⁵ Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and ^(A)count the ^(B)stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, ^(C)“So shall your ^(D)descendants be.”

¹² Therefore from one man, and him as good as ^(A)dead, were born as many as the ^(B)stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

¹⁸ who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ^(A)“So shall your descendants be.”

¹⁰ The Lord your God has multiplied you, ^(A)and here you are today, as the stars of heaven in multitude.

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.’ ”

¹⁷ blessing I will ^(A)bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants ^(B)as the stars of the heaven ^(C)and as the sand which is on the seashore; and ^(D)your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.

²² Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude.

²² As ^(A)the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I ^(B)multiply the descendants of David My servant and the ^(C)Levites who minister to Me.’ ”

²³ But David did not take the number of those twenty years old and under, because ^(A)the Lord had said He would multiply Israel like the ^(B)stars of the heavens.