Exodus 32:13

13 Remember the men who served you -- Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. You promised with an oath to them and said, 'I will make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky. I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised them, and it will be theirs forever.'"

Exodus 32:13 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 32:13

Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants
The covenant he made with them, the promise he had made unto them, with an oath annexed to it:

to whom thou swarest by thine own self;
which he did, because he could swear by no greater; and for the confirmation of his covenant and promise, see ( Genesis 22:16 )

and saidst unto them;
for what was said to Abraham was repeated and confirmed to Isaac and Jacob:

I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven;
multitudes of which are out of sight, and cannot be seen with the naked eye, nor numbered:

and all this land that I have spoken of;
the land of Canaan, then inhabited by several nations:

will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever;
as long as they are a people, a body politic, and especially while obedient to the divine will; but should they be now cut off, this promise would become of no effect: this is the great argument Moses makes use of, and the most forcible one.

Exodus 32:13 In-Context

11 But Moses begged the Lord his God and said, "Lord, don't let your anger destroy your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with your great power and strength.

12 Don't let the people of Egypt say, 'The Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt for an evil purpose. He planned to kill them in the mountains and destroy them from the earth.' So stop being angry, and don't destroy your people.

13 Remember the men who served you -- Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. You promised with an oath to them and said, 'I will make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky. I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised them, and it will be theirs forever.'"

14 So the Lord changed his mind and did not destroy the people as he had said he might.

15 Then Moses went down the mountain, and in his hands he had the two stone tablets with the Agreement on them. The commands were written on both sides of each stone, front and back.