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THE MESSAGE

Genesis 13:15

This verse is not available in the MSG!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Canaan;   Children;   Land;   Scofield Reference Index - Faith;   Israel;   Thompson Chain Reference - Canaan, Land of;   Land;   Promised Land;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Canaanites, the;   Holy Land;   Jews, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Abraham;   Canaan;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Abraham;   Canaan;   Exodus, book of;   Genesis;   Israel;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Abraham;   Amos, Theology of;   Disciple, Discipleship;   Land (of Israel);   Matthew, Theology of;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Meekness;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Genesis;   Kings, 1 and 2;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Bethel;   Seed, Seedtime;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Heir;   Quotations;   Seed;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Lot;   Sodom;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Accommodation;   Lot (1);   Quotations, New Testament;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Aḥa (aḥai) Ii.;   Joshua, Book of;  

Devotionals:

- Faith's Checkbook - Devotion for February 12;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
for all the land which you see, I will give to you, and to your offspring forever.
King James Version
For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
Lexham English Bible
for all the land which you see I will give to you, and to your descendants, forever.
New Century Version
All this land that you see I will give to you and your descendants forever.
New English Translation
I will give all the land that you see to you and your descendants forever.
Amplified Bible
for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever.
New American Standard Bible
for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For all the land, which thou seest, will I giue vnto thee and to thy seede for euer,
Legacy Standard Bible
for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your seed forever.
Contemporary English Version
I will give you and your family all the land you can see. It will be theirs forever!
Complete Jewish Bible
All the land you see I will give to you and your descendants forever,
Darby Translation
for all the land that thou seest will I give to thee, and to thy seed for ever.
Easy-to-Read Version
All this land that you see I will give to you and your people who live after you. This will be your land forever.
English Standard Version
for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.
George Lamsa Translation
For all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your descendants forever.
Good News Translation
I am going to give you and your descendants all the land that you see, and it will be yours forever.
Christian Standard Bible®
for I will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you see.
Literal Translation
For all the land which you see I will give to you, and to your seed always.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
for all the londe that thou seist, wyll I geue vnto the and to thy sede for euer,
American Standard Version
for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
Bible in Basic English
For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your seed for ever.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For all the lande whiche thou seest, wyll I geue vnto thee, and to thy seede for euer.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
King James Version (1611)
For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seede for euer.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
for all the land which thou seest, I will give it to thee and to thy seed for ever.
English Revised Version
for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
Berean Standard Bible
For all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Y schal yyue al the lond which thou seest to thee and to thi seed, til in to with outen ende.
Young's Literal Translation
for the whole of the land which thou are seeing, to thee I give it, and to thy seed -- to the age.
Webster's Bible Translation
For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
World English Bible
for all the land which you see, I will give to you, and to your offspring forever.
New King James Version
for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants [fn] forever.
New Living Translation
I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession.
New Life Bible
For I will give all the land that you see to you and to your children and to your children's children forever.
New Revised Standard
for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
for all the land which thou art beholding - to thee, will I give it, and to thy seed unto times age-abiding;
Douay-Rheims Bible
All the land which thou seest, I will give to thee, and to thy seed for ever.
Revised Standard Version
for all the land which you see I will give to you and to your descendants for ever.
Update Bible Version
for all the land which you see, to you I will give it, and to your seed forever.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.

Contextual Overview

14After Lot separated from him, God said to Abram, "Open your eyes, look around. Look north, south, east, and west. Everything you see, the whole land spread out before you, I will give to you and your children forever. I'll make your descendants like dust—counting your descendants will be as impossible as counting the dust of the Earth. So—on your feet, get moving! Walk through the country, its length and breadth; I'm giving it all to you." 18 Abram moved his tent. He went and settled by the Oaks of Mamre in Hebron. There he built an altar to God .

