Genesis 15:3–5

¹⁴And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.

²¹He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child shall have him become his son at the length.

⁷I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me:

³⁵Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

³⁶For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

¹RIGHTEOUS art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?

²And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

¹⁶And 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.

¹²Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

²³For an odious woman when she is married; and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress.

¹⁶And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

¹²¶ And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

²⁸Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

¹²¶ And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

²¹¶ And the Lord sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his god, they that came forth of his own bowels slew him there with the sword.

¹²Whom I have sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels:

¹¹And David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Behold, my son, which came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life: how much more now may this Benjamite do it? let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him.

¹²Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

¹⁸Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

¹⁰The Lord your God hath multiplied you, and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude.

¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

¹⁷That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

²²Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude.

²²As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.

²³¶ But David took not the number of them from twenty years old and under: because the Lord had said he would increase Israel like to the stars of the heavens.

⁴He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

⁷Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

⁸That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

²And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

¹⁰And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.

⁴And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

¹⁴And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

¹⁶And 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.