The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
God Renews the Promise to Abram
Genesis 13:14–18 — God Renews the Promise to Abram. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
14After Lot had departed, the LORD said to Abram, “Now lift up your eyes from the place where you are, and look to the north and south and east and west,
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’a·ḥă·rê lō·wṭ hip·pā·reḏ- mê·‘im·mōw Yah·weh ’ā·mar ’el- ’aḇ·rām nā śā ‘ê·ne·ḵā min- ham·mā·qō·wm ’ă·šer- ’at·tāh šām ū·rə·’êh ṣā·p̄ō·nāh wā·neḡ·bāh wā·qê·ḏə·māh wā·yām·māh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-YHWH said to Abram — after Lot had-separated-himself from-with-him — lift-up now your-eyes and-see from the-place where you are-there: northward and-southward and-eastward and-seaward.”
Where the English smooths the original
The Lord said this unto Abram, to comfort him now when he was alone, and in a worse soil than Lot had chosen.
We may also feel sure that as Lot was deteriorating, so Abram was drawing nearer to God, and walking more closely with Him; and hence the fuller assurance of the Divine blessing.
Lift up now thine eyes. Perhaps a studied reference to the act of Lot, which Moses describes in similar language (ver. 10), and possibly designed to suggest the greater satisfaction which would be imparted to the soul of Abram by the survey about to be made.The Pulpit Commentary catches the echo the Verifier confirms — v. 14 and v. 10 share Lot, nāsāʼ, ʻayin, and rāʼâh. The shared verbs are common words, so this is a deliberate intratextual echo (a reversed pattern), not a quotation.
From this we may see that the separation of Lot was in accordance with the will of God, as Lot had no share in the promise of God; though God afterwards saved him from destruction for Abram's sake.
15for all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kî ’eṯ- kāl- hā·’ā·reṣ ’ă·šer- ’at·tāh rō·’eh ’et·tə·nen·nāh lə·ḵā ū·lə·zar·‘ă·ḵā ‘aḏ- ‘ō·w·lām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“For all the-land that you are-seeing — to-you I-will-give-it and-to-your-seed unto forever.”
Where the English smooths the original
God gave Abram the right to it, though not the actual possession of it, until the time that God appointed; as God gave the right of the kingdom to David, but not the possession till Saul’s death.JFB is answering Stephen’s objection in Acts 7:5 — that God gave Abram “none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on.”
Meaning a long time, and till the coming of Christ as in Ex 12:14,21:6, De 15:17 and spiritually this refers to the true children of Abram born according to the promise, and not according to the flesh, which are heirs of the true land of Canaan.
he gave him the title to it now, and to them the possession of it for future times
The gift to Abram is one of promise and prediction. The gift to his “seed” was to be fulfilled in history.
16I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if one could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·śam·tî ’eṯ- zar·‘ă·ḵā ka·‘ă·p̄ar hā·’ā·reṣ ’ă·šer ’im- ’îš yū·ḵal lim·nō·wṯ ’eṯ- ‘ă·p̄ar hā·’ā·reṣ gam- zar·‘ă·ḵā yim·mā·neh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-I-will-set your-seed like-the-dust of-the-earth — so-that if a-man is-able to-count the-dust of-the-earth, also your-seed shall-be-counted.”
Where the English smooths the original
I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth — That is, they shall increase incredibly, and, take them all together, shall be such a multitude as no man can number.
An hyperbolical expression denoting the great multitude of Abram's posterity, as they were in the days of Solomon, and as they will be in the latter day; and especially as this may respect all the spiritual seed of Abram, Jews and Gentiles
Abram’s descendants are elsewhere compared in number to the stars, Genesis 15:5 , Genesis 22:17 , Genesis 26:4 ; and to the sand which is upon the seashore, Genesis 22:17 , Genesis 32:12 .
As the land shall be great for thy people, thy posterity, so thy people shall be great or innumerable for the landQuoting Lange — the land and the seed are measured against each other; each is sized to the other.
