gate of life; is it too hard for him to give us the victory? "At the time appointed" his word will be fulfilled. He would have us rest on himself. "Believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder," &c. What he is, what he says, are blended into one in the true faith of his waiting children. ;
II TAKE THE QUESTION AS ONE WHICH MEN ASK OF ONE ANOTHER.
1. When they set forth the goodness of Divine truth. The possibility of miracles. The hardness of the world"s problems no justification of unbelief.
2. When they proclaim a gospel of supernatural gifts, a salvation not of man, but of God. Why should we doubt conversion? Why should a regenerated, renewed nature be so often mocked at?
3. When they would encourage one another to persevere in Christian enterprise. The methods may be old, but the grace is ever new. The world may laugh, but the true believer should see all things possible. The times are cur measures. Eternity is God"s. R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 18:14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? The…
18:14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? The question is rhetorical. God is able to do marvelous things. Nothing is incredible to those in covenant fellowship with the Lord, because nothing is too difficult for him.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.