that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies.
World English Bible
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that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies.
World English Bible
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Genesis 22:17-18 and 26:4 promise Abraham's and Isaac's descendants will be as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand on the shore. Deuteronomy 4:23-27 threatens that if they make a graven image, Yahweh will scatter them and leave them "few in number among the heathen."
Critical scholarship: Leans toward reconciliation.
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"Genesis 22:17 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/genesis/22/17?version=WEB (retrieved 26 August 2026).