Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
I called him alone - translate, 'I called him when he was but one' (Ezekiel 33:24). The argument is, the same God who had so blessed 'one' individual as to become a mighty nation (Genesis 12:1; Genesis 22:17), can also increase and bless the small remnant of Israel, both that left in the Babylonian captivity, and that left in the present and latter days (Zechariah 14:2); "the residue" (Zechariah 13:8-9).