Genesischapter 15
21 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
After these events, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
Moses set this chapter down for Israel in the wilderness, a people who had lived through the slavery and the exodus it foretells. It is the chapter where the promises to Abram meet his own questions and are answered by an oath. Abram speaks more here than anywhere before, and he speaks plainly about what he still lacks. Listen for his two questions, one about an heir and one about the land. Then listen for the night ceremony, and notice who walks through it. The New Testament builds its teaching on faith from one sentence of this chapter.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, the generation that had just come out of the affliction this chapter foretells
- What
- A covenant scene in which God promises Abram an heir and the land, and binds Himself by a ceremony of cut animals.
- Where
- Abram's camp in Canaan under an open night sky, with the promised land measured from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates.
- When
- The patriarchal age, shortly after the rescue of Lot, about 2081 BC on the traditional dating, a date the chapter itself does not give.
- Why
- To ground Israel's hope of a son and a land on God's own oath, and to show that Abram was counted righteous by believing.
Historical context
The chapter is Abram's, and it finds him childless with a servant of his household standing as his heir. His worry is legal as well as personal, since a man without a son in that world could make an heir of a dependent, and Eliezer of Damascus is the man in place.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
The date is the patriarchal age, about 2081 BC on the traditional reckoning, and the chapter dates itself only by what has just happened, the war of Genesis 14 and the spoil Abram refused.
The place is Abram's own camp in Canaan, outdoors, with the stars in view at the start and darkness fallen by the end.
The occasion is a promise that has been made twice and still has no son behind it, and Abram asks two questions about it, one about an heir and one about the land.
A first hearer knew what cutting a covenant meant. Animals were halved, the halves laid opposite each other, and the parties walked between them, which was a self curse: may I be cut like these if I break faith. Treaty texts of the region say it aloud, and the eighth century BC stele from Sefire has one king call down on himself the fate of a calf cut in two. Jeremiah 34:18 describes Judah's own leaders walking between the halves of a calf and then breaking the oath.
What the hearer would have found astonishing is who walked. Abram is asleep, and the smoking firepot and the flaming torch pass between the pieces alone.
Significance
The wilderness generation was standing inside the fulfilment of verses 13 and 14. They had been strangers in a land that was not theirs, they had been afflicted, the nation they served had been judged, and they had come out with many possessions.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
It also told them where their claim came from. The land rested on an oath God swore alone while their father slept, rather than on anything their family had done.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is heard inside the third portion of the annual cycle, in the same sitting as the call of Abram and the sign of circumcision (src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts). The covenant of the pieces, the promise of the seed and the four hundred years are read as one part of a longer reading. The card above carries the portion and the prophetic reading set beside it.
How it is read
The corpus holds the English text of four comments on this chapter and the reference alone for twenty more. Radak is quoted from the CC-BY translation of Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, and the one kept comment of Rashi from a CC-BY version.
Radak reads the complaint of the third verse with care for the man who makes it. Abram never thought that God had deceived him. He weighed two other reasons for the promise standing unfulfilled, that he had sinned since it was given, or that the seed promised was meant in some other way (Radak on Genesis 15:3:1).
The question of the eighth verse is read the same way. Radak holds that a man just credited with faith had not fallen into doubt. The question is about the holding rather than the giving, and it means how he may know that his offspring will keep the land (Radak on Genesis 15:8:1).
On the list of nations at the end of the chapter Rashi counts ten and notes that only seven were given. He reads the Kenite, the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite as Edom, Moab and Ammon, and says they are "destined to be possessed in the future" (Rashi on Genesis 15:19:1). Radak reads the land of the Philistines as part of what the text calls the Canaanite, and cites Joshua 13:3 for it (Radak on Genesis 15:21:1).
Rashi comments on sixteen verses of this chapter in versions the corpus holds by reference alone, because the licence Sefaria reports for them keeps the text out. They run from Rashi on Genesis 15:1:1 on the shield to Rashi on Genesis 15:20:1 on the nations. They cover the reckoning of righteousness in the sixth verse, the divided animals in the ninth and tenth, the deep sleep in the twelfth, and the four hundred years in the thirteenth. Ibn Ezra stands on three verses, at Ibn Ezra on Genesis 15:1:1, 15:4:1 and 15:7:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty places where the Midrash and the Talmud cite this chapter, thirty five under Midrash and five under Talmud, with the locator for each one and no text. The weight falls on the promise and on the four hundred years.
