Bible Strands
Genesis 28:14
Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks to Jacob in a vision at Bethel, as Jacob flees Esau and rests his head on a stone. This is the third major reissue of the Abrahamic covenant, now addressed to the grandson.
The words — פָּרַץ (parats, H6555), "you will spread out," is a violent verb meaning to burst or break through, not to drift. Paired with עָפָר (aphar, H6083), "dust," it frames the offspring as both innumerable and forceful.
The thread — The same promise recurs in Genesis 12:3, 18:18, and 22:18, each time tied to "all the families/nations of the earth" being blessed through the offspring.
Why it lands — The blessing is corporate and unconditional; it flows through a line rather than around one. The reader is placed inside a promise that outlasts any single life and does not depend on Jacob's performance.
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 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.
Cross-references
- Genesis 12:3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
- Genesis 18:18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and through him all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
- Genesis 22:18 And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
- Genesis 13:16 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.
- Genesis 26:4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed,
- Acts 3:25 And you are sons of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers when He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed.’
- Genesis 13:14 After Lot had departed, the LORD said to Abram, “Now lift up your eyes from the place where you are, and look to the north and south and east and west,
- Galatians 3:8 The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and foretold the gospel to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
- Genesis 32:12 But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”
- Genesis 35:11 And God told him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation—even a company of nations—shall come from you, and kings shall descend from you.