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.