Genesis 15:5

Translations

Modern

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.”

Traditional

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.

Literal

And He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall be your seed.”

Latin

Eduxitque eum foras, et ait illi: Suspice cælum, et numera stellas, si potes. Et dixit ei: Sic erit semen tuum.

Original

Hebrew

English

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.”

Notes

Genesis 15:4–6

God confirmed that the promise to Abram was for his own children. Then God showed Abram the stars as a sign of the many descendants he would have (22:17; 26:4). The apostle Paul quotes this promise in Romans 4:18 to emphasize Abram’s strong faith.

Genesis 15:1–21

God made a covenant (a special agreement) with Abram. In this covenant, God confirmed the promises he had made earlier when he summoned Abram to leave his country (12:1–3). Abram's descendants would experience a long period of slavery before God made these promises come true.

Theme notes and profiles

Abraham Isaac God’s Covenant with Abraham God’s Covenant with David God’s Covenants God’s New Covenant Infertility Promised Land Security and Obedience Symbolic Numbers

Related verses

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.
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.”
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.
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.
Psalm 147:4
He determines the number of the stars; He calls them each by name.
Romans 9:7–8
Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”
Genesis 12:2
I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
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,

Genesis 15:5

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