Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore, were fathered by one man, and him as good as dead.
Parallel Translations
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Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore, were fathered by one man, and him as good as dead.
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And therfore spronge therof one (and of one which was as good as deed) so many in multitude as the starres of the skye and as the sond of the see shore which is innumerable.
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And therefore sprang there of one, euen of one which was dead, so many as the starres of the skie in multitude, and as the land of the sea shore which is innumerable.
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Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (21)
Passages linked to Hebrews 11:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 22:17 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.
- Genesis 32:12 You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which can’t be counted because there are so many.’ ”
- Genesis 15:5 Yahweh brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So your offspring will be.”
- Hosea 1:10 Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured or counted; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’
- Jeremiah 33:22 As the army of the sky can’t be counted, and the sand of the sea can’t be measured; so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant and the Levites who minister to me.’ ”
- Genesis 26:4 I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and will give all these lands to your offspring. In your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed,
- Exodus 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”
- Isaiah 10:22 For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.
- Revelation 20:8 and he will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
- Deuteronomy 1:10 Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as the stars of the sky for multitude.
- Deuteronomy 28:62 You will be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude, because you didn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice.
- Joshua 11:4 They went out, they and all their armies with them, many people, even as the sand that is on the seashore in multitude, with very many horses and chariots.
- Judges 7:12 The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like locusts for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand which is on the seashore for multitude.
- 1 Samuel 12:5 He said to them, “Yahweh is witness against you, and his anointed is witness today, that you have not found anything in my hand.” They said, “He is witness.”
- 2 Samuel 17:11 But I counsel that all Israel be gathered together to you, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that you go to battle in your own person.
- 1 Kings 4:20 Judah and Israel were numerous as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry.
- 1 Chronicles 27:23 But David didn’t take the number of them from twenty years old and under, because Yahweh had said he would increase Israel like the stars of the sky.
- Nehemiah 9:23 You also multiplied their children as the stars of the sky, and brought them into the land concerning which you said to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.
- Isaiah 48:19 Your offspring also would have been as the sand and the descendants of your body like its grains. His name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.”
- Romans 4:17-19 As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were. Besides hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.” Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
- Romans 9:27 Isaiah cries concerning Israel, “If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 12. Therefore sprang there even of one, etc. He…
12. Therefore sprang there even of one, etc. He now also reminds the Jews, that it was by faith that they were the descendants of Abraham; for he was as it were half dead, and Sarah his wife, who had been barren in the flower of her age, was now sterile, being far advanced in years. Sooner then might oil be expected to flow from a stone, than a nation to proceed from them: and yet there sprang from them an innumerable multitude. If now the Jews are proud of their origin, let them consider what it was. Whatever they are, everything is doubtless to be ascribed to the faith of Abraham and Sarah. It hence follows, that they cannot retain and defend the position they have acquired in any other way than by faith.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain As unlikely to bear children, as if she had…
As unlikely to bear children, as if she had been stark dead.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him…
12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
Ver. 12. As the stars, &c.] The seed of Abraham (saith one) are of two sorts. Some are visible members of a Church, yet have earthly hearts, dry and barren as the sand. Others as the stars of heaven, of spiritual hearts, minding things above.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Because of this faith of Abraham and Sarah, and…
Because of this faith of Abraham and Sarah, and the fruit of it in conceiving and bringing forth Isaac, was laid the foundation of a numerous seed by God’s promise; from Abraham, a hundred, and Sarah, ninety years old, and barren, and both dead as to procreation, Rom 4:19, there were begotten a vast and unbounded seed, as the stars in the firmament, or the sand on the sea shore; and amongst them the teeming blessing, the one eminent Seed of Abraham, the Messiah, in whom all nations were to be blessed. Within four hundred years from the birth of Isaac, this seed increased to above six hundred thousand fighting men, besides women and children, and after increased to a stupendous greatness, according to the promise, Gen 13:16; 15:5; Exo 12:47; 1Ch 21:5,6.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain These words acquaint us with that gratuitous remuneration and…
These words acquaint us with that gratuitous remuneration and gracious reward which God gave Abraham and Sarah, as the fruit of the faith, namely, the blessing of a numerous posterity; there sprang of them, and both of them, as good as dead, with reference to the procreation of children, a numerous issue like the stars of heaven, and the sands of the sea.
Hence learn, That the God of nature, at his own pleasure, works things above the power of nature in its ordinary efficacy and operations; by weak and dead means he often produces mighty effects.
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Learn, 2. That whatever difficulties and oppositions lie in the way of the accomplishing of God’s promises, they shall have an assured accomplishment on God’s part, if faith be kept up in lively exercise on our part.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain These all died in faith,.... Not all the seed…
These all died in faith,.... Not all the seed of Abraham, but all the believers in the preceding verses, excepting Enoch, particularly the three patriarchs, with Sarah; these died a corporeal death, which is common to all, to the righteous, and to the wicked; and yet saints die not as other men; they die in faith, having the grace itself, which being once implanted, can never be lost; and sometimes in the exercise of it, as these believers did: they died in the faith of their posterity inheriting the land of Canaan, and in the faith of the promised Messiah, and in the believing views of the heavenly glory; and so to die is comfortable to themselves, and a confirmation of the truth of religion to others, and is very precious, desirable, and gainful. It may be rendered, "according to faith"; they died according to the life of faith they lived, and the doctrine of faith they professed, being the Lord's both living and dying.