Bereshit Rabbah reads the third verse at 44:10 and 44:11, the eighth at 44:15, the tenth at 44:14 and 100:13, and the eleventh at 44:16. It reads the twelfth verse at 17:5 and 44:17, the fourteenth at 44:19 and 44:20, and the sixteenth at 41:5.
Aggadat Bereshit is the heaviest voice on the chapter. It reads the first verse at 13:1 and 13:2, the second at 37:1, the fifth at 28:3 and 39:1, and the sixth at 56:1 and 81:1. It reads the seventh verse at 15:1 and 67:2, the thirteenth at 61:3 and 65:3, and the eighteenth at 16:3 and 31:1.
Bamidbar Rabbah reads the ninth verse at 14:11 and the fifteenth at 11:7. The Mekhilta of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai reads the fourth verse at 15:7 and the sixteenth at 13:16. Bereshit Rabbati reads the eighth verse at Parashat Vayechi 21, and the seventeenth at Parashat Lech Lecha 19 and 33. Midrash Tanchuma is cited at Noach 15:6.
The Talmud is cited at Megillah 31b:5 on the ninth verse. The Jerusalem Talmud reads the last nations at Sotah 1:8:4 and Sheviit 6:1:13. Avot DeRabbi Natan is cited in its second recension at 43:26 on the second verse and 43:27 on the fifteenth.
Sources: Radak, Radak on Genesis 15:3:1, 15:8:1 and 15:21:1, in HaChut Hameshulash, translated by Eliyahu Munk, CC-BY, about 1200; Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 15:19:1, in the CC-BY version the corpus keeps; his other sixteen comments on the chapter are cited by reference, about 1090; Ibn Ezra, his three comments on Genesis 15, cited by reference; the licence Sefaria reports for the English version keeps the text out of the corpus; The Midrash and the Talmud, the forty locators on Genesis 15 in scripts/data/sources/sefaria/genesis/15.json; MannaFest, the annual cycle table at src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Count the Stars, If You Can
the word of the LORD came to Abram: After these events points back to the war of the kings and the spoil Abram had just refused. God answers that refusal by naming Himself, your shield, your very great reward. Four phrases enter Scripture here for the first time, the word of the LORD came, in a vision, do not be afraid, and shield. The reward is God Himself.
Genesis 15:1
“Because Abraham did not seek recompense from man, he received it from God, as we read in Scripture: "After these words the Lord spoke to Abraham in a vision saying, Fear not, Abraham, I will protect you. Your reward will be exceedingly great." The Lord is not slow to reward. He is eager to promise, and he gives in abundance, lest any delay cause weak souls to repent of having despised visible things.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Genesis 15:1
“The word of the Lord came unto Abram - That is, God manifested himself to Abram, in a vision - Which supposeth Abram awake, and some sensible token of the presence of the divine glory, saying, Fear not Abram - Abram might fear lest the four kings he had routed, should rally and fall upon him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 15:1
“You have probably heard a great many sermons on the first part of the text, "I am your shield," so, on this occasion, I am going to leave that portion in order to more fully consider the second part—"I am your exceeding great reward." Notice, first, the circumstances under which these words were spoken to Abraham. It must have been in his memory that not very long before, he had parted from his nephew, Lot, and had given him his choice as to which way he would go with his flocks and his herds.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2814: “Abraham's Great Reward” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Genesis 15:1
“To dispel his fear, he was favored with this gracious announcement. Having such a promise, how well did it become him (and all God's people who have the same promise) to dismiss fears, and cast all burdens on the Lord (Ps 27:3).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 15:2-3
since I remain childless: Abram's complaint is that his house already has an heir, and the heir is a servant, Eliezer of Damascus. Genesis had set that obstacle in front of the promise from the start, with Sarai's barrenness stated at 11:30, before God ever spoke to Abram. Abram proposes his own repair here, and another in the next chapter with Hagar. Both come from inside his own household.
