What Does Genesis 13:15 Mean?
For all the land that you see, I will give it to you, and to your seed for the ages.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.THE KEY
The word translated “seed” also means sowing, so what is promised keeps moving beyond the person who first sees it.
THE MEANING
The verse joins what is seen to what is received: the land you see is given, and its promise reaches through your seed into the ages. Its horizon exceeds one lifetime, continuing through those who come after you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that what is given ends with the lifetime of its first recipient: the verse names a promise that continues through seed and ages.
THE ROOT
זֶרַע
zeraʿ
GROWS FROM
ז־ר־ע
z-r-ʿ
to sow, to scatter seed
The same Hebrew word holds both seed and offspring, while its root carries the action of sowing. The promise is framed as something that continues to be carried forward, not as a gift confined to the life of its first recipient.
ALSO GROWS
zāraʿ: to sow or plant
זָרַע
The verb makes the seed’s generative motion audible inside the promise to the recipient’s seed.
zeraʿ: seed or offspring
זֶרַע
The noun can name both what is planted and the descendants through whom the promise continues.
אֶתְּנֶנָּה
ʾettenennāh natan
GROWS FROM
נ־ת־ן
n-t-n
to give, set, or place
“give” in this verse is ʾettenennāh natan. The root carries giving alongside setting or placing. The gift is also a placing of the land in relation to its recipient and descendants.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: gift
מַתָּנָה
This related noun makes the act of giving visible as something received.
natun: given, set, or placed
נָתוּן
This form shows the root’s sense of placing alongside its sense of giving.
עוֹלָם
ʿolam
GROWS FROM
ע־ל־ם
ʿ-l-m
an age or long duration extending beyond the present span
“for the ages” in this verse is ʿolam. The Hebrew word opens the English “for ever” into age-spanning duration. Here that horizon stretches beyond one lifetime, alongside the seed that carries the promise forward.
ALSO GROWS
leʿolam: for an age, for ages
לְעוֹלָם
This form shows the same word extending a promise across a continuing span.
meʿolam: from of old, from ages past
מֵעוֹלָם
This form places the same age-language on the far side of the present.
THE PATTERN
The promise of land reaches beyond its first recipient, carried through seed and continuing ages.
And I will give you, and your seed after you, the land where you lodge as a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for a holding of the ages; and I will be their God.And your people shall all be aligned; they shall take hold of the land for the ages, the shoot of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be adorned.Now to Abraham and to his seed the promises were spoken. He does not say, And to seeds, as upon many, but as upon one, And to your seed, who is the Anointed One.THE THREAD
The aligned will inherit the land and pitch their tent in it for the ages.The “for ever” in both verses translates עוֹלָם (ʿolam), meaning age or ages. The psalm joins that same continuing duration to dwelling in the land, making the promise’s horizon one of ongoing habitation.
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