Genesis 22:17

God swore by Himself that He would surely bless Abraham and multiply his descendants "like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore" (Genesis 22:17). It repeats the promise given here, when God told him to count the stars, now confirmed with an oath.

The promise meant Abraham's descendants would hold their enemies' cities. The Hebrew word here is sha'ar, the city gate, which in a walled town was the one way in and the place where elders heard cases, as when Boaz settled his claim to Ruth there (Ruth 4:1). Whoever held the gate held the city, its courts and its trade.

When Rebekah left to marry Isaac, her family blessed her: "May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies" (Genesis 24:60). None of them had stood on Mount Moriah, where the LORD swore this same promise to Abraham.

When Rebekah left home, Laban's household blessed her with almost these exact words about possessing the gates of their enemies (Genesis 24:60), without knowing they were repeating God's oath. Israel, a nation that took the cities of Canaan and later settled its own disputes at the gate, heard the echo.