17Get up and walk around the land, through its length and breadth, for I will give it to you.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
qūm hiṯ·hal·lêḵ bā·’ā·reṣ lə·’ā·rə·kāh ū·lə·rā·ḥə·bāh kî ’et·tə·nen·nāh lə·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“Arise, walk-about in-the-land, to-its-length and-to-its-breadth — for to-you I-will-give-it.”
Where the English smooths the original
In these journeyings Abram is now to have the tranquil pleasure of feeling that his seed will inherit each beautiful spot that he visits, and that he is taking possession of it, and hallowing it for them.
Arise, walk through the land — Enter and take possession, for thy posterity; survey the parcels, and it will appear better than upon a distant prospect.
To be understood not as a literal direction, but as an intimation that he might leisurely survey his inheritance with the calm assurance that it was his.
God bade him walk through the land, not to think of fixing in it, but expect to be always unsettled, and walking through it to a better Canaan.
18So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the Oaks of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’aḇ·rām way·ye·’ĕ·hal way·yā·ḇō way·yê·šeḇ bə·’ê·lō·nê mam·rê ’ă·šer bə·ḥeḇ·rō·wn šām way·yi·ḇen- miz·bê·aḥ Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-Abram moved-his-tent and-came and-settled by-the-oaks of-Mamre that are-in-Hebron — and-he-built there an-altar to-YHWH.”
Where the English smooths the original
the renewal of the promise was acknowledged by Abram by a fresh tribute of devout gratitude.
A third altar is here built by Abram. His wandering course requires a varying place of worship. It is the Omnipresent One whom he adores.
From its connexion with Abram it derives its modern name El Ḥalil , “the friend,” an abbreviation of Ḥalil er-raḥman , “the friend of the Merciful One, i.e. God,” the designation of Abram. Cf. Isaiah 41:8 ; James 2:23 .
Mamre was an Amorite, then living, and as he was confederate with Abram, it was apparently with the consent of the Amorites, and by virtue of the treaty entered into with them, that Abram made this oak-grove one of his permanent stations.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The oracle is dated by a departure. “And YHWH said to Abram after Lot had separated himself” — the conjunctive waw on the divine name (וַיהוָה) binds the speaking to the parting so tightly that the one seems to wait on the other. Poole reads the timing pastorally: God “said this unto Abram, to comfort him now when he was alone, and in a worse soil than Lot had chosen.” Keil & Delitzsch read it covenantally — and notice, as the Hebrew does, that ’āmar (“said”) here is not joined to wayyērāʼ (“he appeared”): this was “a mental, inward assurance,” a word with no recorded theophany. From that silence K&D draws a hard conclusion: “the separation of Lot was in accordance with the will of God, as Lot had no share in the promise.” The deepest stroke of the verse, though, is an echo, and the Verifier confirms the shared diction: v. 14 and v. 10 share Lot, nāsāʼ (“lift”), ʻayin (“eye”), and rāʼāh (“see”) — common verbs, no quotation, so a deliberate intratextual reversal, not a citation. In v. 10 Lot “lifted up his eyes” and chose the well-watered plain by sight. Now God commands Abram: “lift up your eyes.” The Pulpit Commentary catches it exactly — “Perhaps a studied reference to the act of Lot… and possibly designed to suggest the greater satisfaction which would be imparted to the soul of Abram.” The same organ that ruined the one by coveting blesses the other by gift.
Two promises, given in fused, emphatic Hebrew. First the land: “all the land that you are seeing — to-you I-will-give-it” (אֶתְּנֶנָּה, one word: verb, subject, object). The reach exceeds the eye, and the commentators know it. JFB raises the objection — Abram “could see but a little part of the land” — and answers that God “gave him all that he saw, but not only that.” Behind both stands Stephen’s sharper objection in Acts 7:5, that God “gave him none inheritance in it”; JFB’s reply distinguishes right from possession: “God gave Abram the right to it, though not the actual possession of it, until the time that God appointed.” Then the seed: “like the dust of the earth” (kaʻăphar hāʼāreṣ) — Benson’s “such a multitude as no man can number,” and the Hebrew stages the impossibility in its grammar, the active limnôt (“to count”) answered by the passive yimmāneh (“shall be counted”). Gill already pushes the seed past the flesh to “all the spiritual seed of Abram, Jews and Gentiles.” Over the word “forever” (עַד־עוֹלָם) the voices converge on a single qualification: Geneva — “a long time, and till the coming of Christ… the true children of Abram born according to the promise”; K&D, quoting Calvin — the perpetuity “took its end in Christ,” and “through Him the whole earth becomes Canaan.”
