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21 Therefore, God assured him with an oath
    that the nations would be blessed through his descendants,
that he would make his offspring as numerous as the dust of the earth,
    and that they would be exalted like the stars,
and that he would give them an inheritance extending from sea to sea,
    and from the river to the ends of the earth.[a]

Isaac and Jacob or the Birth of the Twelve Tribes[b]

22 To Isaac also, God gave the same assurance
    for the sake of Abraham his father.
23 He caused the blessing of all people and the covenant
    to rest on the head of Jacob.
He acknowledged him with his blessings
    and gave him the land as his inheritance.
He divided the land into portions
    and distributed them to the twelve tribes.

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Footnotes

  1. Wisdom of Ben Sira 44:21 From the river to the ends of the earth: i.e., from the Euphrates to the southern end of Palestine, marked by the Nile of Egypt (see Gen 15:18).
  2. Wisdom of Ben Sira 44:22 It is the remembrance of Isaac and Jacob that will be evoked to explain the ideal structure of the people of Israel.