Genesis associates the “seed” promise most immediately with the patriarch’s natural descendants, a select group of whom would inherit the promised land (e.g., Gen 28:13–14). Elsewhere, references to the “stars” and “dust” focus on the promise of land and on the old covenant nation of Israel (Exod 32:13; Deut 1:10; 10:22; Neh 9:23)—the land that would be lost and the nation that would dwindle to a small remnant through the curse of exile (Deut 28:62; cf. Isa 48:18–19). Furthermore, later OT texts,
Page 9