The promise turns to a command: “Arise, walk about in the land” (הִתְהַלֵּךְ, the Hithpael of hālak — to range to and fro, the very stem used of walking with God). Was this a legal act of taking possession (the Targum, in Gill: “making in it a possession, which in civil law was done by walking”) or a gift of confidence (the Pulpit Commentary: “an intimation that he might leisurely survey his inheritance with the calm assurance that it was his”)? Either way Henry hears its pilgrim note: God bade him walk through it “not to think of fixing in it, but expect to be always unsettled, and walking through it to a better Canaan.” And then the obedient response (v. 18): Abram tented (the verb coined from “tent”), came, and settled (wayyēšeb) by the oaks of Mamre in Hebron — K&D’s “central point of his subsequent stay.” There he “built an altar to YHWH.” His third in the land, Barnes counts, for “his wandering course requires a varying place of worship. It is the Omnipresent One whom he adores.” JFB makes the altar the unit’s last word and its true climax: “the renewal of the promise was acknowledged by Abram by a fresh tribute of devout gratitude.” Promise answered by praise — the pattern Henry presses: “When God meets us with gracious promises, he expects that we should attend him with humble praises.”
Tested against the rule that Scripture alone is the final authority, three things in this unit ask to be weighed — offered as a reading to be checked, not a verdict to be trusted. First, sight is the snare and faith is the sequel. Lot “lifted up his eyes” and chose by what looked best, and walked toward Sodom; Abram is told to lift up his eyes only after he has already surrendered the choice — and is given everything. The same act of seeing damns the grasping man and blesses the yielded one; the difference is not the eyes but whose word governs them. Second, the land is gift before it is task. The verb is repeated three times (vv. 15, 17) — “I will give it” — and the walking through it is not earning but receiving, taking title to what is already granted. Yet Scripture’s own honesty (Acts 7:5; Hebrews 11:9, 13) is that Abram died owning a grave and a promise, “a stranger and pilgrim” — which forces the “forever” open: the inheritance the patriarch actually possessed by faith was not the soil but the God who gave it. Third, every renewed promise here ends at an altar. The unit does not close on real estate; it closes on worship. The shape of faith in this passage is: God speaks, faith looks, faith walks, faith builds an altar. That last is the part most easily skipped and least dispensable.
Lot lifted his eyes and chose a plain; Abram lifted his eyes and received a kingdom — sight serves the man whose seeing is governed by the Word.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The deliberate echo that organizes the whole episode: in v. 10 Lot “lifted up his eyes and saw,” and chose the plain of Jordan toward Sodom; in v. 14 God commands Abram, “lift up now your eyes… and see.” The Pulpit Commentary names it — “a studied reference to the act of Lot, which Moses describes in similar language.” One man’s sight grasps and forfeits; the other’s sight waits and is given. The Verifier confirms the shared diction (Lot, nāsāʼ, ʻayin, rāʼâh); because the verbs are common and there is no quotation, the link is held as a deliberate echo within one scene — structural, not verbal.
Genesis 13:10 · Genesis 13:14
basis: shared lexemes (Verifier): H3876 Lôwṭ (30 vv), H5375 nāsāʼ (612 vv), H5869 ʻayin (827 vv), H7200 rāʼâh (1200 vv). Downgraded from “verbal”: the three shared verbs are common and there is no quotation — this is a deliberate intratextual <em>echo</em> within a single scene (marked by the recurring name Lôwṭ), i.e. a repeated narrative pattern reversed, not a citation. The Verifier itself returns structural/thematic
This oracle is the second of a chain of restatements of the one promise: the land to Abram and his seed. Genesis 12:7 first gives it; 13:15 enlarges it (“to you and to your seed forever”); 17:8 makes it an “everlasting possession.” K&D ties this verse forward to 17:8 explicitly. The Verifier records the shared verbal spine across the chain — zeraʻ (“seed”), nāthan (“give”), and (with 17:8) ʻôlām (“forever”).
