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As you can tell from my previous posts I am not a Torah scholar. I figured I try and post a question that is relevant to Torah. וַיּוֹצֵא אֹתוֹ הַחוּצָה, וַיֹּאמֶר הַבֶּט-נָא הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וּסְפֹר הַכּוֹכָבִים--אִם-תּוּכַל, לִסְפֹּר אֹתָם; וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ, כֹּה יִהְיֶה זַרְעֶךָ. I am confused. Because isn't this supposed to promise a large Jewish population? We're .16% of the human population on a good day. Additionally, later in Devarim, we're promised to be small in numbers. Don't these conflict? Which one is right?

Thanks

Channan
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    Is .16% of the population small? My family is only about 0.0000000005 of the world population – Double AA Mar 05 '21 at 17:58
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    The numbers are spread across all the generations and in all places, not all at once. The seeming contradiction is only on the surface. But to understand it, you need to consider G-d’s blessing to spread us out across the entire earth. This detail, which looks like exile, has in fact been a major factor in the preservation of our people. Other nations come and go relatively quickly. The Jewish people are eternal. – Yaacov Deane Mar 05 '21 at 19:22
  • This was a favorite verse in the 1970s when I worked on the Celestial Mapping Probe, a US Air Force satellite program whose goal was to map the infrared sky. – Phil Freedenberg Mar 06 '21 at 18:47

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