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Genesis 12:7, Genesis 15:18, Genesis 17:7, Genesis 17:8, Genesis 18:18, Genesis 24:7, Genesis 26:3, Genesis 26:4, Genesis 28:4, Genesis 28:13, Genesis 35:12, Genesis 48:4, Exodus 33:1, Numbers 34:2, Numbers 34:12-29, Deuteronomy 26:2-4, Deuteronomy 34:4, 2 Chronicles 20:7, Nehemiah 9:7, Nehemiah 9:8, Psalms 37:22, Psalms 37:29, Psalms 105:9-12, Psalms 112:1, Psalms 112:2, Isaiah 63:18, Matthew 5:5, Acts 7:5

Reciprocal: Genesis 15:7 - to give Genesis 31:3 - land Genesis 46:3 - I will Genesis 50:24 - sware Exodus 3:8 - unto a good Exodus 32:13 - I will multiply Leviticus 10:15 - for ever Numbers 10:29 - the Lord Numbers 11:12 - the land Deuteronomy 1:8 - which Deuteronomy 3:27 - lift up Deuteronomy 6:10 - land Deuteronomy 9:5 - that he may Joshua 21:43 - General 1 Kings 8:34 - which thou gavest 1 Chronicles 16:18 - Unto thee 2 Chronicles 6:25 - which thou Nehemiah 9:23 - which thou Psalms 105:11 - Unto thee Jeremiah 32:22 - which Ezekiel 47:14 - lifted up mine hand Galatians 3:16 - to Hebrews 11:8 - which

