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Genesis 13:16
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- InternationalParallel Translations
I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.
And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth: So that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then may your seed also be numbered.
I will make your descendants as many as the dust of the earth. If anyone could count the dust on the earth, he could count your people.
And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone is able to count the dust of the earth, then your descendants also can be counted.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, [then] shall thy seed also be numbered.
I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then your seed may also be numbered.
And Y schal make thi seed as the dust of erthe; if ony man may noumbre the dust of erthe, also he schal mowe noumbre thi seed.
And I have set thy seed as dust of the earth, so that, if one is able to number the dust of the earth, even thy seed is numbered;
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.
I will give you more descendants than there are specks of dust on the earth, and someday it will be easier to count the specks of dust than to count your descendants.
and I will make your descendants as numerous as the specks of dust on the earth — so that if a person can count the specks of dust on the earth, then your descendants can be counted.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then may thy seed also be numbered.
And I will make your children like the dust of the earth, so that if the dust of the earth may be numbered, then will your children be numbered.
And I wyl make thy seede as the dust of the earth: so that yf a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seede also be numbred.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if any one can number the dust of the earth, thy seed also will be numbered.
I will make your people so many that they will be like the dust of the earth. If people could count all the particles of dust on earth, they could count your people.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.
And I will make thy seede as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbred.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.
I will make your family after you like the dust of the earth. So if anyone could number the dust of the earth, then he could number your children's children.
I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.
and I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, - so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, thy seed also, may be numbered.
And I will make thy seede, as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seede be numbred.
And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth; so that if you can number the dust of the earth, then shall your descendants also be numbered.
I am going to give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them all; it would be as easy to count all the specks of dust on earth!
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: if any man be able to number the dust of the earth, he shall be able to number thy seed also.
I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your descendants also can be counted.
And I will make thy seed like the dust of the earth; if any one is able to number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed be numbered.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.
I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.
I will make your offspring as the dust of the eretz, so that if a man can number the dust of the eretz, then your seed may also be numbered.
I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth which, if anyone were able to count the dust of the earth, your descendants would be so counted.
And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the dust of the earth, then your seed also will be counted.
and wyll make thy sede as the dust of the earth: so that yf a man can nombre the dust of the earth, he shall nombre thy sede also.
"I will make your descendants as plentiful as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, then your descendants could also be counted.
And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.
And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted!
"I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered.
And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your seed can also be numbered.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Genesis 12:2, Genesis 12:3, Genesis 15:5, Genesis 17:6, Genesis 17:16, Genesis 17:20, Genesis 18:18, Genesis 21:13, Genesis 22:17, Genesis 25:1-34, Genesis 26:4, Genesis 28:3, Genesis 28:14, Genesis 32:12, Genesis 35:11, Genesis 36:1-43, Genesis 46:3, Exodus 1:7, Exodus 32:13, Numbers 23:10, Deuteronomy 1:10, Judges 6:3, Judges 6:5, 1 Kings 3:8, 1 Kings 4:20, 1 Chronicles 21:5, 1 Chronicles 27:23, 2 Chronicles 17:14-18, Isaiah 48:18, Isaiah 48:19, Jeremiah 33:22, Romans 4:16-18, Hebrews 11:12, Revelation 7:9
Reciprocal: Genesis 15:3 - Behold Genesis 17:4 - a father Genesis 26:24 - fear Genesis 47:27 - grew Genesis 48:4 - Behold I Numbers 1:46 - General Numbers 22:5 - they cover Deuteronomy 6:3 - that ye may 2 Samuel 17:11 - as the sand 2 Kings 13:23 - because of his covenant 2 Chronicles 1:9 - like the dust Psalms 105:24 - And he Psalms 115:14 - Lord Isaiah 26:15 - increased Ezekiel 12:16 - a few men Hosea 1:10 - the number Galatians 3:16 - to
Cross-References
So Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot [his nephew] with him, into the Negev (the South country of Judah).
Now Abram was extremely rich in livestock and in silver and in gold.
He journeyed on from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,
The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had left him, "Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are standing, northward and southward and eastward and westward;
"I will make your descendants [as numerous] as the dust of the earth, so that if a man could count the [grains of] dust of the earth, then your descendants could also be counted.
Then Abram broke camp and moved his tent, and came and settled by the [grove of the great] terebinths (oak trees) of Mamre [the Amorite], which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to [honor] the LORD.
And the LORD brought Abram outside [his tent into the night] and said, "Look now toward the heavens and count the stars—if you are able to count them." Then He said to him, "So [numerous] shall your descendants be."
"I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.
"I will bless her, and indeed I will also give you a son by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her."
"As for Ishmael, I have heard and listened to you; behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful and will greatly multiply him [through his descendants]. He will be the father of twelve princes (chieftains, sheiks), and I will make him a great nation.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth,.... An hyperbolical expression denoting the great multitude of Abram's posterity, as they were in the days of Solomon, and as they will be in the latter day; and especially as this may respect all the spiritual seed of Abram, Jews and Gentiles, and as they will be in the spiritual reign of Christ, see Hosea 1:10;
so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, [then] shall thy seed be numbered; but as it is impossible to do the one, so the other is not practicable, see Numbers 23:10.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- Abram and Lot Separate
7. פר×× perıÌzıÌy, Perizzi, âdescendant of Paraz.â ×¤×¨× paÌraÌz, âleader,â or inhabitant of the plain or open country.
