Genesis Chapter 15

From The Open Bible Project

15:1 After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Don't be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward."

15:2 Abram said, "[5>]Lord[<5] Yahweh, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?"

• (a) His fear was not only lest he should not have children, but lest the promise of the blessed seed should not be accomplished in him.

15:3 Abram said, "Behold, to me you have given no seed: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir."

15:4 Behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, "This man will not be your heir, but he who will come forth out of your own body will be your heir."

15:5 Yahweh brought him outside, and said, "Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." He said to Abram, "So shall your seed be."

15:6 He believed in Yahweh; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.

15:7 He said to him, "I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it."

15:8 He said, "Lord Yahweh, how will I know that I will inherit it?"

• (b) This is a particular motion of God's Spirit, which is not lawful for all to follow, in asking signs: but was permitted for some by a peculiar motion, as to Gideon and Ezekiel.

15:9 He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."

15:10 He brought him all of these, and divided them in the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he didn't divide the birds.

• (c) This was the old custom in making covenants, Jer 39:18, to which God added these conditions, that Abram's posterity would be as torn in pieces, but after they would be rejoined: also that it would be assaulted, but yet delivered.

15:11 The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

15:12 When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him.

15:13 He said to Abram, "Know for sure that your seed will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years.

• (d) Counting from the birth of Isaac to their departure of Egypt: Which declares that God will allow his to be afflicted in this world.

15:14 I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth,

15:15 but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried in a good old age.

15:16 In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full."

• (e) Though God tolerates the wicked for a time, yet his vengeance falls on them when the measure of their wickedness is full.

15:17 It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

15:18 In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:

15:19 the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

15:20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

15:21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."