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No.15.
"The filling up of the nations"
(Gen. 48: 19 Rotherham).
pp. 208 - 212
The family of Noah after the Flood were told to `replenish' the earth, which had this
replenishing been accompanied by grace and righteousness, would have constituted a
fullness. Alas, by the time we read to the eleventh chapter of Genesis, the evil character
of the world was made manifest at Babel, and the scattering of the people brought another
movement in the purpose of the ages to a close. Babel in Gen. 11: will yet find its
corresponding member when great Babylon comes up for judgment, but the gap formed
by the rebellion of Nimrod and the introduction of idolatry which is so closely associated
with this mighty hunter before the Lord, was filled by the calling of Abraham and the
promises made to him concerning the great nation Israel. In Gen. 48: 19 we read `his
seed shall become a multitude of nations'. It so happens that the word `multitude' occurs
earlier in this same chapter namely in verse 4, where we read:
"Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a
multitude of people" (Gen. 48: 4).
Two words are found in the Hebrew original which are here translated `multitude' and
these must be distinguished. The word translated `multitude' in verse 4 is the Hebrew
word qahal `to call' or `to assemble', but the word translated `multitude' in verse 19 is
entirely different, it is the Hebrew word melo `fullness'*.
[* - Readers who use The Companion Bible in early editions should observe that the note against
"multitude" in verse 19 should be transferred to the margin of verse 4 in the same chapter.]
Let us bring together the four passages which make the promise that Israel shall be a
multitude or company of people or nations.
"And GOD ALMIGHTY bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that
thou mayest be a multitude of people" (Gen. 28: 3).
"And God said unto him, I am GOD ALMIGHTY: be fruitful and multiply: a nation
and a company of nations shall be of thee" (Gen. 35: 11).
"Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a
multitude of people" (Gen. 48: 4).
In these passages `multitude' translates the Hebrew word qahal. When Jacob blessed
Joseph's younger son Ephraim, putting his right hand upon his head instead of upon
the head of Manasseh his elder brother, when Joseph said "Not so, my father"
(Gen. 48: 18), Jacob replied:
"I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be
great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a
multitude of nations" (Gen. 48: 19).