Genesis 15

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'The word of the LORD came to Abram' (hayah devar-YHWH el-Abram) — this is the first occurrence of the prophetic reception formula, typically used for prophets (cf. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea). Abram receives divine communication in the manner of a prophet.
2. 'In a vision' (bammachazeh, בַּמַּחֲזֶה) — from the root ch-z-h ('to see, to envision'). This is a formal revelatory experience — a visionary encounter with God.
3. 'I am your shield' (anokhi magen lakh) — God presents himself as Abram's protector. After the military victory of chapter 14, Abram may fear retaliation from the defeated kings. God assures him that divine protection exceeds any military alliance.
4. 'Your reward will be very great' (sekharekha harbeh me'od) — some take this as 'I am your reward' (God himself is the reward) or 'your reward is very great' (the reward God gives is substantial). The ambiguity is productive — God is both the giver and the gift.

Translator Notes

1. 'Lord GOD' translates Adonai YHWH (אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה). This is the first use of this combined divine title in the Bible. Adonai ('Lord, master') with YHWH ('the LORD') creates a double designation of sovereignty and covenant relationship.
2. This is the first recorded speech of Abram to God — and it is a complaint. Despite the great promises (12:2–3, 7; 13:15–17), Abram has no child. The contrast between the promise of innumerable offspring and the reality of childlessness is acute. Abram's question is raw and honest: what good are promises without an heir?
3. 'Eliezer of Damascus' — a household servant who would inherit in the absence of a natural son. Ancient Near Eastern legal texts (particularly from Nuzi) describe the practice of adopting a household servant as heir when no biological son exists.

Translator Notes

1. Abram presses the point: 'you have given me no offspring' (lo natattah zara). The accusation is directed at God — it is God's responsibility to fulfill his own promise. The verb natattah ('you have given') is in the second person: you, God, have not given. This is bold, honest prayer — the ancestor of faith speaks to God with the candor of genuine relationship.

Translator Notes

1. 'One who comes from your own body' (asher yetse mimme'eikha, אֲשֶׁר יֵצֵא מִמֵּעֶיךָ) — literally 'who will come out from your bowels/inward parts.' God rules out the servant-adoption arrangement and promises a biological son. The promise is specific: Abram's own body will produce an heir.

Translator Notes

1. God takes Abram outside — out of the tent and into the open night. The vast canopy of stars becomes a visual demonstration of the promise. In 13:16, offspring were compared to the dust of the earth; here they are compared to the stars of heaven — uncountable in both directions, earthward and heavenward.
2. 'So will your offspring be' (koh yihyeh zar'ekha) — as innumerable as the stars. The promise is given to a 75+ year-old childless man with a barren wife, standing under an infinite sky. The absurdity of the promise is the context of faith.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. 'He believed the LORD' (vehe'emin baYHWH, וְהֶאֱמִן בַּיהוָה) — the verb he'emin is the hiphil of aman (אָמַן, 'to be firm, stable, trustworthy'), from which 'amen' derives. To 'believe' (he'emin) means to consider God trustworthy, to regard his word as reliable, to lean one's weight upon God. This is not mere intellectual assent but a trust that stakes one's future on God's promise.
2. 'He counted it to him as righteousness' (vayyachsheveha lo tsedaqah) — God 'reckoned' or 'credited' Abram's faith as righteousness. The verb chashav (חָשַׁב, 'to reckon, to think, to account, to impute') is an accounting term — God credited Abram's trust to his account as tsedaqah (righteousness). This verse becomes foundational for Paul's theology of justification by faith (Romans 4:3; Galatians 3:6) and for James's understanding of faith and works (James 2:23).
3. This is one of the most theologically significant verses in the entire Old Testament. The relationship between faith and righteousness, between trust and divine approval, is established here at the beginning of the Abrahamic narrative.

Translator Notes

1. 'I am the LORD who brought you out' — this self-introduction formula anticipates the Exodus formula: 'I am the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt' (Exodus 20:2). God identifies himself through his saving acts. The pattern is consistent: God's identity is revealed through what God does.
2. The purpose of the exodus from Ur was the gift of the land. Possession (lerishtah, 'to inherit it, to take possession of it') is the goal of the journey.

Translator Notes

1. Abram's question is not doubt but a request for confirmation — a sign or assurance that the promise will be fulfilled. God's response is not a rebuke but a solemn covenant ceremony (vv. 9–21). God accommodates Abram's need for tangible assurance.

Translator Notes

1. God instructs Abram to prepare a covenant ceremony. The animals specified — heifer, goat, ram, turtledove, pigeon — are the same animals later designated for sacrificial use in the Levitical system (Leviticus 1:2–17; 3:1; 5:7). The 'three-year-old' specification (meshulleshet, 'tripled/three years old') ensures fully mature animals.
2. The covenant ceremony that follows (the passing between cut pieces) is an ancient Near Eastern ritual known from other sources (cf. Jeremiah 34:18–19). It is a self-imprecatory oath: the one who passes between the pieces invokes upon himself the fate of the animals if the covenant is broken.

Translator Notes

1. 'Cut them in half' (vayvatter otam battavekh) — the verb batar (בָּתַר) means 'to cut in two, to divide.' The halved carcasses are arranged facing each other, creating a pathway between the pieces. This is the ritual of 'cutting a covenant' (karat berit) — the Hebrew expression for making a covenant literally means 'to cut,' reflecting this ceremony.
2. The birds are not divided, following later sacrificial practice (Leviticus 1:17).

