¹¹ And may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, multiply you a thousand times more and bless you as he promised!

¹⁷ I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants^[a] beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies.

⁴ I will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars of the sky, and I will give them all these lands. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

²⁷ Whenever Aaron and his sons bless the people of Israel in my name, I myself will bless them.”

³ But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God let you live to see a hundred times as many people as there are now! But why, my lord the king, do you want to do this?”

¹² But God told Balaam, “Do not go with them. You are not to curse these people, for they have been blessed!”

¹³ Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.^[a] You bound yourself with an oath to them, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. And I will give them all of this land that I have promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever.’”

⁵ Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”