Genesis 16:10

And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
angel	מַלְאַ֣ךְ mal.'Akh	H4397	a messenger · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD	יְהוָ֔ה Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · proper noun, a title
said	וַיֹּ֤אמֶר vai.Yo.mer	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
multiply	הַרְבָּ֥ה har.Bah	H7235	to increase (in whatever respect) · verb, hiphil infinitive absolute
seed	זַרְעֵ֑ךְ zar.'Ekh	H2233	seed · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
exceedingly	אַרְבֶּ֖ה 'ar.Beh	H7235	to increase (in whatever respect) · verb, hiphil imperfect, 1st person common singular
numbered	יִסָּפֵ֖ר yi.sa.Fer	H5608	properly · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
multitude	מֵרֹֽב me.Ro	H7230	abundance (in any respect) · preposition + noun, common masculine 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

Genesis 17:20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve pri…
Psalms 83:6-7 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
Genesis 21:13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.
Genesis 21:18 Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.
Genesis 22:15-18 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
Genesis 25:12-18 Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaid, bare unto Abraham:
Genesis 21:16 And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. A…
Genesis 31:11-13 And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 16:10-14

We may suppose that the angel having given Hagar that good counsel (Gen 16:9) to return to her mistress she immediately promised to do so, and was setting her face homeward; and then the angel went on to encourage her with an assurance of the mercy God had in store for her and her seed: for God will meet those with mercy that are returning to their duty. I said, I will confess, and thou forgavest, Psa 32:5. Here is, I. A prediction concerning her posterity given her for her comfort in her present distress. Notice is taken of her condition: Behold, thou art with child; and therefore this is not a fit place for thee to be in. Note, It is a great comfort to women with child to think that they a…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 16:7

And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain--This well, pointed out by tradition, lay on the side of the caravan road, in the midst of Shur, a sandy desert on the west of Arabia-PetrÃ&brvbra, to the extent of a hundred fifty miles, between Palestine and Egypt. By taking that direction, she seems to have intended to return to her relatives in that country. Nothing but pride, passion, and sullen obstinacy, could have driven any solitary person to brave the dangers of such an inhospitable wild; and she would have died, had not the timely appearance and words of the angel recalled her to reflection and duty.

Adam Clarke on Genesis 16:10

I will multiply thy seed exceedingly - Who says this? The person who is called the Angel of the Lord; and he certainly speaks with all the authority which is proper to God.

John Gill on Genesis 16:10

And the angel of the Lord said unto her,.... The same as before, who, by what follows, appears to be Jehovah himself: I will multiply thy seed exceedingly; not that she should have many children herself, for that she had more than this one she now went with, is not certain; but that that seed she had conceived should be exceedingly multiplied, and he should have a numerous posterity, as he had twelve princes sprung from him, the heads of Arab nations: that it shall not be numbered for multitude; such the Turks are at this day, supposed to be the seed of Ishmael, Hagar's son.

The Church Fathers

It is not implausible that one who is living the life of a beginner should also be judged worthy of a blessing, for, if his progress continues toward the appropriate goal, he will arrive at perfection. But notice that when the text was talking about virtue—for it is from virtue that the true seed of Abraham comes—after God had led him outside and said to him, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars if you can count them," he had added, "So shall your descendants be." But notice that in the case of Hagar it is not said, "Your descendants will be like the stars," but only "They will not be able to be numbered for their multitude." Can you not conclude from this a difference: that the progeny of that which is perfect is luminous and that which pertains to the introductory level is not?
— Didymus the Blind, ON GENESIS 244-45

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…
Angel — A word signifying, both in the Hebrew and Greek, a “messenger,” and hence employed to denote any agent God sends forth to execute his purposes. It is used of an ordinary messenger (Job 1:14: 1 Sam.…
Beer-lahai-roi — I.e., “the well of him that liveth and seeth me,” or, as some render it, “the well of the vision of life”, the well where the Lord met with Hagar (Gen. 16:7-14). Isaac dwelt beside this well (24:62;…
Concubine — In the Bible denotes a female conjugally united to a man, but in a relation inferior to that of a wife. Among the early Jews, from various causes, the difference between a wife and a concubine was…
Communion · .Hagar — .Hagar
Ishmaelites, The · Predictions respecting: To be numerous — Predictions respecting: To be numerous
Lahai-Roi · (A well near Ka — (A well near Ka

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).

Genesis 16:10

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 16:10-14

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 16:7

Adam Clarke on Genesis 16:10

John Gill on Genesis 16:10

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Genesis 16:10

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Genesis 16:10-14

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Genesis 16:7

Adam Clarke on Genesis 16:10

John Gill on Genesis 16:10

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Genesis 16:10

Keil & Delitzsch on Genesis 16:7-12

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Genesis 16:10-12

Rashi on Genesis 16:9