Genesis 15:2
“And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless,.... As if he should say, what signifies what thou givest me of temporal blessings, if thou withholdest from me the blessing of a child; from whom it might be hoped and believed would spring the promised Messiah, in whom all nations of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 more voices on this verse
Genesis 15:2
“Let us also consider what recompense he requests from the Lord. He does not ask for riches, as would a greedy person, nor for a long life in this world, as would one who fears death, nor for power. Rather he asks for an heir worthy of his work. "What will you give me?"—he says—"I am about to depart without children." And then he says, "Because you have not given me posterity, a slave born in my house will be my heir." Let everyone learn therefore not to despise marriage.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
Genesis 15:2
“What wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless - The anxiety of the Asiatics to have offspring is intense and universal. Among the Hindoos the want of children renders all other blessings of no esteem. See Ward. And the steward of my house - Abram, understanding the promise as relating to that person who was to spring from his family, in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed, expresses his surprise that there should be such a promise, and yet he is about to die childless!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 15:2
“Lord God, what wilt thou give?--To his mind the declaration, "I am thy exceeding great reward" [Ge 15:1], had but one meaning, or was viewed but in one particular light, as bearing on the fulfilment of the promise, and he was still experiencing the sickness of hope deferred.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 15:2
“Note, Though we must never complain of God, yet we have leave to complain to him, and to be large and particular in the statement of our grievances; and it is some ease to a burdened spirit to open its case to a faithful and compassionate friend: such a friend God is, whose ear is always open.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
You have given me no offspring: Abram continued with a sharper word, offspring. John Wesley notes that Abram had no daughter either, through whom the promised Messiah might have come. John Chrysostom hears in it the pain of a man who will give his house to a servant.
Genesis 15:3
“Behold to me thou hast given no seed - Not only no son, but no seed. If he had had a daughter, from her the promised Messias might have come, who was to be the Seed of the Woman; but he had neither son nor daughter.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 15:3
“But this man could have become his son only by adoption; and how sadly would that have come short of the parental hopes he had been encouraged to entertain! His language betrayed a latent spirit of fretfulness or perhaps a temporary failure in the very virtue for which he is so renowned--and absolute submission to God's time, as well as way, of accomplishing His promise.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 15:3
“Note, Till we have some comfortable evidence of our interest in Christ and the new covenant, we should not rest satisfied with any thing else. "This, and the other, I have; but what will all this avail me, if I go Christless?" Yet thus far the complaint was culpable, that there was some diffidence of the promise at the bottom of it, and a weariness of waiting God's time.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 15:4-5
one who comes from your own body: God sets the servant aside and names an heir who comes from Abram's own body. Adoption is ruled out, and Abram has nothing left to arrange. Then the LORD takes him outside and tells him to count the stars, if he is able. The promise of offspring beyond counting is spoken over a childless man.
Genesis 15:4
But if the words of Abraham are not enough to correct, consider the word of God, who condemns such a mode of transmitting inheritance. "This man shall not be your heir," he says, "but the other who will come out from you, he will be your heir." Who is this other of whom he speaks? In fact Hagar too bore a son, Ishmael, but he is not speaking of him. Instead, he is speaking of holy Isaac. For this reason he added "who will come out from you."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
John Wesley sets the stars of the heavens beside 13:16, where the LORD had counted Abram's offspring like the dust of the earth. Wesley reads the dust as his children by descent and the stars as his children by faith. Romans 4:18 quotes the promise.
Genesis 15:5
“Abram feared he should have no child at all, but God tells him his descendents should be so many as not to be numbered. So illustrious, as the stars of heaven for splendour; for to them pertained the glory, Rom. ix, 4. Abram's seed according to the flesh were like the dust of the earth, Chap. xiii, 16, but his spiritual seed are like the stars of heaven.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 15:5
“What is the meaning then of the expression "he brought him outside"? The prophet is as it were led out, so that he goes outside of the body and sees the limitations imposed by the flesh that is his garment and the infusion of the Holy Spirit who makes a kind of visible descent. We too must exit from the confinement of this our temporary dwelling.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
Cross references
Genesis 15:5
- Quoted inRomans 4:18Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”
'So shall thy seed be' (Abraham's hope against hope)
ConnectionsRomans 4:18
Abram believed the LORD: This is the first time Scripture uses the word believed and the first time it uses the word righteousness, and both stand in one sentence. The LORD credited it to Abram, which is imputation, the reckoning of righteousness to a man's account as a gift. Romans 4:3 puts this verse at the head of its argument and builds justification by faith on it. Circumcision comes two chapters later.
