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)

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.’”

¹³ It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise^(A) that he would be heir of the world,^(B) but through the righteousness that comes by faith.^(C)

The Certainty of God’s Promise

¹³ When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself,^{(A) 14} saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.”^[a](B)

¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead,^(A) came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.^(B)