nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted.” ¹ 

None of the seven had children. Finally, the woman died too.

And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, ¹  heirs according to the promise.

God had told him, “Through Isaac descendants will carry on your name,” ¹ 

He ¹  answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.

There were seven brothers. The first one married, ¹  and when he died he had no children.

The second married her and died without any children, and likewise the third.

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.

He presented them with another parable: ¹  “The kingdom of heaven is like a person who sowed good seed in his field.

So the slaves ¹  of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from?’

“We are descendants ¹  of Abraham,” they replied, ²  “and have never been anyone’s slaves! How can you say, ³  ‘You will become free’?”

I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. ¹  But you want ²  to kill me, because my teaching ³  makes no progress among you. ⁴ 

But God spoke as follows: ‘Your ¹  descendants will be foreigners ²  in a foreign country, whose citizens will enslave them and mistreat them for four hundred years. ³ 

Against hope Abraham ¹  believed ²  in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations ³  according to the pronouncement, ⁴  “so will your descendants be.” ⁵ 

This means ¹  it is not the children of the flesh ²  who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants.

Just ¹  as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of armies ²  had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have resembled Gomorrah.” ³ 

Why then was the law given? ¹  It was added ²  because of transgressions, ³  until the arrival of the descendant ⁴  to whom the promise had been made. It was administered ⁵  through angels by an intermediary. ⁶ 

The field is the world and the good seed are the people ¹  of the kingdom. The weeds are the people ²  of the evil one,

“Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and father children ¹  for his brother.’ ² 

Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children he left his wife to his brother.