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Then he led him outside and told him, “Look into the heavens and count the stars, if you can count them. Such,” he continued, “will your descendants be.”

Abraham believed the Lord, who credited it to him as righteousness.[a]

And he said, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to take possession of this land.”

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 15:6 Righteousness in its general sense means the attitude with which human beings submit to the plans of God so that God the Savior can fulfill in them his purpose of freeing them from sin and rendering them righteous. St. Paul (Rom 4; Gal 3:5-9) and St. James (Jas 2:20-23) will explain the value of Abraham’s faith and righteousness: he becomes righteous in virtue of his faith, even before submitting to the ritual practice of circumcision (see Gen 17), which will be the outward sign of a faith that is to be lived interiorly. Faith, however, is not simply the acceptance of a theoretical truth; it is a principle of action that calls for a certain kind of behavior, without which the faith would be illusory and crippled (see Deut 6:25; 24:13; etc.).

He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars(A)—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring[a] be.”(B)

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.(C)

He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out(D) of Ur of the Chaldeans(E) to give you this land to take possession of it.”(F)

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 15:5 Or seed