Cross-References

Genesis 12:7
God appeared to Abram and said, "I will give this land to your children." Abram built an altar at the place God had appeared to him.
Genesis 13:1
So Abram left Egypt and went back to the Negev, he and his wife and everything he owned, and Lot still with him. By now Abram was very rich, loaded with cattle and silver and gold.
Genesis 13:3
He moved on from the Negev, camping along the way, to Bethel, the place he had first set up his tent between Bethel and Ai and built his first altar. Abram prayed there to God .
Genesis 13:8
Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have fighting between us, between your shepherds and my shepherds. After all, we're family. Look around. Isn't there plenty of land out there? Let's separate. If you go left, I'll go right; if you go right, I'll go left."
Genesis 13:12
So Abram left Egypt and went back to the Negev, he and his wife and everything he owned, and Lot still with him. By now Abram was very rich, loaded with cattle and silver and gold. He moved on from the Negev, camping along the way, to Bethel, the place he had first set up his tent between Bethel and Ai and built his first altar. Abram prayed there to God . Lot, who was traveling with Abram, was also rich in sheep and cattle and tents. But the land couldn't support both of them; they had too many possessions. They couldn't both live there—quarrels broke out between Abram's shepherds and Lot's shepherds. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living on the land at the time. Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have fighting between us, between your shepherds and my shepherds. After all, we're family. Look around. Isn't there plenty of land out there? Let's separate. If you go left, I'll go right; if you go right, I'll go left." Lot looked. He saw the whole plain of the Jordan spread out, well watered (this was before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah), like God 's garden, like Egypt, and stretching all the way to Zoar. Lot took the whole plain of the Jordan. Lot set out to the east. That's how they came to part company, uncle and nephew. Abram settled in Canaan; Lot settled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent near Sodom.
Genesis 28:13
Then God was right before him, saying, "I am God , the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I'm giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they'll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I'll stay with you, I'll protect you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this very ground. I'll stick with you until I've done everything I promised you."
Exodus 33:1
God said to Moses: "Now go. Get on your way from here, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt. Head for the land which I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying ‘I will give it to your descendants.' I will send an angel ahead of you and I'll drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. It's a land flowing with milk and honey. But I won't be with you in person—you're such a stubborn, hard-headed people!—lest I destroy you on the journey."
Deuteronomy 34:4
Then and there God said to him, "This is the land I promised to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with the words ‘I will give it to your descendants.' I've let you see it with your own eyes. There it is. But you're not going to go in."
Psalms 37:29
class="psalm-title"> A David Psalm Don't bother your head with braggarts or wish you could succeed like the wicked. In no time they'll shrivel like grass clippings and wilt like cut flowers in the sun. Get insurance with God and do a good deed, settle down and stick to your last. Keep company with God , get in on the best. Open up before God , keep nothing back; he'll do whatever needs to be done: He'll validate your life in the clear light of day and stamp you with approval at high noon. Quiet down before God , be prayerful before him. Don't bother with those who climb the ladder, who elbow their way to the top. Bridle your anger, trash your wrath, cool your pipes—it only makes things worse. Before long the crooks will be bankrupt; God -investors will soon own the store. Before you know it, the wicked will have had it; you'll stare at his once famous place and—nothing! Down-to-earth people will move in and take over, relishing a huge bonanza. Bad guys have it in for the good guys, obsessed with doing them in. But God isn't losing any sleep; to him they're a joke with no punch line. Bullies brandish their swords, pull back on their bows with a flourish. They're out to beat up on the harmless, or mug that nice man out walking his dog. A banana peel lands them flat on their faces— slapstick figures in a moral circus. Less is more and more is less. One righteous will outclass fifty wicked, For the wicked are moral weaklings but the righteous are God -strong. God keeps track of the decent folk; what they do won't soon be forgotten. In hard times, they'll hold their heads high; when the shelves are bare, they'll be full. God-despisers have had it; God 's enemies are finished— Stripped bare like vineyards at harvest time, vanished like smoke in thin air. Wicked borrows and never returns; Righteous gives and gives. Generous gets it all in the end; Stingy is cut off at the pass. Stalwart walks in step with God ; his path blazed by God , he's happy. If he stumbles, he's not down for long; God has a grip on his hand. I once was young, now I'm a graybeard— not once have I seen an abandoned believer, or his kids out roaming the streets. Every day he's out giving and lending, his children making him proud. Turn your back on evil, work for the good and don't quit. God loves this kind of thing, never turns away from his friends. Live this way and you've got it made, but bad eggs will be tossed out. The good get planted on good land and put down healthy roots.
Isaiah 63:18
Who Goes There? The watchmen call out, "Who goes there, marching out of Edom, out of Bozrah in clothes dyed red? Name yourself, so splendidly dressed, advancing, bristling with power!" "It is I: I speak what is right, I, mighty to save!" "And why are your robes so red, your clothes dyed red like those who tread grapes?" "I've been treading the winepress alone. No one was there to help me. Angrily, I stomped the grapes; raging, I trampled the people. Their blood spurted all over me— all my clothes were soaked with blood. I was set on vengeance. The time for redemption had arrived. I looked around for someone to help —no one. I couldn't believe it —not one volunteer. So I went ahead and did it myself, fed and fueled by my rage. I trampled the people in my anger, crushed them under foot in my wrath, soaked the earth with their lifeblood." I'll make a list of God 's gracious dealings, all the things God has done that need praising, All the generous bounties of God , his great goodness to the family of Israel— Compassion lavished, love extravagant. He said, "Without question these are my people, children who would never betray me." So he became their Savior. In all their troubles, he was troubled, too. He didn't send someone else to help them. He did it himself, in person. Out of his own love and pity he redeemed them. He rescued them and carried them along for a long, long time. But they turned on him; they grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned on them, became their enemy and fought them. Then they remembered the old days, the days of Moses, God's servant: "Where is he who brought the shepherds of his flock up and out of the sea? And what happened to the One who set his Holy Spirit within them? Who linked his arm with Moses' right arm, divided the waters before them, Making him famous ever after, and led them through the muddy abyss as surefooted as horses on hard, level ground? Like a herd of cattle led to pasture, the Spirit of God gave them rest." That's how you led your people! That's how you became so famous! Look down from heaven, look at us! Look out the window of your holy and magnificent house! Whatever happened to your passion, your famous mighty acts, Your heartfelt pity, your compassion? Why are you holding back? You are our Father. Abraham and Israel are long dead. They wouldn't know us from Adam. But you're our living Father, our Redeemer, famous from eternity! Why, God , did you make us wander from your ways? Why did you make us cold and stubborn so that we no longer worshiped you in awe? Turn back for the sake of your servants. You own us! We belong to you! For a while your holy people had it good, but now our enemies have wrecked your holy place. For a long time now, you've paid no attention to us. It's like you never knew us.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it,.... Not only so much of it as his eye could reach, but all of it, as far as it went, which way soever he looked; and this he gave him to sojourn in now where he pleased, and for his posterity to dwell in hereafter; he gave him the title to it now, and to them the possession of it for future times:

and to thy seed for ever; the meaning is, that he gave it to his posterity to be enjoyed by them until the Messiah came, when a new world would begin; and which Abram in person shall enjoy, with all his spiritual seed, after the resurrection, when that part of the earth will be renewed, as the rest; and where particularly Christ will make his personal appearance and residence, the principal seed of Abram, and will reign a thousand years; see Gill "Mt 22:32"; besides, this may be typical of the heavenly Canaan given to Abram, and all his spiritual seed, and which shall be enjoyed by them for evermore.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

- Abram and Lot Separate

7. פרזי perı̂zı̂y, Perizzi, “descendant of Paraz.” פרז pārāz, “leader,” or inhabitant of the plain or open country.

10. ככר kı̂kar, “circle, border, vale, cake, talent;” related: “bow, bend, go round, dance.” ירדן yardēn, Jardan, “descending.” Usually with the article in prose. צער tso‛ar, Tso‘ar, “smallness.”

18. ממרא mamrē', Mamre, “fat, strong, ruler.” חברון chebrôn, Chebron, “conjunction, confederacy.”

Lot has been hitherto kept in association with Abram by the ties of kinmanship. But it becomes gradually manifest that he has an independent interest, and is no longer disposed to follow the fortunes of the chosen of God. In the natural course of things, this under-feeling comes to the surface. Their serfs come into collision; and as Abram makes no claim of authority over Lot, he offers him the choice of a dwelling-place in the land. This issues in a peaceable separation, in which Abram appears to great advantage. The chosen of the Lord is now in the course of providence isolated from all associations of kindred. He stands alone, in a strange land. He again obeys the summons to survey the land promised to him and his seed in perpetuity.

Genesis 13:1-4

Went up out of Mizraim. - Egypt is a low-lying valley, out of which the traveler ascends into Arabia Petraea and the hill-country of Kenaan. Abram returns, a wiser and a better man. When called to leave his native land, he had immediately obeyed. Such obedience evinced the existence of the new power of godliness in his breast. But he gets beyond the land of promise into a land of carnality, and out of the way of truth into a way of deceit. Such a course betrays the struggle between moral good and evil which has begun within him. This discovery humbles and vexes him. Self-condemnation and repentance are at work within him. We do not know that all these feelings rise into consciousness, but we have no doubt that their result, in a subdued, sobered, chastened spirit, is here, and will soon manifest itself.

And Lot with him. - Lot accompanied him into Egypt, because he comes with him out of it. The south is so called in respect, not to Egypt, but to the land of promise. It acquired this title before the times of the patriarch, among the Hebrew-speaking tribes inhabiting it. The great riches of Abram consist in cattle and the precious metals. The former is the chief form of wealth in the East. Abram’s flocks are mentioned in preparation for the following occurrence. He advances north to the place between Bethel and Ai, and perhaps still further, according to Genesis 13:4, to the place of Shekem, where he built the first altar in the land. He now calls on the name of the Lord. The process of contrition in a new heart, has come to its right issue in confession and supplication. The sense of acceptance with God, which he had before experienced in these places of meeting with God, he has now recovered. The spirit of adoption, therefore, speaks within him.

