^a Gr. εἰς κατάσχεσιν. Rather than for a possession, could this instead mean by conquest or seizure? Cf. κατέχω in Matthew 21:38: Come, let's kill him and seize [κατάσχωμεν] his inheritance. God's promise to childless Abraham would then be in a manner that was itself a promise of descendants. Even by the time of Jacob and Joseph, Abraham's descendants only numbered seventy-five (7:14), so he was not strong enough to take the land himself. His descendants had to first grow and multiply (7:17).