“Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth! Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one are more numerous than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.

May the sovereign God ¹  bless you! May he make you fruitful and give you a multitude of descendants! ²  Then you will become ³  a large nation. ⁴ 

As for you, you meant to harm me, ¹  but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day. ² 

Little by little ¹  I will drive them out before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land.

Who ¹  can count ²  the dust ³  of Jacob, Or number ⁴  the fourth part of Israel? Let me ⁵  die the death of the upright, ⁶  and let the end of my life ⁷  be like theirs.” ⁸ 

All of these cities were fortified by high walls, gates, and locking bars; ¹  in addition there were a great many open villages. ² 

But your wives, children, and livestock (of which I know you have many) may remain in the cities I have given you.

They include the Anakites, ¹  a numerous ²  and tall people whom you know about and of whom it is said, “Who is able to resist the Anakites?”

but I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates ¹  and brought him into ²  the entire land of Canaan. I made his descendants numerous; I gave him Isaac,

The king made silver as plentiful ¹  in Jerusalem as stones; cedar was ²  as plentiful as sycamore fig trees are in the lowlands. ³ 

According to the genealogical records of their families, they had 36,000 warriors available for battle, for they had numerous wives and sons. ¹ 

All who possessed precious ¹  stones donated them to the treasury of the Lord’s temple, which was under the supervision of Jehiel the Gershonite.

Now King Solomon and all the Israelites who had assembled with him went on ahead of the ark and sacrificed more sheep and cattle than could be counted or numbered. ¹ 

There were those who said, “With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain ¹  grain in order to eat and stay alive.”

A psalm of David, written when he fled from his son Absalom. ²  Lord, how ³  numerous are my enemies! Many attack me. ⁴ 

The one who stiffens his neck ¹  after numerous rebukes ²  will suddenly be destroyed ³  without remedy. ⁴ 

At that time ¹  the Lord will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. ² 

Look at Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who gave you birth. ¹  When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, ²  but I blessed him ³  and gave him numerous descendants. ⁴ 

The Dedanites ¹  were your clients. Many coastlands were your customers; they paid ²  you with ivory tusks and ebony.

“This is what the sovereign Lord says: I will allow the house of Israel to ask me to do this for them: ¹  I will multiply their people like sheep. ²