Genesis 15:6
And how did Abraham's progeny spread? Only through the inheritance he transmitted in virtue of faith. On this basis the faithful are assimilated to heaven, made comparable to the angels, equal to the stars. This is why he said, "So will your descendants be. And Abraham," the text says, "believed in God." What exactly did he believe? Prefiguratively he believed that Christ through the incarnation would become his heir. In order that you may know that this was what he believed, the Lord says, "Abraham saw my day and rejoiced."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Abrahampatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 15:6
“Note, A fiducial practical acceptance of, and dependence upon, God's promise of grace and glory, in and through Christ, is that which, according to the tenour of the new covenant, gives us a right to all the blessings contained in that promise. All believers are justified as Abram was, and it was his faith that was counted to him for righteousness.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Cross references
Genesis 15:6
- Quoted inGalatians 3:6So also, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness'
- Quoted inJames 2:23“And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God.”
'Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness' ('the scripture was fulfilled')
- Quoted inRomans 4:3For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
'Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness' ('what saith the scripture?')
ConnectionsGalatians 3:6, James 2:23, Romans 4:3
The Animals Cut in Two
Genesis 15:7-8
brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans: God names Himself by a rescue already done, the LORD who brought Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans. Exodus 20:2 opens the law at Sinai in the same shape, the God who brought Israel out of Egypt. Abram asks how he can know, and no rebuke follows. Jerome records a reading of Ur as fire, which stands behind the old Jewish story of Abram in the furnace.
Genesis 15:7
“I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees - Out of the fire of the Chaldees, so some: that is, from their idolatries; for the Chaldeans worshipped the fire. Or, from their persecutions. The Jewish writers have a tradition, that Abram was cast into a fiery furnace for refusing to worship idols, and was miraculously delivered.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Abram replied, Lord GOD, and Adam Clarke gives the Hebrew as Adonai YHWH. Matthew Henry reads the question of how Abram can know he will possess the land as a request to confirm the faith that verse 6 credited to him. Bede agrees.
Genesis 15:8
“And he said, Lord God - אדני יהוה Adonai Yehovah, my Lord Jehovah. Adonai is the word which the Jews in reading always substitute for Jehovah, as they count it impious to pronounce this name.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 15:8
“Note, Those that are satisfied themselves should desire that others also may be satisfied of the truth of God's promises. John sent his disciples to Christ, not so much for his own satisfaction as for theirs, Matt. xi. Canaan was a type of heaven.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 15:9-11
a heifer, a goat, and a ram: The heifer, the goat, the ram, the turtledove and the pigeon are the whole list the law will later allow for sacrifice. The animals are cut in two and the halves laid opposite each other, which is how a binding agreement was made in that world, and the Hebrew idiom for making a covenant is to cut one. Jeremiah 34:18 describes the same act centuries later. Abram drives birds of prey off the carcasses while he waits.
Genesis 15:9
“Take me a heifer - עגלה eglah, a she-calf; a she-goat, עז ez, a goat, male or female, but distinguished here by the feminine adjective; משלשת meshullesheth, a three-yearling; a ram, איל ayil; a turtle-dove, תר tor, from which come turtur and turtle; young pigeon, גוזל gozal, a word signifying the young of pigeons and eagles. See Deu 32:11. It is worthy of remark, that every animal allowed or commanded to be sacrificed under the Mosaic law is to be found in this list.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 15:9
“God appointed that each of the beasts used for his service should be three years old, because then they were at their full growth and strength. God must be served with the best we have. We do not read that God gave Abram particular directions how to manage these, knowing that he was well versed in the custom of sacrifices.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The birds, however, he did not cut in half: Adam Clarke notes that a covenant is a meeting of at least two parties, and the halves laid opposite each other made a path for both. The birds were left whole. Augustine read the undivided turtledove and pigeon as the spiritual people of Israel, who are never divided.
Genesis 15:10
“This was not the first instance of Abram's implicit obedience. He divided the beasts in the midst, according to the ceremony used in confirming covenants, Jer. xxxiv. 18, 19 , where it is said, They cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 15:10
“Divided them in the midst - The ancient method of making covenants as well as the original word, have been already alluded to, and in a general way explained. See Gen 6:18. The word covenant from con, together, and venio, I come, signifies an agreement, association, or meeting between two or more parties; for it is impossible that a covenant can be made between an individual and himself, whether God or man. This is a theological absurdity into which many have run; there must be at least two parties to contract with each other.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Abram drove them away: Adam Clarke pictures Abram waiting by the carcasses for the LORD. The birds of prey descended to devour what was set apart for God, and Abram drove them away. Jerome and Bede read it as Israel delivered from its enemies for his sake.
