Promises to Abram^(A)

12 Now the ^(B)Lord had said to Abram:

⁴ So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. ⁵ Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and ^(J)the ^[a]people whom they had acquired ^(K)in Haran, and they ^(L)departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. ⁶ Abram ^(M)passed through the land to the place of Shechem, ^(N)as far as ^[b]the terebinth tree of Moreh. ^(O)And the Canaanites were then in the land.

^7 (P)Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, ^(Q)“To your ^[c]descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an ^(R)altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

¹⁵ for all the land which you see ^(A)I give to you and ^(B)your ^[a]descendants forever. ¹⁶ And ^(C)I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.

¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You ^(A)swore by Your own self, and said to them, ^(B)‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”

The Changeless Promise^(A)

¹⁵ Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: ^(B)Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. ¹⁶ Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of ^(C)one, ^(D)“And to your Seed,” who is ^(E)Christ. ¹⁷ And this I say, that the law, ^(F)which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God ^[a]in Christ, ^(G)that it should make the promise of no effect.