Genesis 12:7 · Genesis 13:15 · Genesis 15:18 · Genesis 17:8
basis: shared lexemes (Verifier): with 12:7 — H2233 zeraʻ, H7200 rāʼâh, H5414 nâthan; with 15:18 — H2233 zeraʻ, H5704 ʻad, H5414 nâthan; with 17:8 — H2233 zeraʻ, H5769 ʻôwlâm, H5414 nâthan. All are common words; the link is the recurring covenant <em>pattern</em> (seed + land + give), not a quotation
The dust-simile for Abram’s innumerable seed reappears, nearly verbatim, when God renews the same promise to Jacob: “your seed shall be as the dust of the earth.” Cambridge flags the parallel (“For this simile cf. Genesis 28:14”). The image runs in a set with “stars of heaven” (15:5) and “sand of the seashore” (22:17). The Verifier confirms the shared dust-and-seed language.
Genesis 13:16 · Genesis 28:14
basis: shared lexemes (Verifier): H6083 ʻâphâr (103 vv) + H2233 zeraʻ (205 vv) — the pairing of these two words in a promise-of-multitude is a fixed Genesis motif; both words are moderately common, so this is a thematic/structural recurrence, not a rare quotation
The settling “by the oaks of Mamre at Hebron” (v. 18) plants Abram where the rest of his story will unfold: it is at Mamre that the allies muster to rescue Lot (14:13), at Mamre that the three visitors come (18:1), at Hebron that Sarah is buried and the cave of Machpelah bought (23:17–19), and to Hebron that Jacob returns to Isaac (35:27). K&D notes Abram “made this place the central point of his subsequent stay in Canaan.” The Verifier links these by the shared proper names.
Genesis 13:18 · Genesis 14:13 · Genesis 18:1 · Genesis 23:19 · Genesis 35:27
basis: shared lexemes (Verifier): H4471 Mamrêʼ (in only 10 vv) and H2275 Chebrôwn (66 vv); H436 ʼêlôwn (oak, in only 9 vv). The rarity of the proper name Mamrêʼ (10 occurrences total) makes its recurrence a hard verbal/onomastic link, not a coincidence
The promise “to you and to your seed” (v. 15) is the very text Paul argues from in Galatians 3:16: “He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but… ‘And to your seed,’ who is Christ.” The Genesis collective singular zeraʻ is read christologically by the New Testament. Held honestly: this is a cross-Testament link — Greek New Testament reading Hebrew — so it cannot rest on a shared Strong’s number, and the Verifier returns none. Paul’s reading is an inspired interpretation of the singular noun, not a lexical identity; weigh it as apostolic exegesis, which is why it is flagged rather than asserted as a verbal match.
Genesis 13:15 · Genesis 22:18 · Galatians 3:16
basis: no shared original-language lexeme (Verifier) — Greek↔Hebrew cannot share a Strong’s number. The connection is Paul’s own christological reading of the singular <em>zeraʻ</em> (“seed”); real and apostolic, but interpretive, so left flagged rather than claimed as a verbal quotation
The land-grant “to you and to your seed” (vv. 15, 17) is read by Paul not as real estate but as the seed-bed of a far larger inheritance: “the promise to Abraham and his seed that he would be heir of the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Romans 4:13). Keil & Delitzsch, citing Calvin, draws the same line from the Hebrew side — through Christ “the whole earth becomes Canaan.” Held honestly: this is a cross-Testament link (Greek New Testament expanding a Hebrew land-promise), so it can share no Strong’s number and the Verifier returns none; it is a structural/theological development of the promise, not a verbal quotation, and Paul’s leap from “the land” to “the world” is interpretive — weigh it as apostolic exposition.