Genesis 15:11
“And when the fowls - העיט haayit, birds of prey, came down upon the carcasses to devour them, Abram, who stood by his sacrifice waiting for the manifestation of God, who had ordered him to prepare for the ratification of the covenant, drove them away, that they might neither pollute nor devour what had been thus consecrated to God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 15:11
“Note, A very watchful eye must be kept upon our spiritual sacrifices, that nothing be suffered to prey upon them and render them unfit for God's acceptance. When vain thoughts, like these fowls, come down upon our sacrifices, we must drive them away, and not suffer them to lodge within us, but attend on God without distraction.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 15:11
“WE might use this text, if we chose, as a picture of the ease with which faith repels all attacks that are made upon Christ, the great sacrifice of the new Covenant. Ainsworth tells us that the original word which we translate "drove" has in it the force of "puffed" them away. As if with a very puff of breath these kites and vultures and eagles, were at once driven away from the bodies of the victims.”
A Smoking Furnace and Flaming Torch
Abram fell into a deep sleep: The Hebrew word here is tardemah, a deep sleep God sends, and it has appeared once before, over Adam at 2:21. Both times the man lies still while God does the work. Great terror and darkness come with the sleep, and the next verse names four hundred years of slavery. The sleep falls just before the covenant is cut.
Genesis 15:12
“A deep sleep - תרדמה tardemah, the same word which is used to express the sleep into which Adam was cast, previous to the formation of Eve; Gen 2:21. A horror of great darkness - Which God designed to be expressive of the affliction and misery into which his posterity should be brought during the four hundred years of their bondage in Egypt; as the next verse particularly states.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 15:13-14
strangers in a land that is not their own: Abram is given the shape of the Exodus before Egypt has any hold on his family. Four beats come in order, a foreign land, slavery, judgment on that nation, and a departure with many possessions. Four hundred years is the figure here, and Exodus 12:40 gives four hundred and thirty. Paul takes the longer number at Galatians 3:17.
Genesis 15:13
Four hundred years - “Which began,” says Mr. Ainsworth, “when Ishmael, son of Hagar, mocked and persecuted Isaac, Gen 21:9; Gal 4:29; which fell out thirty years after the promise, Gen 12:3; which promise was four hundred and thirty years before the law, Gal 3:17; and four hundred and thirty years after that promise came Israel out of Egypt, Exo 12:41.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 15:13
“And they shall afflict them - See Exod. i, 11. Those that are blessed and beloved of God are often afflicted by wicked men. This persecution began with mocking, when Ishmael the son of an Egyptian, persecuted Isaac, chap. xxi, 9, and it came at last to murder, the basest of murders, that of their new born children; so that more or less it continued 400 years.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Cross references
Genesis 15:13
- Quoted inActs 7:6“God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.”
'thy seed shall sojourn in a strange land' (400 years, Stephen)
they will depart with many possessions: John Wesley reads the judging of the nation as God repaying those who trouble His people, and he leaves afterward open, either after the four hundred years or after the plagues. Adam Clarke finds the promise kept in the wealth Israel carried out of Egypt. Exodus 12:35 and 36 record it.
Genesis 15:14
“And also that nation, etc. - How remarkably was this promise fulfilled, in the redemption of Israel from its bondage, in the plagues and destruction of the Egyptians, and in the immense wealth which the Israelites brought out of Egypt! Not a more circumstantial or literally fulfilled promise is to be found in the sacred writings.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 15:14
“The punishing of persecutors is the judging of them; it is a righteous thing with God, and a particular act of justice, to recompense tribulation to those that trouble his people. The deliverance of Abram's seed out of Egypt. And afterwards shall they come out with great substance - Either after they have been afflicted 400 years, or, after the Egyptians are judged and plagued.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
go to your fathers in peace: The grant of the land comes in the same breath that tells Abram he will be buried first. He is told he will go to his fathers in peace, though his fathers were buried in Ur and Haran, so the phrase reaches past the grave. What he receives in his lifetime is peace and old age.
