Ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude - This was the promise God made to Abraham, Genesis 15:5, Genesis 15:6; and Moses considers it now as amply fulfilled. But was it really so? Many suppose the expression to be hyperbolical; and others, no friends to revelation, think it a vain empty boast, because the stars, in their apprehension, amount to innumerable millions. Let us consider this subject. How many in number are the stars which appear to the naked eye? for it is by what appears to the naked eye we are to be governed in this business, for God brought Abraham forth abroad, i. e., out of doors, and bade him look towards heaven, not with a telescope, but with his naked eyes, Genesis 15:5. Now I shall beg the objector to come forth abroad, and look up in the brightest and most favorable night, and count the stars - he need not be terrified at their abundance; the more they are, the more he can count; and I shall pledge myself to find a male Israelite in the very last census taken of this people, Numbers 26, for every star he finds in the whole upper hemisphere of heaven. The truth is, only about 3,010 stars can be seen by the naked eye in both the northern and southern hemispheres; and the Israelites, independently of women and children, were at the above time more than 600,000. And suppose we even allow that, from the late discoveries of Dr. Herschel and others with telescopes which have magnified between 35 and 36,000 times, there may be 75 millions of stars visible by the help of such instruments, which is the highest calculation ever made, yet still the Divine word stands literally true: St. Matthew says, Deuteronomy 1, that the generations from Abraham to Christ were 42; now we find at the second census that the fighting men among the Hebrews amounted to 603,000; and the Israelites, who have never ceased to be a distinct people, have so multiplied as far to exceed the number of all the fixed stars taken together.

your God

Deuteronomy 10:22 Your fathers went down into Egypt with three score and ten persons...

Deuteronomy 28:62 And you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven for multitude...

Genesis 15:5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if you be able to number them...

Genesis 22:17 That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven...

Genesis 28:14 And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north...

Exodus 12:37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children.

Exodus 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them...

Numbers 1:46 Even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty.

1 Chronicles 27:23 But David took not the number of them from twenty years old and under...

Nehemiah 9:23 Their children also multiplied you as the stars of heaven, and brought them into the land...

ye are this day
This was the promise made by God to Abraham

Genesis 15:5,6 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if you be able to number them...

which Moses considers now as amply fulfilled. Many suppose the expression to be hyperbolical; and others, no friends to revelation, think it a vain, empty boast, because the stars, in their apprehension,, amount to innumerable millions. But, as this refers to the number of stars that appear to the naked eye, which only amount to about

3010 in both hemispheres, the number of the Israelites far exceeded this; for independently of women and children, at the last census, they amounted to more than

600,000.00

Philo of Alexandria, the Rabbis, and the Gospels - the Final Development of Hellenism in Its Relation to Rabbinism and the Gospel According to St. John.
It is strange how little we know of the personal history of the greatest of uninspired Jewish writers of old, though he occupied so prominent a position in his time. [173] Philo was born in Alexandria, about the year 20 before Christ. He was a descendant of Aaron, and belonged to one of the wealthiest and most influential families among the Jewish merchant-princes of Egypt. His brother was the political head of that community in Alexandria, and he himself on one occasion represented his co-religionists, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Appendix ii. Philo of Alexandria and Rabbinic Theology.
(Ad. vol. i. p. 42, note 4.) In comparing the allegorical Canons of Philo with those of Jewish traditionalism, we think first of all of the seven exegetical canons which are ascribed to Hillel. These bear chiefly the character of logical deductions, and as such were largely applied in the Halakhah. These seven canons were next expanded by R. Ishmael (in the first century) into thirteen, by the analysis of one of them (the 5th) into six, and the addition of this sound exegetical rule, that where two …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Blessing of Jacob Upon Judah. (Gen. Xlix. 8-10. )
Ver. 8. "Judah, thou, thy brethren shall praise thee; thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; before thee shall bow down the sons of thy father. Ver. 9. A lion's whelp is Judah; from the prey, my son, thou goest up; he stoopeth down, he coucheth as a lion, and as a full-grown lion, who shall rouse him up? Ver. 10. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto Him the people shall adhere." Thus does dying Jacob, in announcing …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament