¹⁶ I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.^(A)

¹⁴ Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you^(A) will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south.^(B) All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.^[a](C)

¹² But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand^(A) of the sea, which cannot be counted.^(B)’”

¹⁶ Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace^(A) and may be guaranteed^(B) to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.^{(C) 17} As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”^[a](D) He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life^(E) to the dead and calls^(F) into being things that were not.^(G)

¹⁸ Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations,^(H) just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”^[b](I)

⁸ Your servant is here among the people you have chosen,^(A) a great people, too numerous to count or number.^(B)

¹³ Remember^(A) your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self:^(B) ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars^(C) in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land^(D) I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’”

¹⁷ I will surely bless you^(A) and make your descendants^(B) as numerous as the stars in the sky^(C) and as the sand on the seashore.^(D) Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,^(E)

⁵ He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars^(A)—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring^[a] be.”^(B)