Genesis 15:15
“The former helps to take off the terror of death, the latter puts comfort into it. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age - Perhaps mention is made of his burial here, where the land of Canaan is promised him, because a burying-place was the first possession he had in it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 15:15
“Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace - This verse strongly implies the immortality of the soul, and a state of separate existence. He was gathered to his fathers - introduced into the place where separate spirits are kept, waiting for the general resurrection. Two things seem to be distinctly marked here: 1. The soul of Abram should be introduced among the assembly of the first-born; Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the iniquity of the Amorites: The delay is set by the people already in the land. Judgment waits until it is due, and the same four centuries that hold back the Amorites hold Israel in slavery. Clarke reads the fourth generation as the span the verse before counted in years. The land changes hands by a verdict.
Genesis 15:16
“In the fourth generation - In former times most people counted by generations, to each of which was assigned a term of years amounting to 20, 25, 30, 33, 100, 108, or 110; for the generation was of various lengths among various people, at different times. It is probable that the fourth generation here means the same as the four hundred years in the preceding verse.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 15:16
“The righteous God has determined that they shall not be cut off till they have persisted in sin so long, and arrived at such a pitch of wickedness, that there may appear some equitable proportion between their sin and their ruin; and therefore, till it come to that, the seed of Abram must be kept out of possession. Note, (1.) The measure of sin fills gradually.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 15:16
“THE Amorites had indulged in the most degrading sin. God had observed this, but He did not at once execute vengeance upon them. He had determined that, as a nation, they should be destroyed and rooted out from under Heaven and that their land should be given to the seed of Abraham. But He tells Abraham that his seed must wait for it, for as yet the Amorites had not filled up the measure of their iniquity.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3043: “Filling Up the Measure of Iniquity” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
a smoking firepot and a flaming torch: Both parties to an agreement like this walk between the pieces, and here only God passes through. Abram is asleep on the ground, which makes it a unilateral covenant, one that binds the party who passed and no one else. The firepot and the torch are the fire Israel will follow out of Egypt. God swears the covenant alone.
Genesis 15:17
“Smoking furnace and a burning lamp - Probably the smoking furnace might be designed as an emblem of the sore afflictions of the Israelites in Egypt; but the burning lamp was certainly the symbol of the Divine presence, which, passing between the pieces, ratified the covenant with Abram, as the following verse immediately states.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 15:17
“It is probable this furnace and lamp, which passed between the pieces, burned and consumed them, and so compleated the sacrifice, and testified God's acceptance of it, as of Gideon's, Jude vi, 21, Manoah's, Jude xiii, 19, 20, and Solomon's, 2 Chron. vii, 1. That God's covenants with man are made by sacrifice, Psalm l, 5, by Christ, the great sacrifice.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 15:17
“According to these ideas, which have been from time immemorial engraven on the minds of Eastern people, the Lord Himself condescended to enter into covenant with Abram. The patriarch did not pass between the sacrifice and the reason was that in this transaction he was bound to nothing.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
ConnectionsHebrews 6:13
Genesis 15:18-21
the LORD made a covenant with Abram: The grant is in the past tense, the land already given to his descendants. The boundaries run from the river of Egypt as far as the Euphrates, and the peoples sitting on that ground are listed by name. Ten are counted here, where Deuteronomy 7:1 later counts seven. The Rephaites stand on the list, the giant clans of 14:5.
Genesis 15:18
“The Lord made a covenant - כרת ברית carath berith signifies to cut a covenant, or rather the covenant sacrifice; for as no covenant was made without one, and the creature was cut in two that the contracting parties might pass between the pieces, hence cutting the covenant signified making the covenant.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 15:18
“He had said before, To thy seed will I give this land, ch. xii. But here he says, I have given it; that is, (1.) I have given the promise of it, the charter is sealed and delivered, and cannot be disannulled. Note, God's promises are God's gifts, and are so to be accounted.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Connectionscovenant abrahamic, Romans 4:13
the land of the Kenites: Adam Clarke explains why ten nations here become seven at Deuteronomy 7:1, since some peoples of Abram's day had merged with others before Moses. The Kenites later lived beside Judah. Matthew Henry reads the land given from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates as a type of the heavenly inheritance.
Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites: John Gill traces the Hittites to Heth, a son of Canaan, who lived around Hebron. He takes the name Perizzites from living in villages and sets the Rephaites near them. All three held land given to Abram's descendants.
