Genesis 15:5

tell the stars i.e. count. A proverbial expression for the infinite and innumerable, as in Genesis 22:17; Genesis 26:4.

The word "tell" is Old English for "count," as in Psalms 22:17, "I may tell all my bones"; Psalms 48:12, "tell the towers thereof"; Jeremiah 33:13, "And in the cities of Judah shall the flocks again pass under the hands of him that telleth them." Cf. "And every shepherd tells his tale Under the hawthorn in the dale" (Milton, L'Allegro, 67, 68).