By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
Parallel translations
- KJV By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
- BSB By faith he dwelt in the promised land as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
- NKJV By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
- NASB By faith he lived as a stranger in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;
- NLT And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Abraham lived as a foreigner in the very land God had promised him, dwelling in tents alongside Isaac and Jacob who shared the same promise. Faith holds God's promise even while still waiting for its fulfillment.
Overview
Though the land was promised to him, Abraham never owned it, living instead as a sojourner in tents (Genesis 12–35). His tent-dwelling pictures the pilgrim character of faith, which clings to God's word amid present incompleteness. Isaac and Jacob inherited the same promise and the same waiting, reminding believers that God's people in every age live by hope in what is not yet seen, fulfilled in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Gen 12:8He left from there to go to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh and called on Yahweh’s name.
- Gen 13:18Abram moved his tent, and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to Yahweh.
- Gen 13:3He went on his journeys from the South even to Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,
- Acts 7:5–6He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his offspring after him, when he still had no child.
- Heb 6:17In this way God, being determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath;
- Gen 18:9They asked him, “Where is Sarah, your wife?” He said, “See, in the tent.”
- Gen 48:3–4Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,
- Gen 26:3–4Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For I will give to you, and to your offspring, all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
- Gen 35:27Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (which is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac lived as foreigners.
- Gen 28:4and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you, and to your offspring with you, that you may inherit the land where you travel, which God gave to Abraham.”
- Gen 17:8I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God.”
- Gen 28:13–14Behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, “I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your offspring.
- Gen 18:1–2Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.
- Gen 25:27The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.
- Gen 18:6Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly prepare three seahs of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.”
- Gen 23:4“I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
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