history - Why are there so few Jews if God promised Abraham his children would number like the stars?

God promises Abraham a number of times that he would father a great nation whose numbers would be like the stars in the sky or the sand on the beach.

However today there are less than 14 million Jews, hardly close the amount of stars visible with a mediocre telescope, while of course nowhere near the billions of stars in existence.

How do you explain this unfulfilled promise?

Answer

Being as numerous as the stars nowadays would in fact be inconsistent with our current state, as in exile we now bear the burden of the terrible curses in Deuteronomy, one of which foretells our nation's size being very few, rather than numerous as the stars. See Deut 28:62.

וְנִשְׁאַרְתֶּם, בִּמְתֵי מְעָט, תַּחַת אֲשֶׁר הֱיִיתֶם, כְּכוֹכְבֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם לָרֹב: כִּי-לֹא שָׁמַעְתָּ, בְּקוֹל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ.

^{And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude; because thou didst not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.}