Genesis 17:20

God chose the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that don’t exist, that he might bring to nothing the things that exist,

God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth.

Be fruitful and multiply. Increase abundantly in the earth, and multiply in it.”

You make him ruler over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet:

For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he desires.

Yahweh’s angel said to her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, that they will not be counted for multitude.”

Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him with your hand. For I will make him a great nation.”

By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.

I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing.

These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their villages, and by their encampments: twelve princes, according to their nations.

God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will come out of your body.

The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.

You also multiplied their children as the stars of the sky, and brought them into the land concerning which you said to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.

He blesses them also, so that they are multiplied greatly. He doesn’t allow their livestock to decrease.

Yahweh’s blessing brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.

It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant, and one by the free woman.

But as then, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.

God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.”

I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she will be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her.”

I will also make a nation of the son of the servant, because he is your child.”

He left that place, and dug another well. They didn’t argue over that one. He called it Rehoboth. He said, “For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

Your offspring 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 offspring, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken of to you.”

These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before any king reigned over the children of Israel.

But Yahweh was with Joseph, and showed kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

Who can count the dust of Jacob, or count the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous! Let my last end be like his!”

Now, Yahweh God, let your promise to David my father be established; for you have made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude.

Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is his reward.

For Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it a waste, who formed it to be inhabited says: “I am Yahweh. There is no other.

Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured or counted; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’

For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls,

In the past, you were not a people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature became its name.

But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

He will be like a wild donkey among men. His hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. He will live opposed to all of his brothers.”

Your name will no more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies.

They blessed Rebekah, and said to her, “Our sister, may you be the mother of thousands of ten thousands, and let your offspring possess the gate of those who hate them.”

The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.

I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and will give all these lands to your offspring. In your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed,

May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a company of peoples,

You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which can’t be counted because there are so many.’ ”

The name of the second, he called Ephraim: “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

God saw the children of Israel, and God was concerned about them.

“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘If a woman conceives, and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days; as in the days of her monthly period she shall be unclean.

“ ‘I will have respect for you, make you fruitful, multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.

You will be blessed above all peoples. There won’t be male or female barren among you, or among your livestock.

You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock.

Yahweh will grant you abundant prosperity in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you.

Your servant is among your people which you have chosen, a great people, that can’t be numbered or counted for multitude.

But Yahweh was gracious to them, and had compassion on them, and had respect for them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, and he didn’t cast them from his presence as yet.

There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.

Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.

So Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys.

“I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David, my servant,

I will establish my covenant with you. Then you will know that I am Yahweh;

He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I answered, “Lord Yahweh, you know.”

to show mercy toward our fathers, to remember his holy covenant,

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.

These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar.

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.

God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring may also be counted.

Hagar bore a son for Abram. Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you.

Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.

God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the wilderness, and as he grew up, became an archer.

Now this is the history of the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s servant, bore to Abraham.

As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.