06_Biblica_AN_Ska_Layout 1 01/04/14 12:04 Pagina 112 112 JEAN LOUIS SKA its own “land” (#ra) and its own language (!wvl) 42. But the attentive reader cannot but notice the absence of one nation, the nation that matters for the original audience of these texts, namely Israel. The answer comes immedi- ately afterwards, in Gen 11,27, the genealogy of Sem, ending with Abra- ham. The answer is clear, i.e. God does not assign a specific country to Israel because Israel does not exist yet. But the reader can draw a logical conclusion from the juxtaposition of Genesis 10 with Genesis 11. If God, the creator of the universe, allotted a country to each nation, it is normal to expect him to do the same for the nation the ancestor of which is Abraham. The other parts of the Priestly Writer confirm this first impression. The most important Priestly text in the Abraham cycle is Genesis 17 43. This divine oracle contains three main promises: (1) God will be the God of Abraham’s descendants — “I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you” (Gen 17,7). (2) God promises Abraham numerous descendants: “And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceed- ingly numerous” (17,2); “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations” (17,4); (3) The promise of a land: “And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual hold- ing; and I will be their God” (17,8). The first promise is repeated in Exod 29,45-46: “I will dwell among the Israelites, and I will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them; I am the Lord their God.” This happens just before God takes possession of the sanctuary in Exod 40,34-35. The second promise is carried out in Exod 1,7: “But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.” This is a very well-known fact, and does not require any further explanation. The third promise creates a real problem, and there is no doubt about it. Nevertheless it would be very strange if there were no answer to this ques- 42 In Isaiah 40–55, the God of Israel is the ruler of the universe and the lord of all nations as well. See C. STREIBERT, Schöpfung bei Deuterojesaja und in der Priesterschrift. Eine vergleichende Untersuchung zu Inhalt und Funktion schöpfungstheologischer Aussagen in exilisch-nachexilischer Zeit (Beiträge zur Erforschung des Alten Testaments und des Antiken Judentums 8; Frankfurt/Main 1993). 43 See B. ZIEMER, Abram – Abraham. Kompositionsgeschichtliche Unter- suchungen zu Genesis 14, 15 und 17 (BZAW 350; Berlin – New York 2005); see also the somewhat problematic source-critical study by P. WEIMAR, “Gen 17 und die priesterschriftliche Abrahamgeschichte”, ZAW 100 (1988) 22-60.