Genesis 13:16

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. ¹ 

Genesis 32:12

32:12 But you ²  said, ‘I will certainly make you prosper ³  and will make ⁴  your descendants like the sand on the seashore, too numerous to count.’” ⁵ 

Isaiah 48:19

48:19 Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand, ⁶ 

and your children ⁷  like its granules.

Their name would not have been cut off

and eliminated from my presence. ⁸ 

Romans 9:27-28

9:27 And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, “Though the number of the children ⁹  of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved, 9:28 for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly.” ¹⁰ 

Hebrews 11:12

11:12 So in fact children ¹¹  were fathered by one man – and this one as good as dead – like the number of stars in the sky and like the innumerable grains of sand ¹²  on the seashore. ¹³ 

¹ tn The translation “can be counted” (potential imperfect) is suggested by the use of יוּכַל (yukhal, “is able”) in the preceding clause.

² tn Heb “But you, you said.” One of the occurrences of the pronoun “you” has been left untranslated for stylistic reasons.

³ tn Or “will certainly deal well with you.” The infinitive absolute appears before the imperfect, underscoring God’s promise to bless. The statement is more emphatic than in v. 9.

⁴ tn The form is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the nuance of the preceding verb forward.

⁵ tn Heb “which cannot be counted because of abundance.” The imperfect verbal form indicates potential here.

⁶ tn Heb “like sand”; NCV “as many as the grains of sand.”

⁷ tn Heb “and the issue from your inner parts.”

⁸ tn Heb “and his name would not be cut off and would not be destroyed from before me.”

⁹ tn Grk “sons.”

¹⁰ tc In light of the interpretive difficulty of this verse, a longer reading seems to have been added to clarify the meaning. The addition, in the middle of the sentence, makes the whole verse read as follows: “For he will execute his sentence completely and quickly in righteousness, because the Lord will do it quickly on the earth.” The shorter reading is found largely in Alexandrian mss (Ì⁴⁶ א* A B 6 1506 1739 1881 pc co), while the longer reading is found principally in Western and Byzantine mss (א² D F G Ψ 33 Ï lat). The longer reading follows Isa 10:22-23 (LXX) verbatim, while Paul in the previous verse quoted the LXX loosely. This suggests the addition was made by a copyist trying to make sense out of a difficult passage rather than by the author himself.

¹¹ tn Grk “these”; in the translation the referent (children) has been specified for clarity.

¹² tn Grk a collective “the sand.”

¹³ sn An allusion to Gen 22:17 (which itself goes back to Gen 15:5).