to do or make · conjunction + verb, qal, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
great
גָּד֔וֹלga.Dol
H1419
great (in any sense) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
nation
לְג֣וֹיle.Goy
H1471
a foreign nation · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
bless
וַאֲבָ֣רֶכְךָ֔va.'a.Va.rekh.kha
H1288
to kneel · conjunction + verb, piel, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
make
וַאֲגַדְּלָ֖הva.'a.ga.de.Lah
H1431
to be (causatively make) large (in various senses · conjunction + verb, piel infinitive construct, 1st person common singular
name
שְׁמֶ֑ךָshe.Me.kha
H8034
an appellation · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
great
גָּדַלgâdal
H1431
to be (causatively make) large (in various senses
blessing
בְּרָכָֽהbe.ra.Khah
H1293
benediction · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Samuel 7:9 And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like u…
Galatians 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Genesis 18:18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
Genesis 17:4-6 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Genesis 28:3-4 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;
Genesis 35:11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come…
Genesis 26:4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the…
Genesis 46:3 And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 12:1-3
We have here the call by which Abram was removed out of the land of his nativity into the land of promise, which was designed both to try his faith and obedience and also to separate him and set him apart for God, and for special services and favours which were further designed. The circumstances of this call we may be somewhat helped to the knowledge of from Stephen's speech, Act 7:2, where we are told, 1. That the God of glory appeared to him to give him this call, appeared in such displays of his glory as left Abram no room to doubt the divine authority of this call. God spoke to him afterwards in divers manners; but this first time, when the correspondence was to be settled, he appeared…
I will make of thee a great nation - i.e., The Jewish people; and make thy name great, alluding to the change of his name from Abram, a high father, to Abraham, the father of a multitude.
John Gill on Genesis 12:2
And I will make of thee a great nation,.... In a literal sense, as the people of the Jews were that descended from him, and in a spiritual sense believers in all ages and of all nations, that walk in the steps of the faith of Abram, who are his children, and are blessed with him:
and I will bless thee; not only with temporal blessings, but principally with spiritual ones, since Abram in person had no share of the land of Canaan; even with the adoption of children and friendship with God; with justification by the imputed righteousness of Christ, which blessedness came upon him when uncircumcised; with a large measure of faith, and every other grace; with the sanctification of the Spirit, an…
And I will make of thee a great nation. Hitherto Moses has related what Abram had been commanded to do; now he annexes the promise of God to the command; and that for no light cause. For as we are slothful to obey, the Lord would command in vain, unless we are animated by a superadded confidence in his grace and benediction. Although I have before alluded to this, in the history of Noah, it will not be useless to inculcate it again, for the passage itself requires something to be said; and the repetition of a doctrine of such great moment ought not to seem superfluous. For it is certain that faith cannot stand, unless it be founded on the promises of God. But faith alone produces obedience.…
The Church Fathers
As for the promise to make of him "a great nation," is it necessary to give a meaning other than the literal one? Because it is clear that it was realized in its historical sense. But, having become a people, it is truly great when it is adorned with virtues. And it is manifest that when the progress becomes more important in the soul, there is established in it a grandeur which is no longer earthly but heavenly. And this soul is a blessing that is not simply offered but realized, because the name is made great and becomes celebrated because it is accompanied by virtue and by that beauty which confers a spiritual blessing. It is worth more to have a good name than to have riches.
The scope of the promise is extraordinary: "I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and magnify your name." Not only will I place you at the head of a great nation and cause your name to be great, but as well, "I will bless you, and you will be blessed." I will favor you with so much blessing, he says, that it will last for all time. "You will be blessed" to such an extent that everyone will be anxious to thrust themselves into your company in preference to the highest honor. See how God right from the beginning foretold to him the honor he would later confer upon him. "I will make you a great nation," he said; "I will magnify your name; I will bless you, and you will be blessed." Hence the Jews too found in the patriarch grounds for self-importance and endeavored to establish their kinship with him in the words "We are the children of Abraham." For you to learn, however, that on the basis of their evil ways they are in fact unworthy of such kinship, Christ says to them, "If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham." John too, the son of Zechariah, when those anxious to be baptized flocked to the Jordan, said to them, "Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that benefits repentance, and don't presume to say, 'We have Abraham for our father.' I tell you, after all, that God can raise up children to Abraham even from these stones." Do you see how great his name was in everyone's estimation? For the time being, however, before the sequel the just man's God-fearing qualities are demonstrated in the way he believed the words coming from God and accepted without demur everything, difficult though it seemed.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Abraham — Father of a multitude, son of Terah, named (Gen. 11:27) before his older brothers Nahor and Haran, because he was the heir of the promises. Till the age of seventy, Abram sojourned among his kindred…
Church — Derived probably from the Greek kuriakon (i.e., “the Lord’s house”), which was used by ancient authors for the place of worship. In the New Testament it is the translation of the Greek word ecclesia,…
Messiah — (Heb. mashiah), in all the thirty-nine instances of its occurring in the Old Testament, is rendered by the LXX. “Christos.” It means anointed. Thus priests (Ex. 28:41; 40:15; Num. 3:3), prophets (1…
Prophecy — Or prediction, was one of the functions of the prophet. It has been defined as a “miracle of knowledge, a declaration or description or representation of something future, beyond the power of human…
Abraham · Divine — Divine
Call · .OF ABRAHAM — .OF ABRAHAM
Canaan · .Promised to Abraham and his seed — .Promised to Abraham and his seed
Canaanites, The · Abraham: Called to dwell amongst — Abraham: Called to dwell amongst
Communion · .Abraham — .Abraham
Courage · .Abraham, in leaving his fatherland — .Abraham, in leaving his fatherland
Haran · .Abraham leaves, by divine command — .Abraham leaves, by divine command
Jews, The · Their national greatness — Their national greatness
The life of Abraham, from his call to his death, consists of four stages, the commencement of each of which is marked by a divine revelation of sufficient importance to constitute a distinct epoch. The first stage (Gen 12-14) commences with his call and removal to Canaan; the second (Gen 15-16), with the promise of a lineal heir and the conclusion of a covenant; the third (Gen 17-21), with the establishment of the covenant, accompanied by a change in his name, and the appointment of the covenant sign of circumcision; the fourth (Gen 22-25:11), with the temptation of Abraham to attest and perfect his life of faith. All the revelations made to him proceed from Jehovah; and the name Jehovah is…
make you famous (literally make your name great): Abram received the fame sought by the builders of Babel (see 11:4 and study note). • and you will be a blessing (or so that you will be a blessing): This clause is a command in Hebrew, but it is also a promise conditioned upon Abram’s obedience to God’s command (12:1): “Go . . . so that you will be a blessing. Be a blessing, so that I can bless and curse others.”
Obedience To God · Exemplified: Abram — Exemplified: Abram
Promotion · .Abraham — .Abraham
Religion · .Abraham — .Abraham
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
