¹⁸ On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying,

¹⁵ Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, ¹⁶ and said, “^(A)By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly ^(B)multiply your ^[a]seed as the stars of the heavens and as ^(C)the sand, which is on the seashore; and ^(D)your ^[b]seed shall possess the gate of ^[c]their enemies. ¹⁸ And ^(E)in your ^[d]seed all the nations of the earth shall ^[e]be blessed, because you have ^(F)obeyed My voice.”

² And the Lord ^(A)appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; ^(B)stay in the land of which I shall tell you. ³ Live for a time in this land and ^(C)I will be with you and ^(D)bless you, for ^(E)to you and to your ^[a]descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish ^(F)the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. ^4 (G)I will multiply your ^[b]descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your ^[c]descendants all these lands; and ^(H)by your ^[d]descendants all the nations of the earth ^[e]shall be blessed, ⁵ because Abraham ^[f](I)obeyed Me and fulfilled his duty to Me, and kept My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

¹³ For ^(A)when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear an oath by no one greater, He ^(B)swore by Himself, ¹⁴ saying, “^(C)indeed I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply you.” ¹⁵ And so, ^(D)having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. ^16 (E)For people swear an oath by ^[a]one greater than themselves, and with them ^(F)an oath serving as confirmation is an end of every dispute. ^17 [b]In the same way God, desiring even more to demonstrate to ^(G)the heirs of the promise ^[c](H)the fact that His purpose is unchangeable, ^[d]confirmed it with an oath, ¹⁸ so that by two unchangeable things in which ^(I)it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to hold firmly to ^(J)the hope set before us.