No mark, it is not about me either. It is about what is actually being said in Genesis in the Abrahamic Covenant.
As Stephen stated in his defence before he was stoned to death, that God had spoken to Abraham the first recorded part of the Abrahamic Covenant, as found in Genesis,12:1-3, while he was still in the city of Ur in Babylon probably when he was around 50-52 years of age and he left the land of Babylon shortly afterwards and travelled with his father in his father's household to Haran where Terah again set up his household at Haran. It was not until Abraham had set up his own household, servants and flocks over the next 20-23 years that Abraham then left his father's household/presence and began his journey south towards the Land of Canaan where Abraham then spent the rest of his days.
This covenant is recorded in Genesis.12:1-3: -
1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to an earth that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves."
In Abraham’s first recorded encounter with God, God tells Abraham: -
(a.) to leave the land where you are living,
(b.) to leave his relatives,
(c.) to leave your father’s house,
(d.) to go to a “righteous” earth that he, God, would show him,
(e.) that Abraham’s descendants would become a great nation,
(f.) that God himself would bless him, (g.) that God would make Abraham’s name great and
(h.) because of that he would be a blessing,
(i.) that he (God) would bless those that bless him
(j.) and curse those who curse him, and
(k.) that Abraham would become a blessing for all the families of the earth.
Then in Genesis.12:7b God said, "To your descendants I will give this earth."
In Abraham’s second recorded encounter with God, God undertakes to give Abraham’s descendants the earth using the same Hebrew word “hā·’ā·reṣ”.
Then in Genesis.13:14-17:-
14 The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; 15 for all of the earth which you see I will give to your descendants{seed} for a period of undefined time. 16 I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your descendants also can be counted. 17 Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, in order for Me to give it.
In Abraham’s third recorded encounter with God, God promises to give Abraham’s descendants all the land of the earth around Abraham, that he had/could/would see, and He commands Abraham to go and walk through all the land. God also promises to make all his descendants many, such that their number would be like the dust of the earth and impossible, or at the very least, difficult to count. The promise is to give the land to Abraham’s descendants for a defined period of time where the start and finish of being given the land where Abraham has walked is not defined. The actual description of this land is found in Genesis.15:17-21.
It is important to note that in the third encounter, the same Hebrew word “hā·’ā·reṣ” is traditional translated as land, then as Earth and as then as earth again. If the context of the second and third use dictates that “hā·’ā·reṣ” should be understood to have the meaning of “the earth” then why has the first “hā·’ā·reṣ” in the Genesis.13:14-17 been translated as “land”?
Marks, you have said that you have done a word study on “hā·’ā·reṣ”, but I would suggest that you have not gone deeply enough in the word study to understand the importance of what I am posting.
Shalom
