Bible Strands
Genesis 12:7
Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks to Abram at the Oak of Moreh at Shechem, the first theophany to a named individual in Genesis. Abram has just arrived in Canaan (v. 6), where the Canaanites still dwell.
The words — יֵרָ֤א (yeraʾ), Niphal of רָאָה, "to be seen," marks the first divine appearance to a patriarch in the narrative. זֶרַע (zeraʾ), "seed/offspring," is the promised recipient of the land — singular, not plural.
The thread — Genesis 17:8 restates the promise as "eternal possession" to "you and your descendants"; Genesis 13:15 extends it to "all the land that you see." Genesis 17:1 repeats the appearance formula, now with the title El Shaddai.
Why it lands — The promise is deferred to a future seed rather than granted to Abram personally, and his response is an altar — worship without a question. The reader is asked to hold the tension between what is promised and what is not yet given.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.
Cross-references
- Genesis 17:8 And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”
- Genesis 13:15 for all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.
- Genesis 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.
- Genesis 18:1 Then the LORD appeared to Abraham by the Oaks of Mamre in the heat of the day, while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent.
- Galatians 3:16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, “and to seeds,” meaning many, but “and to your seed,” meaning One, who is Christ.
- Genesis 13:4 to the site where he had built the altar. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
- Psalms 105:9 the covenant He made with Abraham, and the oath He swore to Isaac.
- Genesis 13:18 So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the Oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.
- Genesis 26:25 So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there. His servants also dug a well there.
- Genesis 32:30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”