The LORD brought him outside, and said, *Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.* He said to Avram, *So shall your seed be.*
As for Yishma'el, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.
For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that the LORD may bring on Avraham that which he has spoken of him.*
It happened, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Avraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
The LORD has blessed my master greatly. He has become great. He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male servants and female servants, and camels and donkeys.
Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For to you, and to your seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Avraham your father.
I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and will give to your seed all these lands. In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed,
Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers. Let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you. Blessed be everyone who blesses you.*
Your seed will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.
and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the name of the great ones who are in the earth.
Moreover the king's servants came to bless our lord king David, saying, Your God make the name of Shlomo better than your name, and make his throne greater than your throne: and the king bowed himself on the bed.
I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing.
It shall come to pass that, as you were a curse among the nations, house of Yehudah and house of Yisra'el, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Don't be afraid. Let your hands be strong.*
He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them.
You shall answer and say before the LORD your God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father; and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.