Genesis 13:16
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I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Abram, having returned from Egypt to the south of Canaan with his wife and property uninjured, through the gracious protection of God, proceeded with Lot למסּעיו "according to his journeys" (lit., with the repeated breaking up of his camp, required by a nomad life; on נסע to break up a tent, to remove, see Exo 12:37) into the neighbourhood of Bethel and Ai, where he had previously encamped and built an altar (Gen 12:8), that he might there call upon the name of the Lord again. That ויּקרא (Gen 13:4) is not a continuation of the relative clause, but a resumption of the main sentence, and therefore corresponds with ויּלך (Gen 13:3), "he went...and called upon the name of the Lord there," has been correctly concluded by Delitzsch from the repetition of the subject Abram.
Open source ↗In this chapter we have a further account concerning Abram. I. In general, of his condition and behaviour in the land of promise, which was now the land of his pilgrimage. 1. His removes (Gen 13:1, Gen 13:3, Gen 13:4, Gen 13:18). 2. His riches (Gen 13:2). 3. His devotion (Gen 13:4, Gen 13:18). II. A particular account of a quarrel that happened between him and Lot. 1. The unhappy occasion of their strife (Gen 13:5, Gen 13:6). 2. The parties concerned in the strife, with the aggravation of it (Gen 13:7). III. The making up of the quarrel, by the prudence of Abram (Gen 13:8, Gen 13:9). IV. Lot's departure from Abram to the plain of Sodom (Gen 13:10-13). V. God's appearance to Abram, to confirm the promise of the land of Canaan to him (Gen 13:14, etc.).
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous; let my end be like theirs!”
Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised, and it shall be their inheritance forever.’”
I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”
Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to count or number.
And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”
For the Midianites came with their livestock and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were innumerable, and they entered the land to ravage it.
I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed,
Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and through him all the nations of the earth will be blessed.