Genesis 12:3
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
3 (A)I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you.[a]
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- 12:3 Will find blessing in you: the Hebrew conjugation of the verb here and in 18:18 and 28:14 can be either reflexive (“shall bless themselves by you” = people will invoke Abraham as an example of someone blessed by God) or passive (“by you all the families of earth will be blessed” = the religious privileges of Abraham and his descendants ultimately will be extended to the nations). In 22:18 and 26:4, another conjugation of the same verb is used in a similar context that is undoubtedly reflexive (“bless themselves”). Many scholars suggest that the two passages in which the sense is clear should determine the interpretation of the three ambiguous passages: the privileged blessing enjoyed by Abraham and his descendants will awaken in all peoples the desire to enjoy those same blessings. Since the term is understood in a passive sense in the New Testament (Acts 3:25; Gal 3:8), it is rendered here by a neutral expression that admits of both meanings.
Genesis 22:17-18
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
17 I will bless you and make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants will take possession of the gates of their enemies,(A) 18 and in your descendants all the nations of the earth will find blessing, because you obeyed my command.”(B)
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Genesis 28:14
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and through them you will spread to the west and the east, to the north and the south. In you and your descendants all the families of the earth will find blessing.(A)
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Exodus 32:13
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying,(A) ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.’”
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