2 And I will make of you a great nation, blessing you and making your name great; and you will be a blessing:
Seeing that Abraham will certainly become a great and strong nation, and his name will be used by all the nations of the earth as a blessing?
So that on the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; in order that we through faith might have the Spirit which God had undertaken to give.
As for me, my agreement is made with you, and you will be the father of nations without end. No longer will your name be Abram, but Abraham, for I have made you the father of a number of nations. I will make you very fertile, so that nations will come from you and kings will be your offspring.
And I have been with you wherever you went, cutting off before you all those who were against you; and I will make your name great, like the name of the greatest ones of the earth.
And may God, the Ruler of all, give you his blessing, giving you fruit and increase, so that you may become an army of peoples. And may God give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed, so that the land of your wanderings, which God gave to Abraham, may be your heritage.
The Lord has given my master every blessing, and he has become great: he has given him flocks and herds and silver and gold, and men-servants and women-servants and camels and asses.
Be certain, then, that those who are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham.
I will send disease on them for their destruction, and take away their heritage, and I will make of you a nation greater and stronger than they.
And God said to him, I am God, the Ruler of all: be fertile, and have increase; a nation, truly a group of nations, will come from you, and kings will be your offspring;
That I will certainly give you my blessing, and your seed will be increased like the stars of heaven and the sand by the seaside; your seed will take the land of those who are against them; And your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, because you have done what I gave you orders to do.
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 he was given the sign of circumcision as a witness of the faith which he had before he underwent circumcision: so that he might be the father of all those who have faith, though they have not circumcision, and so that righteousness might be put to their account;
And your servant has round him the people of your selection, a people so great that they may not be numbered, and no account of them may be given. Give your servant, then, a wise heart for judging your people, able to see what is good and what evil; for who is able to be the judge of this great people?
And the king's servants came to our lord King David, blessing him and saying, May God make the name of Solomon better than your name, and the seat of his authority greater than your seat; and the king was bent low in worship on his bed.
He took his sleep stretched out like a lion, and like a she-lion: by whom will his rest be broken? May a blessing be on everyone who gives you blessing, and a curse on everyone by whom you are cursed. Then Balak was full of wrath against Balaam, and angrily waving his hands he said to Balaam, I sent for you so that those who are against me might be cursed, but now, see, three times you have given them a blessing.
And the children of Israel were fertile, increasing very greatly in numbers and in power; and the land was full of them.
Your seed will be like the dust of the earth, covering all the land to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south: you and your seed will be a name of blessing to all the families of the earth.
So it came about that when God sent destruction on the towns of the lowland, he kept his word to Abraham, and sent Lot safely away when he put an end to the towns where he was living.
And Abram, hearing that his brother's son had been made a prisoner, took a band of his trained men, three hundred and eighteen of them, sons of his house, and went after them as far as Dan. And separating his forces by night, he overcame them, putting them to flight and going after them as far as Hobah, which is on the north side of Damascus. And he got back all the goods, and Lot, his brother's son, with his goods and the women and the people.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 12
Commentary on Genesis 12 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 12
The pedigree and family of Abram we had an account of in the foregoing chapter; here the Holy Ghost enters upon his story, and henceforward Abram and his seed are almost the only subject of the sacred history. In this chapter we have,
Gen 12:1-3
We have here the call by which Abram was removed out of the land of his nativity into the land of promise, which was designed both to try his faith and obedience and also to separate him and set him apart for God, and for special services and favours which were further designed. The circumstances of this call we may be somewhat helped to the knowledge of from Stephen's speech, Acts 7:2, where we are told,
Gen 12:4-5
Here is,
Gen 12:6-9
One would have expected that Abram having had such an extraordinary call to Canaan some great event should have followed upon his arrival there, that he would have been introduced with all possible marks of honour and respect, and that the kings of Canaan should immediately have surrendered their crowns to him, and done him homage. But no; he comes not with observation, little notice is taken of him, for still God will have him to live by faith, and to look upon Canaan, even when he was in it, as a land of promise; therefore observe here,
Gen 12:10-13
Here is,
Gen 12:14-20
Here is,
Lastly, Observe a resemblance between this deliverance of Abram out of Egypt and the deliverance of his seed thence: 430 years after Abram went into Egypt on occasion of a famine they went thither on occasion of a famine also; he was fetched out with great plagues on Pharaoh, so were they; as Abram was dismissed by Pharaoh, and enriched with the spoil of the Egyptians, so were they. For God's care of his people is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.