Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 12:2-3

"and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make they name great; and be thou a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." — Genesis 12:2-3 (ASV)

Thou shalt be a blessing. — More correctly, Be thou a blessing. The promises made to Abram are partly personal and partly universal, embracing the whole world. In return for all that he abandons, he is to become the founder of a powerful nation, who will honour his name and teach the inheritors of their spiritual privileges to share in their veneration for him.

But in the command to “be” or “become a blessing,” we reach a higher level. It is the glory of Abram’s faith that it was not selfish. In return for his consenting to lead the life of a stranger, he was to be the means of procuring religious privileges, not only for his own descendants, but also for all families of the earth (Hebrew, of the ground — the adâmâh).

This blessing was not for the earth as the material universe, but solely in its connection with humanity. Wherever people make their home upon it, there, through Abram, spiritual blessings will be offered them.

I will bless ... — These words indicate relations mysteriously close between Jehovah and Abram, through which the friends and enemies of the one become equally so to the other. But in the second clause, our version has not noticed an essential difference between the verbs used. They occur together again in Exodus 22:28 and are more correctly rendered there by “revile” and “curse.” One word signifies to treat lightly and contemptuously; the other, to pronounce a curse, usually in a judicial manner. We might, therefore, translate, “I will curse—pass a sentence of rejection upon—him that speaks lightly of, or reviles you.”

In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. — Some authorities translate, “shall bless themselves;” but there is a different conjugation to express this meaning, and no reason exists for forcing it upon the text.

Henceforth, Abram and the nation that originated from him were to be the intermediaries between God and humankind; accordingly, revelation was virtually confined to them. But though the knowledge of God’s will was to be given through them, it was for the benefit of all the families of every race and people distributed throughout the habitable world, the adâmâh (Romans 3:29; Romans 10:12, and elsewhere).