10. ××ר kıÌkar, âcircle, border, vale, cake, talent;â related: âbow, bend, go round, dance.â ×ר×× yardeÌn, Jardan, âdescending.â Usually with the article in prose. צער tsoâar, Tsoâar, âsmallness.â
18. ×××¨× mamreÌ', Mamre, âfat, strong, ruler.â ××ר×× chebroÌn, Chebron, âconjunction, confederacy.â
Lot has been hitherto kept in association with Abram by the ties of kinmanship. But it becomes gradually manifest that he has an independent interest, and is no longer disposed to follow the fortunes of the chosen of God. In the natural course of things, this under-feeling comes to the surface. Their serfs come into collision; and as Abram makes no claim of authority over Lot, he offers him the choice of a dwelling-place in the land. This issues in a peaceable separation, in which Abram appears to great advantage. The chosen of the Lord is now in the course of providence isolated from all associations of kindred. He stands alone, in a strange land. He again obeys the summons to survey the land promised to him and his seed in perpetuity.
Genesis 13:1-4
Went up out of Mizraim. - Egypt is a low-lying valley, out of which the traveler ascends into Arabia Petraea and the hill-country of Kenaan. Abram returns, a wiser and a better man. When called to leave his native land, he had immediately obeyed. Such obedience evinced the existence of the new power of godliness in his breast. But he gets beyond the land of promise into a land of carnality, and out of the way of truth into a way of deceit. Such a course betrays the struggle between moral good and evil which has begun within him. This discovery humbles and vexes him. Self-condemnation and repentance are at work within him. We do not know that all these feelings rise into consciousness, but we have no doubt that their result, in a subdued, sobered, chastened spirit, is here, and will soon manifest itself.
And Lot with him. - Lot accompanied him into Egypt, because he comes with him out of it. The south is so called in respect, not to Egypt, but to the land of promise. It acquired this title before the times of the patriarch, among the Hebrew-speaking tribes inhabiting it. The great riches of Abram consist in cattle and the precious metals. The former is the chief form of wealth in the East. Abramâs flocks are mentioned in preparation for the following occurrence. He advances north to the place between Bethel and Ai, and perhaps still further, according to Genesis 13:4, to the place of Shekem, where he built the first altar in the land. He now calls on the name of the Lord. The process of contrition in a new heart, has come to its right issue in confession and supplication. The sense of acceptance with God, which he had before experienced in these places of meeting with God, he has now recovered. The spirit of adoption, therefore, speaks within him.
Genesis 13:5-7
The collision. Lot now also abounded in the wealth of the East. The two opulent sheiks (elders, heads of houses) cannot dwell together anymore. Their serfs come to strife. The carnal temper comes out among their dependents. Such disputes were unavoidable in the circumstances. Neither party had any title to the land. Landed property was not yet clearly defined or secured by law. The land therefore was in common - wherever anybody availed himself of the best spot for grazing that he could find unoccupied. We can easily understand what facilities and temptations this would offer for the strong to overbear the weak. We meet with many incidental notices of such oppression Genesis 21:25; Genesis 26:15-22; Exodus 2:16-19. The folly and impropriety of quarreling among kinsmen about pasture grounds on the present occasion is enhanced by the circumstance that Abram and Lot are mere strangers among the Kenaanites and the Perizzites, the settled occupants of the country.
Custom had no doubt already given the possessor a prior claim. Abram and Lot were there merely on sufferance, because the country was thinly populated, and many fertile spots were still unoccupied. The Perizzite is generally associated with, and invariably distinguished from, the Kenaanite Genesis 15:20; Genesis 34:30; Exodus 3:8, Exodus 3:17. This tribe is not found among the descendants of Kenaan in the table of nations. They stand side by side with them, and seem therefore not to be a subject, but an independent race. They may have been a Shemite clan, roaming over the land before the arrival of the Hamites. They seem to have been by name and custom rather wanderers or nomads than dwellers in the plain or in the villages. They dwelt in the mountains of Judah and Ephraim Judges 1:4; Joshua 17:15. They are noticed even so late as in the time of Ezra Ezra 9:1. The presence of two powerful tribes, independent of each other, was favorable to the quiet and peaceful residence of Abram and Lot, but not certainly to their living at feud with each other.
Genesis 13:8-9
The strife among the underlings does not alienate their masters. Abram appeals to the obligations of brotherhood. He proposes to obviate any further difference by yielding to Lot the choice of all the land. The heavenly principle of forbearance evidently holds the supremacy in Abramâs breast. He walks in the moral atmosphere of the sermon on the mount Matthew 5:28-42.
