Originally Posted by Aristophanes

perhaps it's mankinds destiny to go out to the stars. to populate the universe so that there truly will be as many descendants of man as the sands on the sea shore.

Originally Posted by Joan of Bark

"I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore."

- Genesis 22:17

Similar statements appear in Gen 26:4 and 32:13, as well as 1 Chronicles 27:23, Nehemiah 9:23 and Jeremiah 33:22, whilst in Deuteronomy we get three statements about the Hebrews ONCE being as numerous as 'the stars in the sky' (Deut 1:10, 10:22 and 28:62).

According to ABC Science online, 2003, there are some 7.0 x 10 to the 23rd stars in our universe. Clearly God has some work to do to fulfill this prophecy.

Perhaps he meant visible stars? That doesn't work either, for the opposite reason: there are less than 10,000 visible stars from the surface of the Earth, even under the best conditions. The Hebrews were already much more numerous than that at the time of His statements.

1) So how do the 'literalists' explain these passages?

2) What is the Judaic explanation for something that would be considered a human 'turn of phrase' by most of us?

Originally Posted by Joan of Bark

You are correct. What I should have said was that the prophecy had been already fulfilled by the time of Chronicles, Nehemiah and Jeremiah, where the prophecy was also made.