Genesis 13:14-17

13:14 After Lot had departed, the Lord said to Abram, ¹  “Look ²  from the place where you stand to the north, south, east, and west. 13:15 I will give all the land that you see to you and your descendants ³  forever. 13:16 And I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone is able to count the dust of the earth, then your descendants also can be counted. ⁴  13:17 Get up and ⁵  walk throughout ⁶  the land, ⁷  for I will give it to you.”

Genesis 15:7

15:7 The Lord said ⁸  to him, “I am the Lord ⁹  who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans ¹⁰  to give you this land to possess.”

Joshua 24:3

24:3 but I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates ¹¹  and brought him into ¹²  the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous; I gave him Isaac,

Nehemiah 9:8

9:8 When you perceived that his heart was faithful toward you, you established a ¹³  covenant with him to give his descendants ¹⁴  the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites. You have fulfilled your promise, ¹⁵  for you are righteous.

¹ tn Heb “and the Lord said to Abram after Lot separated himself from with him.” The disjunctive clause at the beginning of the verse signals a new scene.

² tn Heb “lift up your eyes and see.”

³ tn Heb “for all the land which you see to you I will give it and to your descendants.”

⁴ tn The translation “can be counted” (potential imperfect) is suggested by the use of יוּכַל (yukhal, “is able”) in the preceding clause.

⁵ tn The connective “and” is not present in the Hebrew text; it has been supplied for purposes of English style.

⁶ tn The Hitpael form הִתְהַלֵּךְ (hithallekh) means “to walk about”; it also can carry the ideas of moving about, traversing, going back and forth, or living in an area. It here has the connotation of traversing the land to survey it, to look it over.

⁷ tn Heb “the land to its length and to its breadth.” This phrase has not been included in the translation because it is somewhat redundant (see the note on the word “throughout” in this verse).

⁸ tn Heb “And he said.”

⁹ sn I am the Lord. The Lord initiates the covenant-making ceremony with a declaration of who he is and what he has done for Abram. The same form appears at the beginning of the covenant made at Sinai (see Exod 20:1).

¹⁰ sn The phrase of the Chaldeans is a later editorial clarification for the readers, designating the location of Ur. From all evidence there would have been no Chaldeans in existence at this early date; they are known in the time of the neo-Babylonian empire in the first millennium b.c.

¹¹ tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹² tn Or “through.”

¹³ tn Heb “the” (so NAB).

¹⁴ tn Heb “seed.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “your words.”