Translator Notes

1. 'Birds of prey' (ha'ayit, הָעַיִט) — predatory birds descend on the exposed animal pieces. Abram guards the covenant preparations against defilement. This detail adds narrative tension: the time between preparation and divine response is marked by vigilance and waiting. Some interpreters see the birds of prey as symbolizing the nations that will threaten Abraham's descendants.

Translator Notes

1. 'A deep sleep' (tardemah, תַּרְדֵּמָה) — the same word used when God put Adam into a deep sleep to create the woman (2:21). Tardemah is a supernaturally induced unconsciousness in which God acts. Abram is passive; God is the sole actor in the covenant ceremony that follows.
2. 'A dreadful, great darkness' (eimah chashekah gedolah) — the combination of terror and darkness creates an atmosphere of divine awe. The darkness may symbolize the period of oppression described in the next verses (vv. 13–16) — the 400 years of affliction in a foreign land. The covenant is made in darkness, through suffering, before the light of fulfillment.

Translator Notes

1. 'Know for certain' (yado'a teda, יָדֹעַ תֵּדַע) — the infinitive absolute construction intensifies the verb: you will absolutely, certainly know. God grants the very assurance Abram requested in verse 8, but the knowledge includes suffering before fulfillment.
2. 'Sojourners in a land that is not theirs' — the promise of land is preceded by a period of landlessness. Before possession comes dispossession. The prophecy encompasses the sojourn in Egypt and the subsequent slavery — events that will not occur for centuries but are revealed to Abram in advance.
3. 'Four hundred years' — a round number. Exodus 12:40 gives 430 years for the sojourn in Egypt (the LXX includes the patriarchal period in this number). The discrepancy is a matter of how the period is calculated.

Translator Notes

1. 'I will judge the nation' — a promise of divine intervention against the oppressor. This is fulfilled in the Exodus plagues and the destruction of Pharaoh's army at the Sea.
2. 'Come out with great possessions' (yets'u birkhush gadol) — fulfilled in Exodus 12:35–36, when the Israelites leave Egypt with Egyptian gold, silver, and clothing. The pattern of 12:10–20 (Abram goes to Egypt and leaves with wealth) will be repeated on a national scale.

Translator Notes

1. 'Go to your fathers' (tavo el-avoteikha) — an idiom for death, implying reunion with deceased ancestors. This is the first occurrence of this common Hebrew death expression (cf. 25:8; 35:29; 49:33). Whether it implies an afterlife belief or simply burial in the family tomb is debated.
2. 'In peace... at a good old age' — despite the dark prophecy about his offspring, Abram himself is promised a peaceful death. He will not live to see the suffering — a mercy within the difficult revelation.

Translator Notes

1. 'The fourth generation' — generations could be long (100 years each would approximate 400 years), or 'fourth generation' may be an approximation. The point is that the return is certain but delayed.
2. 'The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete' (lo-shalem avon ha-Emori ad-hennah) — this extraordinary theological statement reveals that God's gift of the land to Israel is connected to the moral behavior of the current inhabitants. The Canaanites/Amorites are not dispossessed arbitrarily; their displacement occurs when their iniquity reaches its full measure. God is patient even with the wicked — judgment waits until the cup is full. This principle qualifies the land promise: the conquest is not ethnic but moral. Israel will later be warned that the same standard applies to them (Leviticus 18:24–28; Deuteronomy 9:4–5).

Translator Notes

1. 'A smoking fire pot and a flaming torch' (tannur ashan velappid esh) — visible manifestations of God's presence. Fire and smoke are consistent divine theophany symbols (cf. the burning bush, Exodus 3:2; the pillar of fire, Exodus 13:21; Sinai's smoke and fire, Exodus 19:18). These symbols represent God himself passing through the covenant pieces.
2. The climactic moment: GOD passes between the pieces. In the standard ancient Near Eastern covenant ceremony, both parties would walk between the halved animals, invoking the animals' fate upon themselves if they violated the covenant. But here, Abram is asleep (v. 12) — only God passes through. This makes the covenant unilateral: God alone bears the covenant obligation. God invokes upon himself the curse of covenant violation. If the covenant fails, it is God who will be 'torn apart.' The theological depth is staggering — the sovereign God binds himself unconditionally.
3. This is why it is called an 'unconditional covenant' — its fulfillment depends entirely on God's faithfulness, not on Abram's performance.

Translator Notes

1. 'Made a covenant' (karat... berit, כָּרַת... בְּרִית) — literally 'cut a covenant,' reflecting the cutting of the animals in the ceremony just performed.
2. 'I have given' (natatti, נָתַתִּי) — past tense. Though the land has not yet been possessed, God speaks of the gift as already accomplished. The divine decision is irrevocable — it is as good as done.
3. 'From the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates' — the most expansive definition of the promised land in Genesis. 'The river of Egypt' may be the Wadi el-Arish (a seasonal watercourse in the Sinai) or the eastern branch of the Nile. The Euphrates is the great river of Mesopotamia. This territory was approximately realized during the reigns of David and Solomon (1 Kings 4:21).

Translator Notes

1. Ten peoples are listed in verses 19–21, representing the inhabitants of the promised territory. This is the most comprehensive list of displaced peoples, exceeding the usual lists of six or seven nations.

Translator Notes

1. The Rephaim reappear from 14:5 — one of the ancient 'giant' peoples of the land.

Translator Notes

1. The list ends with the familiar Canaanite peoples — Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites — who appear frequently in the conquest narratives. The ten peoples may represent totality (the number ten symbolizing completeness), indicating that the entire land, in all its diversity, is included in the promise.