Saying: Unless blessing I shall bless thee and multiplying I shall multiply thee.
λεγων η μην ευλογων ευλογησω σε και πληθυνων πληθυνω σε
10 Church Fathers comment on this verse
As a reward for such obedience, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your seed. Notice the abundance of the blessing. It means: I will multiply your seed still more. The son slain in your intention will spread your offspring to such a multitude that it will be equal to the number of the stars and the sand.
Compare Gen 22:16-17. Someone may perhaps say that in the word “surely” there is God’s oath by Himself, for “surely” means “in truth.” This is nothing other than an affirmation of the truth. And who can be the truth, if not God? So also in the Gospel, when the Lord says, “Truly, truly, I say to you” (for example, Jn 6:26 and elsewhere), He swears by the same oath. He swears by Himself, as does the Father, since He has no higher one by whom to swear. Some, however, thought that the Son Himself was then speaking with Abraham, for Scripture says, “The Angel said to Abraham” (Gen 18). They say that the Father could in no way be an Angel, but the Son is the Angel of Great Counsel.
Two thousand years before the Nativity of Christ, nearly all people on earth had become so corrupted and depraved that scarcely one family remembered God and fulfilled His will. Even in that one family, its father, Terah, had already begun to serve strange gods (Josh 24:2).
Then the Lord, wishing to preserve the original revelation and the promise of human salvation, set apart from this family the son Abraham. He commanded him to leave his land, his kindred, and even his father, and to go to a land wholly unknown to him.
At this the Lord told Abraham that from him, Abraham, a great nation would come. Through him, and especially through his Descendant, all the tribes of the earth would be blessed (Gen 12:1-3).
Indeed, Abraham withdrew from the sinful world and settled in the land shown by God. He lived there one year, then another, and more. Yet he was old and childless, and no offspring appeared.
Abraham's wealth increased. He gained victory over enemies. He received a blessing from Melchizedek, yet he had no offspring. Thus God's promise of numerous descendants from Abraham was not fulfilled for ten years after his migration into a foreign land.
Sorrow entered his believing soul (Gen 15:1-3). The Lord encouraged him, and Abraham believed. This faith of Abraham was reckoned by God as a lofty, pious, and holy deed (Gen 15:6).
At last the Lord God gave Abraham a son by his wife Sarah. This only, longed-for son, the heir of all the wealth and promises given by God to Abraham, had scarcely grown up when the Lord demanded him for Himself.
God commanded Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice (Gen 22:2). Abraham obeyed. He took his thirteen-year-old son, wood, and fire, and for three days he walked to the appointed mountain.
In his soul Abraham had already devoted his son as a sacrifice. He had already prepared the wood, laid his son upon it, and raised the knife over him. But the Lord did not allow Isaac to come to death itself.
For such faith in God and love for Him, Abraham was granted by the Lord an oath-bound assurance that everything, everything promised by God, would certainly come to pass.
"By Myself I have sworn," God says to Abraham. "Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your seed... And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" (Gen 22:16-18).
"By Myself I have sworn," says the Lord. The Lord swears. An oath is ordinarily used in special and important cases, either to confirm statements and testimonies, or to exalt the very matter in which different persons take part.
The Lord entered into a covenant, an agreement, with Abraham. He promised him and his descendants that from Abraham's line the Savior of the world would appear, and certainly appear.
He promised that people must live constantly by faith in the Savior, and expect from Him every blessing and sufficiency in this world, and blessedness beyond the grave. To strengthen such faith, the Lord swore to Abraham.
Righteous Abraham saw many privations in his life and offered many sacrifices to God on his part. He did all this with obedience, filial love, and faith.
For such longsuffering Abraham received the promise, everything promised to him: the land and the son, numerous descendants, glory, and the blessedness of paradise.
So we also, if we desire good and peace for our soul, must live with faith in God and hope in Him. The Lord cares for us as for small children. He guides us and guards our life.
He wants us to have full trust in Him and in His word. He even swears for our sake, weak in faith as we are. But do we, His children, remain grateful to Him, our Father, for His care for us and His love for us?
says the Lord, "surely blessing I will bless your childlessness, and multiplying I will multiply your barrenness" (Gen 22:16-17).
The Apostle showed the truthfulness of Him who made the promise. For, he says, the one who promised was God, who has nothing higher than Himself. The oath served as witness, since He swore by Himself. Yet, though He both promised and confirmed it with oaths, He did not fulfill the promises at once. On the contrary, the patriarch had need of great patience. Only after a very long time did he behold the truth of the promise. The Apostle also teaches why God swore, and why He swore by Himself.
For God promised him both the inheritance of the promised land, that is, Palestine, and an innumerable multitude of people from his seed. Concerning the oath, it is written in Genesis that “the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, saying, ‘By Myself I have sworn,’ says the Lord,” and so forth (Gen 22:15-16). Then follows: “Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand by the seashore” (Gen 22:17). Men swear by God as by the higher Being. But God, having nothing higher than Himself by which to swear, swore by Himself, as has just been said. That is, by setting Himself as witness and guarantor of His promise, He thereby expressed its immutability.