Genesis 13:10-13
Lot accepts the offer of his noble-hearted kinsman. He cannot do otherwise, as he is the companion, while his uncle is the principal. He willingly concedes to Abram his present position, and, after a lingering attendance on his kinsman, retires to take the ground of self-dependence. Outward and earthly motives prevail with him in the selection of his new abode. He is charmed by the well-watered lowlands bordering on the Jordan and its affluents. He is here less liable to a periodical famine, and he roams with his serfs and herds in the direction of Sodom. This town and Amorah (Gomorrah), were still flourishing at the time of Lotâs arrival. The country in which they stood was of extraordinary beauty and fertility. The River Jordan, one of the sources of which is at Panium, after flowing through the waters of Merom, or the lake Semechonitis (Huleh), falls into the Sea of Galilee or Kinnereth, which is six hundred and fifty-three feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and thence descends into the basin of the Salt Sea, which is now thirteen hundred and sixteen feet beneath the same level, by a winding course of about two hundred miles, over twenty-seven threatening rapids.
This river may well be called the Descender. We do not know on what part of the border of Jordan Lot looked down from the heights about Shekem or Ai, as the country underwent a great change at a later period. But its appearance was then so attractive as to bear comparison with the garden of the Lord and the land of Egypt. The garden of Eden still dwelt in the recollections of men. The fertility of Egypt had been recently witnessed by the two kinsmen. It was a valley fertilized by the overflowing of the Nile, as this valley was by the Jordan and its tributary streams. âAs thou goest unto Zoar.â The origin of this name is given in Genesis 19:20-22. It lay probably to the south of the Salt Sea, in the wady Kerak. âAnd Lot journeyed eastâ ×ק×× mıÌqedem. From the hill-country of Shekem or Ai the Jordan lay to the east.
Genesis 13:12
The men of Sodom were wicked. - The higher blessing of good society, then, was missing in the choice of Lot. It is probable he was a single man when he parted from Abram, and therefore that he married a woman of Sodom. He has in that case fallen into the snare of matching, or, at all events, mingling with the ungodly. This was the damning sin of the antediluvians Genesis 6:1-7. âSinners before the Lord exceedingly.â Their country was as the garden of the Lord. But the beauty of the landscape and the superabundance of the luxuries it afforded, did not abate the sinful disposition of the inhabitants. Their moral corruption only broke forth into greater vileness of lust, and more daring defiance of heaven. They sinned âexceedingly and before the Lord.â Lot had fallen into the very vortex of vice and blasphemy.
Genesis 13:14-18
The man chosen of God now stands alone. He has evinced an humble and self-renouncing spirit. This presents a suitable occasion for the Lord to draw near and speak to His servant. His works are re-assuring. The Lord was not yet done with showing him the land. He therefore calls upon him to look northward and southward and eastward and westward. He then promises again to give all the land which he saw, as far as his eye could reach, to him and to his seed forever. Abram is here regarded as the head of a chosen seed, and hence, the bestowment of this fair territory on the race is an actual grant of it to the head of the race. The term âforever,â for a perpetual possession, means as long as the order of things to which it belongs lasts. The holder of a promise has his duties to perform, and the neglect of these really cancels the obligation to perpetuate the covenant. This is a plain point of equity between parties to a covenant, and regulates all that depends on the personal acts of the covenanter. Thirdly, He announces that He will make his seed âas the dust of the earth.â This multitude of seed, even when we take the ordinary sense which the form of expression bears in popular use, far transcends the productive powers of the promised land in its utmost extent. Yet to Abram, who was accustomed to the petty tribes that then roved over the pastures of Mesopotamia and Palestine, this disproportion would not be apparent. A people who should fill the land of Canaan, would seem to him innumerable. But we see that the promise begins already to enlarge itself beyond the bounds of the natural seed of Abram. He is again enjoined to walk over his inheritance, and contemplate it in all its length and breadth, with the reiterated assurance that it will be his.
Genesis 13:18
Abram obeys the voice of heaven. He moves his tent from the northern station, where he had parted with Lot, and encamps by the oaks of Mamre, an Amorite sheik. He loves the open country, as he is a stranger, and deals in flocks and herds. The oaks, otherwise rendered by Onkelos and the Vulgate âplains of Mamre,â are said to be in Hebron, a place and town about twenty miles south of Jerusalem, on the way to Beersheba. It is a town of great antiquity, having been built seven years before Zoan (Tanis) in Egypt Numbers 13:22. It was sometimes called Mamre in Abramâs time, from his confederate of that name. It was also named Kiriath Arba, the city of Arba, a great man among the Anakim Joshua 15:13-14. But upon being taken by Kaleb it recovered the name of Hebron. It is now el-Khulil (the friend, that is, of God; a designation of Abram). The variety of name indicates variety of masters; first, a Shemite it may be, then the Amorites, then the Hittites Genesis 23:0, then the Anakim, then Judah, and lastly the Muslims.
A third altar is here built by Abram. His wandering course requires a varying place of worship. It is the Omnipresent One whom he adores. The previous visits of the Lord had completed the restoration of his inward peace, security, and liberty of access to God, which had been disturbed by his descent to Egypt, and the temptation that had overcome him there. He feels himself again at peace with God, and his fortitude is renewed. He grows in spiritual knowledge and practice under the great Teacher.