Genesis 13:5-7

The collision. Lot now also abounded in the wealth of the East. The two opulent sheiks (elders, heads of houses) cannot dwell together anymore. Their serfs come to strife. The carnal temper comes out among their dependents. Such disputes were unavoidable in the circumstances. Neither party had any title to the land. Landed property was not yet clearly defined or secured by law. The land therefore was in common - wherever anybody availed himself of the best spot for grazing that he could find unoccupied. We can easily understand what facilities and temptations this would offer for the strong to overbear the weak. We meet with many incidental notices of such oppression Genesis 21:25; Genesis 26:15-22; Exodus 2:16-19. The folly and impropriety of quarreling among kinsmen about pasture grounds on the present occasion is enhanced by the circumstance that Abram and Lot are mere strangers among the Kenaanites and the Perizzites, the settled occupants of the country.

Custom had no doubt already given the possessor a prior claim. Abram and Lot were there merely on sufferance, because the country was thinly populated, and many fertile spots were still unoccupied. The Perizzite is generally associated with, and invariably distinguished from, the Kenaanite Genesis 15:20; Genesis 34:30; Exodus 3:8, Exodus 3:17. This tribe is not found among the descendants of Kenaan in the table of nations. They stand side by side with them, and seem therefore not to be a subject, but an independent race. They may have been a Shemite clan, roaming over the land before the arrival of the Hamites. They seem to have been by name and custom rather wanderers or nomads than dwellers in the plain or in the villages. They dwelt in the mountains of Judah and Ephraim Judges 1:4; Joshua 17:15. They are noticed even so late as in the time of Ezra Ezra 9:1. The presence of two powerful tribes, independent of each other, was favorable to the quiet and peaceful residence of Abram and Lot, but not certainly to their living at feud with each other.

Genesis 13:8-9

The strife among the underlings does not alienate their masters. Abram appeals to the obligations of brotherhood. He proposes to obviate any further difference by yielding to Lot the choice of all the land. The heavenly principle of forbearance evidently holds the supremacy in Abram’s breast. He walks in the moral atmosphere of the sermon on the mount Matthew 5:28-42.

Genesis 13:10-13

Lot accepts the offer of his noble-hearted kinsman. He cannot do otherwise, as he is the companion, while his uncle is the principal. He willingly concedes to Abram his present position, and, after a lingering attendance on his kinsman, retires to take the ground of self-dependence. Outward and earthly motives prevail with him in the selection of his new abode. He is charmed by the well-watered lowlands bordering on the Jordan and its affluents. He is here less liable to a periodical famine, and he roams with his serfs and herds in the direction of Sodom. This town and Amorah (Gomorrah), were still flourishing at the time of Lot’s arrival. The country in which they stood was of extraordinary beauty and fertility. The River Jordan, one of the sources of which is at Panium, after flowing through the waters of Merom, or the lake Semechonitis (Huleh), falls into the Sea of Galilee or Kinnereth, which is six hundred and fifty-three feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and thence descends into the basin of the Salt Sea, which is now thirteen hundred and sixteen feet beneath the same level, by a winding course of about two hundred miles, over twenty-seven threatening rapids.

This river may well be called the Descender. We do not know on what part of the border of Jordan Lot looked down from the heights about Shekem or Ai, as the country underwent a great change at a later period. But its appearance was then so attractive as to bear comparison with the garden of the Lord and the land of Egypt. The garden of Eden still dwelt in the recollections of men. The fertility of Egypt had been recently witnessed by the two kinsmen. It was a valley fertilized by the overflowing of the Nile, as this valley was by the Jordan and its tributary streams. “As thou goest unto Zoar.” The origin of this name is given in Genesis 19:20-22. It lay probably to the south of the Salt Sea, in the wady Kerak. “And Lot journeyed east” מקדם mı̂qedem. From the hill-country of Shekem or Ai the Jordan lay to the east.