Genesis 13:15 · Genesis 13:17 · Romans 4:13
basis: no shared original-language lexeme (Verifier) — Greek↔Hebrew, so no Strong’s overlap is possible and none is claimed. The link is structural: the same covenant land-promise is taken up and universalized in Romans 4:13 (“heir of the world”). Not tiered verbal, since cross-Testament links cannot be, and there is no quotation of the Genesis wording
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
“To your seed” (v. 15) is spoken to a childless man as a promise of countless descendants “like the dust of the earth” (v. 16) — and the New Testament reads the singular noun down to a single point: “‘to your seed,’ who is Christ” (Galatians 3:16). The multitude and the One are not rivals; the innumerable seed is gathered up in, and inherits through, the one Seed. Gill already reaches for it, stretching the dust-promise to “all the spiritual seed of Abram, Jews and Gentiles.” The dust and the stars become, in the gospel, the children of Abraham “by faith” (Galatians 3:7, 29).
Genesis 13:15 · Genesis 13:16 · Galatians 3:16 · Galatians 3:29
The voices will not let “forever” (עַד־עוֹלָם, v. 15) rest in Canaan alone. Keil & Delitzsch, citing Calvin, says the perpetuity “took its end in Christ. Through Christ the promise has been exalted from its temporal form to its true essence; through Him the whole earth becomes Canaan.” Geneva reads the same: the land is given “till the coming of Christ… the true children of Abram born according to the promise.” The patriarch who could only walk the land and never own it (Acts 7:5) was “looking for a city… whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:9–10) — the inheritance Christ secures for the meek who “shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).
Genesis 13:15 · Genesis 13:17 · Hebrews 11:9 · Matthew 5:5 · Romans 4:13
Abram settles, yet keeps a tent (vv. 17–18); he is given a land, yet must walk through it as a stranger; and his response to the renewed promise is to build “an altar to YHWH.” Hebrews makes him the pattern of faith that “dwelt in tents” while waiting for the city to come (Hebrews 11:9–10, 13) — the shape of a life that owns the promise and not yet the possession, and worships in the gap. This is a figural reading of the pilgrim-with-an-altar; the New Testament draws the pilgrim line itself, while the altar pointing to Christ’s sacrifice is the older, widely-held typology of patriarchal worship, offered to be tested against the text.
Genesis 13:17 · Genesis 13:18 · Hebrews 11:9 · Hebrews 11:13 · Hebrews 13:10
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
The unit is Genesis 13:14–18 (the directory id reads “Genesis_13-14,” but meta.ref_start/ref_end scope it to 13:14–18, the renewal of the promise after Lot’s departure). The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Named voices are quoted verbatim from public-domain commentaries on BibleHub, attributed in place — Ellicott, Henry, Barnes, Jamieson–Fausset–Brown, Poole, Gill, Geneva Study Bible, Cambridge Bible, the Pulpit Commentary, Benson, and Keil & Delitzsch. (Spurgeon’s verse-by-verse work is the Psalms’ Treasury of David; he wrote no Genesis commentary, so he is not quoted here.) The Hebrew is the Masoretic tradition; the literal renderings, the “where the English smooths the Hebrew” notes, the parsing glosses, and all ⚙ synthesis are this tool’s own fallible work — check them against a lexicon (BDB, HALOT) and grammar.
On cross-references: every internal (Hebrew↔Hebrew) thread carries the Verifier’s computed basis, with the shared Strong’s lexemes and their corpus frequency named. Where the shared word is a genuinely rare proper/onomastic name (Mamre, 10 vv; the oak ʼêlôwn, 9 vv) and there is no plausible coincidence, the link is tiered verbal — confirmed; where it is a recurring covenant pattern or an intratextual echo built from common words (seed, give, dust, eyes, see) it is tiered structural/thematic — confirmed and claims no quotation. The Lot’s-eyes echo (13:10↔13:14) was deliberately downgraded from verbal to structural on this rule: though the scene-internal name Lot recurs, the binding words are common verbs and nothing is quoted. The one cross-Testament link (Genesis 13:15 → Galatians 3:16) is left flagged on purpose: a Greek New Testament reading of a Hebrew noun cannot share a Strong’s number, so the connection is Paul’s inspired christological exegesis of the singular zeraʻ — real, but interpretive, not a verbal identity. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)