וְהוֹתִֽירְךָ֩ יְהֹוָ֨ה אֱלֹהֶ֜יךָ בְּכֹ֣ל ׀ מַעֲשֵׂ֣ה יָדֶ֗ךָ בִּפְרִ֨י בִטְנְךָ֜ וּבִפְרִ֧י בְהֶמְתְּךָ֛ וּבִפְרִ֥י אַדְמָתְךָ֖ לְטֹבָ֑ה כִּ֣י ׀ יָשׁ֣וּב יְהֹוָ֗ה לָשׂ֤וּשׂ עָלֶ֙יךָ֙ לְט֔וֹב כַּאֲשֶׁר־שָׂ֖שׂ עַל־אֲבֹתֶֽיךָ׃

And the ETERNAL your God will grant you abounding prosperity in all your undertakings, in your issue from the womb, the offspring of your cattle, and your produce from the soil. For GOD will again delight in your well-being as in that of your ancestors,

(The above rendering comes from the RJPS translation—an adaptation of the NJPS translation.)


Contrary to the claims of some interpreters, the gender-role question as to whether an Israelite husband controls his wife’s womb is simply not in play in this biblical passage. See further my comment on 7:13.


As for the translation, the NJPS “the issue from your womb” is not defensible (despite its being conventional in English translations, going back hundreds of years). It is overly literal for a “thought-for-thought” type of translation like this one. The revised rendering reassigns the possessive pronoun so that it modifies “issue” rather than “womb,” not only to correct NJPS on its own terms, but also to avoid a gender misreading. And for consistency, it likewise reassigns the same pronoun in the other genitive phrases in this verse.