Genesis 13:12

The men of Sodom were wicked. - The higher blessing of good society, then, was missing in the choice of Lot. It is probable he was a single man when he parted from Abram, and therefore that he married a woman of Sodom. He has in that case fallen into the snare of matching, or, at all events, mingling with the ungodly. This was the damning sin of the antediluvians Genesis 6:1-7. “Sinners before the Lord exceedingly.” Their country was as the garden of the Lord. But the beauty of the landscape and the superabundance of the luxuries it afforded, did not abate the sinful disposition of the inhabitants. Their moral corruption only broke forth into greater vileness of lust, and more daring defiance of heaven. They sinned “exceedingly and before the Lord.” Lot had fallen into the very vortex of vice and blasphemy.

Genesis 13:14-18

The man chosen of God now stands alone. He has evinced an humble and self-renouncing spirit. This presents a suitable occasion for the Lord to draw near and speak to His servant. His works are re-assuring. The Lord was not yet done with showing him the land. He therefore calls upon him to look northward and southward and eastward and westward. He then promises again to give all the land which he saw, as far as his eye could reach, to him and to his seed forever. Abram is here regarded as the head of a chosen seed, and hence, the bestowment of this fair territory on the race is an actual grant of it to the head of the race. The term “forever,” for a perpetual possession, means as long as the order of things to which it belongs lasts. The holder of a promise has his duties to perform, and the neglect of these really cancels the obligation to perpetuate the covenant. This is a plain point of equity between parties to a covenant, and regulates all that depends on the personal acts of the covenanter. Thirdly, He announces that He will make his seed “as the dust of the earth.” This multitude of seed, even when we take the ordinary sense which the form of expression bears in popular use, far transcends the productive powers of the promised land in its utmost extent. Yet to Abram, who was accustomed to the petty tribes that then roved over the pastures of Mesopotamia and Palestine, this disproportion would not be apparent. A people who should fill the land of Canaan, would seem to him innumerable. But we see that the promise begins already to enlarge itself beyond the bounds of the natural seed of Abram. He is again enjoined to walk over his inheritance, and contemplate it in all its length and breadth, with the reiterated assurance that it will be his.

Genesis 13:18

Abram obeys the voice of heaven. He moves his tent from the northern station, where he had parted with Lot, and encamps by the oaks of Mamre, an Amorite sheik. He loves the open country, as he is a stranger, and deals in flocks and herds. The oaks, otherwise rendered by Onkelos and the Vulgate “plains of Mamre,” are said to be in Hebron, a place and town about twenty miles south of Jerusalem, on the way to Beersheba. It is a town of great antiquity, having been built seven years before Zoan (Tanis) in Egypt Numbers 13:22. It was sometimes called Mamre in Abram’s time, from his confederate of that name. It was also named Kiriath Arba, the city of Arba, a great man among the Anakim Joshua 15:13-14. But upon being taken by Kaleb it recovered the name of Hebron. It is now el-Khulil (the friend, that is, of God; a designation of Abram). The variety of name indicates variety of masters; first, a Shemite it may be, then the Amorites, then the Hittites Genesis 23:0, then the Anakim, then Judah, and lastly the Muslims.

A third altar is here built by Abram. His wandering course requires a varying place of worship. It is the Omnipresent One whom he adores. The previous visits of the Lord had completed the restoration of his inward peace, security, and liberty of access to God, which had been disturbed by his descent to Egypt, and the temptation that had overcome him there. He feels himself again at peace with God, and his fortitude is renewed. He grows in spiritual knowledge and practice under the great Teacher.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Genesis 13:15. To thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. — This land was given to Abram, that it might lineally and legally descend to his posterity; and though Abram himself cannot be said to have possessed it, Acts 7:5, yet it was the gift of God to him in behalf of his seed; and this was always the design of God, not that Abram himself should possess it, but that his posterity should, till the manifestation of Christ in the flesh. And this is chiefly what is to be understood by the words for ever, אד עולם ad olam, to the end of the present dispensation, and the commencement of the new. עולם olam means either ETERNITY, which implies the termination of all time or duration, such as is measured by the celestial luminaries: or a hidden, unknown period, such as includes a completion or final termination of a particular era, dispensation, c. therefore the first is its proper meaning, the latter its accommodated meaning. Genesis 17:7. Genesis 21:33.


 
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