Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
14. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth. The sum of the whole is this, Whatever the Lord had promised to Abraham, Jacob transmitted to his sons. Meanwhile it behoved the holy man, in reliance on this divine testimony, to hope against hope; for though the promise was vast and magnificent, yet, wherever Jacob turned himself, no ray of good hope shone upon him.
We have here Jacob upon his journey towards Syria, in a very desolate condition, like one that was sent to seek his fortune; but we find that, though he was alone, yet he was not alone, for the Father was with him, Joh 16:32.
Commenting on Genesis 28:10-15
And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth,.... Innumerable, see Gen 13:16, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west; or "the sea", the Mediterranean sea, which was west of the land of Canaan: and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; not of the whole world, but of the land of Canaan: the meaning is, that his...