Genesis 32:12

12 "For You said, '¹I will surely prosper you and ²make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.' "

Genesis 32:12 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 32:12

And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good
All kind of good, most certainly and constantly; so Jacob rightly interpreted the promise, "I will be with thee", ( Genesis 31:3 ) ; for the promise of God's presence includes and secures all needful good to his people; and from this general promise Jacob draws an argument for a special and particular good, the preservation of him and his family, he was now pleading for; and the rather he might hope to succeed, since the following promise was also made him: and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for
multitude;
which could not be fulfilled, if he and his family were cut off at once, as he feared; but God is faithful who has promised.

Genesis 32:12 In-Context

10 I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies.

11 "Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children.

12 "For You said, 'I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.' "

13 So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau:

14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

Cross References

• 1. Genesis 28:14
• 2. Genesis 22:17

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "do good with"
• [b]. Lit "seed"