Not having received the promises; the things promised, the land of Canaan, the Messiah, and the blessings of the Gospel dispensation; they had the promises of these things, and though they were not fulfilled in their days, they believed they would be fulfilled, and died in the faith of them:
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having seen them afar off; the things themselves in the promise; as Abraham saw the going forth of his posterity out of Egypt, after they had been afflicted four hundred years, and saw the day of Christ at a greater distance still, Gen 15:13.
And were persuaded of them, and embraced them; they had a full assurance of faith, that what was promised would be fulfilled; and they took a kind of possession of them before hand, as Abraham did of the land of Canaan, by sojourning in it; as did also Isaac and Jacob; and all of them by faith embraced the Messiah, and dealt with, and laid hold upon his blood, righteousness, sacrifice, and grace, by which they were saved, as New Testament saints are.
And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth; for they sojourned in the land of Canaan, as in a strange land, as the saints do in this world; see Heb 11:9. And they were pilgrims, travelling through this world to the heavenly country, and they confessed themselves to be such, Gen 47:9 nor are believers ashamed to own and confess their mean estate in this world; for it is only with respect to earth, and earthly things, that they are strangers and pilgrims, and only while they are on earth; and it is therefore but for a little time that they are so, ere long they will be at home, and know as they are known.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain As it were dead - Till his strength was…
As it were dead - Till his strength was supernaturally restored, which continued for many years after.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 12. Him as good as dead] According to…
Verse 12. Him as good as dead] According to nature, long past the time of the procreation of children. The birth of Isaac, the circumstances of the father and mother considered, was entirely supernatural; and the people who proceeded from this birth were a supernatural people; and were and are most strikingly singular through every period of their history to the present day.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Therefore sprang there even of one - From a…
Therefore sprang there even of one - From a single individual. What is observed here by the apostle as worthy of remark, is, that the whole Jewish people sprang from one man, and that, as the reward of his strong faith he was made the father and founder of a nation.
And him as good as dead - So far as the subject under discussion is concerned, To human appearance there was no more probability, that he would have a son at that period of life, than that the dead would have.
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So many as the stars in the sky ... - An innumerable multitude. This was agreeable to the promise; Gen 15:5; Gen 22:17. The phrases used here are often employed to denote a vast multitude, as nothing appears more numerous than the stars of heaven, or than the sands that lie on the shores of the ocean. The strength of faith in this case was, that there was simple confidence in God in the fulfillment of a promise where all human probabilities were against it. This is, therefore, an illustration of the nature of faith. It does not depend on human reasoning; on analogy; on philosophical probabilities; on the foreseen operation of natural laws; but on the mere assurance of God - no matter what may be the difficulties to human view, or the improbabilities against it.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Hid as dead: dead in a manner in that…
Hid as dead: dead in a manner in that respect, and incapable of having children by Sara [Sarah]. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Et hoc emortuo: the ordinary Greek copies have, Greek: kai tauta nenek romenou; i.e. secundum hæc, or in this respect dead, being incapable of having children by Sara.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain as good as dead--literally, "deadened"; no longer having, as…
as good as dead--literally, "deadened"; no longer having, as in youth, energetic vital powers.
stars . . . sand-- (Gen 22:17).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. Therefore sprang there—And now comes the point that…
12. Therefore sprang there—And now comes the point that renders these events and characters most illustrious to every Hebrew memory. From this miraculous point sprang his chosen race. The Messianic race, like the Messiah himself, had a supernatural birth. Abraham was that Christ might be; and Sarah was the ancestress of the blessed mother of Jesus.
Even of one—From one fountain head, Abraham, all the diverging streams of the tribes sprang.
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Dead—And so from a divinely energized source. Israel was miracle-born. Every Hebrew read in the narrative proof that he was a son of God. The human race was born from Adam; again from Noah; the Jewish race from energized Abraham.
Multitude—Forming the twelve tribes, and even now spread through all the earth.
Stars… sand—The most natural images in primitive times of a number beyond enumeration.
So in old Herodotus, the oracle is made to say, “I know the number of the sand and the measures of the sea.” And so God said to Abraham, (Gen_22:17,) “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. as the stars … as the sand] Gen_22:17;…
12. as the stars … as the sand] Gen_22:17; Deu_1:10.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12) The stars of the sky.—Better, the stars of…
(12) The stars of the sky.—Better, the stars of the heaven. (See Gen_15:5; Gen_22:17.)
And as the sand.—“And as the sand by the seashore, which is innumerable” (Gen_22:17). With the first words of the verse compare Rom_4:19.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 12. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him…
12. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead. From an old man, a hundred years old, whose reproductive powers were dead, a people. As the stars of the sky in multitude. See Deut. 1:10. These figures are used to express a vast multitude.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 11:12 this one man who was as good as…
11:12 this one man who was as good as dead: Abraham was very old, yet he became the source for a whole nation. Faith involves believing that God is able to answer his promises seemingly out of nothing. • like the stars . . . and the sand: See Gen 22:17. God fulfilled the promise (Exod 1:7).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.