too, is destined to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth at the

time of the end.

Genesis 48:4 and 19 must first of all be considered as two very

different words are translated 'multitude' here, and the marginal note in

earlier editions of The Companion Bible against verse 19 has been misplaced,

it should be transferred to verse 4:

'I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee

a multitude of people' (Gen. 48:4).

Here the word translated 'multitude' is the Hebrew qahal which means

'to assemble', 'to call' and is at times translated 'synagogue' in the LXX.

To this conception Stephen referred when he spoke of 'the church (ekklesia

"called out") in the wilderness' (Acts 7:38).  We turn back to Genesis 28:3

and we read that this promise was first of all given to Jacob when he left

home, and repeated to him on his return when he was named Israel (Gen.

35:10,11).  This promise, employing the word qahal, is made only to Jacob.

When the aged Jacob blessed Joseph and his sons he said:

'... let them grow into a multitude (Heb. rob) in the midst of the

earth' (Gen. 48:16).

Here the Hebrew word is rob, meaning abundance.

This promise echoes

the prayer of Jacob when he said:

'Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand

of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude' (Gen. 32:12).

When Moses looked on Israel after they had come out of Egypt, he said,

'The Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye

are, and bless you, as He hath promised' (Deut. 1:11), and in Deuteronomy

10:22 he reminded them:

'Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and

now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for

Israel's reduced numbers at the present time (Deut. 28:64 -67) are a

fulfilment of the threat:

'Ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven

for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the voice of the Lord thy

God' (Deut. 28:62).

We return to Genesis 48:19, where the word multitude is the Hebrew

melo.  This is the word translated 'replenish' in Genesis 1:28 and 9:1.  This

promise in Genesis 48:19 picks up the command to Adam and to Noah (see

'His seed shall become a multitude (Heb. melo) of nations' (Gen.

Rotherham reads, 'a filling up of the nations'.  Where man and the nations

have failed, Israel by grace and mercy shall ultimately succeed.  Israel is

destined to be a 'great nation' and the word great here refers not so much to

moral greatness, but to growth, expansion, augmentation, as in such

expressions as 'great lights' or a 'great city'.  Psalm 107:39 places the