When the patriarch Abraham, obeying the command of God, stretched out his hand to take the knife and slay his son Isaac, God called to him from heaven. First He restrained him from such a slaughter and said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, nor do anything to him” (Gen 22:12). Then He proclaimed that great virtue of his, his love and obedience, saying, “Now I know that you fear God, since you have not spared your beloved son for My sake” (Gen 22:12). After this He promised him, with an oath, blessing and multiplication as the reward for his virtue, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” God swore not only to Abraham, but also to David. He also swore before Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Amos (Isa 45:25; Jer 22:6?; Ezek 16:18?; Amos 6:8).
The phrase “by Himself” means by His holiness, or by His truth, or by His glory. He says, “Once I have sworn by My holiness: I will not lie to David.” And again, “The Lord has sworn in truth to David, and He will not turn from it” (Ps 88:36; Ps 131:11). “The Lord has sworn by His right hand and by His mighty arm” (Isa 62:8). Paul said that God swore by Himself because He had no one greater than Himself by whom to swear: “Since He had no one greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself.” Truly, who is greater than God? But should the phrase “He swore” be taken in its proper sense, and should we believe that God established oaths, when we hear the same God say, “But I say to you, do not swear at all” (Mt 5:34)? What need did God have of an oath to confirm His promises, when He spoke of Himself to believers as immutable truth itself? It is therefore clear that “He swore” is said of God in the same way as “He breathed,” “He planted,” “He walked,” and similar expressions, for the comprehension of our weak mind (Gen 2:7-8; Gen 3:8; see Basil the Great on Psalm 17). Whenever God wished to show men His firm and immutable decree, He was always pleased that the words “He swore” be written in His divine books. This is confirmed by the very word of oath, “surely,” that is, immutably, truly, and beyond doubt, “I will bless you and multiply you,” increasing your offspring.
In this section of chapter 6, the Apostle urges his readers to await the fulfillment of the divine promises with faith and longsuffering. As an example of constancy in hope, he sets forth Abraham, who "after he had patiently endured, obtained the promise" (v. 15).
He places the foundation of firm hope in the fact that God confirmed His promises by an oath, and that He cannot lie either in oath or in promise (v. 18). At the same time, the Apostle gives us the true understanding of an oath and of its lawful use.
"When God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself." By these words the Apostle points to what God said to Abraham after the sacrifice of Isaac: "By Myself I have sworn. Because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son, for My sake, blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your seed" (Gen 22:16-17).
"Men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of every dispute." By the greater, κατὰ τοῦ μείζονος, the Lord is meant here. This is why an oath has confirmatory force. This is why that force extends to every dispute among them, so that an oath removes every possibility of contradiction.
"Thus God, desiring to show the immutability of His counsel, interposed with an oath." To make these last words clearer, one must know that the Slavonic says a verb meaning "acted as mediator," while the Greek has ἐμεσίτευσεν, from "mediator," μεσίτης. Both mean that He became mediator through an oath.
A mediator is a person who strives to reconcile two hostile or disputing sides, or who helps negotiations between people divided by distance and mutual difference. When God mediated by an oath, it means that He placed Himself between man and Himself.
This idea is very proper to Scripture. According to its teaching, God is advocate, surety, and mediator between man and Himself. Thus Job cried out, turning to God: "Lay down a pledge for me with Yourself; who is there who will pledge himself for me?" (Job 17:3).
If God placed Himself as mediator in that unique oath when He swore by Himself, then clearly He appears as the same mediator and surety when He does not swear by Himself, but men swear by Him as the greater.
From this the true understanding of an oath becomes clear. It consists in this: when men assure one another, they call God as witness, mediator, and surety. They do this with the thought that He will help fulfill the promise and punish intentional violation or false assurance.
What impious or irreverent thing can be found in such an oath? God Himself swore, though He had no one by whom to swear except Himself. His promises, being incapable of falsehood, needed no confirmation by oath. Distrust of them would have been a crime on man's part.
Therefore an oath is all the more fitting among men. Human words can be true insofar as they are accompanied by thought of the Most High, the all-knowing God, who is the highest Truth and hates all who speak falsehood (Ps 5:6).
As soon as the remembrance of God leaves a man, his mouth and heart are filled with falsehood. Whoever in an oath calls God as mediator and surety of his promises or assurances thereby confesses a reverent remembrance of Him as the Knower of hearts.
He confesses Him as the One who knows that his words are sincere and that his promises contain no deceit. It is therefore understandable why, as the Apostle says, "an oath," used for confirmation, "ends every dispute" among men.
Nevertheless, concerning the Hebrews to whom he writes the epistle, the Apostle hopes that they are in a better state, though he speaks thus. Therefore he invites them to labor patiently for their salvation, like Abraham, who, having patiently endured, obtained the promise given him by God with an oath (Heb 6:9-15).
The Apostle next proves this truth, that steadfastness in faith and hope leads to the obtaining of the promises, by an example from Abraham's life. God promised Abraham that He would grant him a great posterity. Abraham, constantly hoping in this promise, finally received what had been promised, after death; cf. Heb 11:12; Jn 8:59. That is, he became the father of all believers, the progenitor of the true and blessed seed. This, properly speaking, is what God promised him.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 10 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS