Who would have said to Abraham: this opens what may be a rhetorical question or an exclamation. It carries the sense that what has happened is very surprising, and expresses in this context an emotion of joy. It may be rendered in various ways, including, for example, a negative statement, “Nobody would have said to Abraham…,” or a rhetorical question with a reply, “Would anyone have said to Abraham…? Of course not.”

That Sarah would suckle children: this is part of the rhetorical question or exclamation. In some languages this form must be shifted from the third person to the first person: “that I would suckle….” Suckle means to give the breast to, to nurse or breast-feed. Children translates a Hebrew plural, but in some languages this will be translated more naturally as a singular. In some languages it is necessary to include what is assumed in the original text, that Sarah would first give birth to a child and then breast-feed it; for example, “… that your wife Sarah will bear a child and give it her milk.” And since suckle children is really an indirect way of saying that Sarah will have a baby, some translations express this directly; for example, “Everyone reckoned that I could never have a baby for Abraham.”

Yet I have born him a son in his old age: Yet translates the Hebrew ki, which here signals something that is unexpected, surprising, in view of what has just been said. For the wording of this sentence, refer to Gen 21.2. The element of surprise may be brought out in a number of ways; examples from two translations are “Before, nobody could tell Abraham that… But look! He is very old and I have…,” and “… Well it doesn’t matter that he is very old; I have still had his son.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .