Bible Strands
Genesis 15:5
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.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks to Abram immediately after declaring that his heir will come from his own body (Gen 15:4), and immediately before Abram's belief is credited as righteousness (Gen 15:6).
The words — Habet (הַבֶּט) is a bare imperative: "look," a command to fix the gaze, not a suggestion. Usefor (וּסְפֹר) "and count" pairs with it as an attempted act — the Hebrew sets up a task the subject cannot complete.
The thread — The star-counting image becomes the standing measure of Israel's multitude in Deuteronomy 1:10 and is recalled as the content of Abraham's faith in Hebrews 11:12 and Romans 4:18.
Why it lands — The verse asks the reader to hold two facts together without resolving them: the number is beyond counting, and the promise is already spoken as fact.
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 he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
Cross-references
- Hebrews 11:12 And so from one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
- Romans 4:18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”
- Deuteronomy 1:10 The LORD your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.
- Exodus 32:13 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.’”
- Genesis 22:17 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.
- Deuteronomy 10:22 Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
- Jeremiah 33:22 As the hosts of heaven cannot be counted and as the sand on the seashore cannot be measured, so too will I multiply the descendants of My servant David and the Levites who minister before Me.”
- 1 Chronicles 27:23 David did not count the men aged twenty or under, because the LORD had said that He would make Israel as numerous as the stars of the sky.
- Psalms 147:4 He determines the number of the stars; He calls them each by name.
- Romans 9:7 Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”