And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
Thou shalt spread abroad, [Hebrew, uwpaaratstaa (H6555)] - margin, break forth; literally, thou shalt spread, thou shalt disperse thyself; thou shalt spread abroad as a people or flock, by an increase of numbers (cf. Exodus 1:12; Isaiah 54:3).
To the west, [Hebrew, yaamaah (H3220)] - literally, seaward, to the Mediterranean sea, which is on the west coast of Palestine. On the use of this term has been founded an objection against the Mosaic authorship of this book-that it implies the writer to have been a resident in Canaan. But according to Gesenius ('Hebrew Grammar'), 'Canaan was the home of the Hebrew language, which was substantially spoken by the Canaanite or Phoenician races who inhabited Palestine before the immigration of Abraham and his descendants, by whom it was transplanted into Egypt, and brought with them again to Canaan.'
And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. See the note at Genesis 22:17, where it was shown that while Abraham was assured at first that he, individually, should be a blessing to the nations after the sacrifice of Isaac, the blessing is altered-in thy seed. But the promise is repeated to Jacob here as their seed and his seed. The word "seed" is used here collectively for descendants. But see on the passage referred to, as to the great probability of the patriarchs possessing some knowledge of a personal Saviour. The Niphal conjunction is used in the utterance of these promises three times (Genesis 12:3; Genesis 18:18; and in this passage); while the Hithpael occurs twice (Genesis 22:18; Genesis 26:4), 'shall bless themselves.'
Hence, founding on this latter conjugation, Le Clerc interprets the prediction as meaning that all nations should employ this formula as a blessing-`God bless you as he blessed Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their posterity,'-an interpretation so utterly inconsistent with the solemn manner and frequent repetition of the announcement, as must ensure its rejection by every intelligent and serious mind.
Berthold's view of these words is equally inadmissible-namely, that 'all the families of the earth (land)' denote the various tribes of Canaan, the blessing upon whom was, that, instead of being destroyed, they should be associated with the Jews. The true and full import of the words is given by the apostles Peter (Acts 3:25-26) and Paul (Galatians 3:8; Galatians 3:16).