they. Some codices, with Aram, and Syriac, read "ye": i.e. not the three Patriarchs, but the descendants of each one respectively.
few men in number = men (Hebrew. methim.App-14. V) of number: i.e. soon numbered (see note on "almost", Pro_5:14). Compare Gen_34:30. Deu_4:27; Deu_26:5. Jer_44:28. (The opposite is "without number", Psa_40:12.) This could not be said of the Patriarchs.