The Amorites of verse 16, whose iniquity was not yet complete, lived on both sides of the Jordan, and John Gill places the Jebusites in Jerusalem, first called Jebus. Gill takes the Girgashites as the Gergesenes of Matthew 8:28. David took the city in 2 Samuel 5.
How this psalm is built
The form: A vision that becomes a covenant, the promise of the land confirmed by a ceremony, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The two questions Abram asks | Abram speaks twice and each time God answers with something larger. Verse 2 asks what God can give him while he remains childless, and verse 8 asks how he can know he will possess the land. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the second question as the first one renewed in a spirit of more becoming submission, and the answer to it is the ceremony that fills the rest of the chapter.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 15:4. | Genesis 15:2, Genesis 15:8 |
| The five creatures, each named with its age | Verse 9 lists a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, with a turtledove and a young pigeon. Adam Clarke works through the Hebrew of the list word by word, and John Wesley reads the three years as the age at which each beast was at its full growth and strength. The five are the whole list the law will later allow for sacrifice.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 15:9. | Genesis 15:9, Genesis 15:10 |
| Cutting a covenant | The Hebrew idiom at verse 18 is to cut a covenant, and Adam Clarke reads karath berith as the cutting of the covenant sacrifice itself, since no covenant of the kind was made without one. The animals of verse 10 are cut in two and the halves laid opposite each other, which is the same rite Jeremiah 34:18 describes centuries later. The word and the act are the same thing.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 15:18. | Genesis 15:10, Genesis 15:18 |
| The ten peoples on the ground | Verses 19 to 21 name ten nations living in the land that has just been granted. Adam Clarke notes that ten are listed here where Deuteronomy 7:1 later reckons seven, and reads the difference as nations blended with others in the years between. John Gill places several of them by their territory, the Hittites about Hebron, the Perizzites in the wood country, the Jebusites at the city later called Jebus.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 15:19. | Genesis 15:19, Genesis 15:20, Genesis 15:21 |
The New Testament's use
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 6 is the verse the New Testament builds on. Romans 4:3 quotes it and reads the crediting of righteousness as a gift reckoned to a man's account rather than a wage paid for work, and Matthew Henry notes that the apostle magnifies this faith of Abram and makes it a standing example. Circumcision arrives two chapters later at Genesis 17, and the order matters to the argument, because Abram is counted righteous before he carries the sign.
The four hundred years of verse 13 are the other passage the New Testament handles. Exodus 12:40 gives four hundred and thirty years where this verse gives four hundred, and Paul takes the longer number at Galatians 3:17 when he dates the law against the promise.
The debated concept
The chapter carries two long arguments.
The first is the four hundred years and where they begin. Adam Clarke reports the reckoning of Henry Ainsworth, that the four hundred begin when Ishmael mocked Isaac at Genesis 21:9, which Ainsworth places thirty years after the promise. On that reading the four hundred and thirty of Exodus 12:40 runs from the promise and the four hundred from the mocking, and the two figures measure two different spans. Clarke also notes at verse 16 that a generation in former times was assigned terms of very different length, so the fourth generation of that verse is read as a span of years rather than as four lifetimes. The objection to any harmonising of the two figures is that Exodus 12:40 states its four hundred and thirty of the sojourn itself, which would leave the shorter number to be explained inside the same period.
The second is what passed between the pieces. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the rite as the ordinary covenant form of the East, in which both parties walk between the parts, and observe that here the Lord Himself condescended to enter into covenant while the patriarch stayed where he was. John Wesley reads the furnace and the lamp as burning and consuming the pieces, so that the ceremony was God's acceptance of the sacrifice, as fire was with Gideon and Manoah. Adam Clarke divides the two symbols, reading the smoking furnace as an emblem of the affliction in Egypt and the burning lamp as the symbol of the Divine presence. All three agree that Abram slept through it, which is the point the covenant turns on.
The divine connection
A covenant that only one party walks through binds that party alone. The deep sleep of verse 12 is tardemah, the word used once before over Adam at Genesis 2:21, and both times the man lies still while God does the work. The fire that passes between the halves is the form Israel will follow out of Egypt in the pillar of cloud and fire, and the four beats of verses 13 and 14 are the Exodus in outline. What the text supplies is the sequence, the symbols and the sleeping man, and the weight the chapter carries in Romans and Galatians rests on that order.
Keep studying
Studies14
Words12
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Genesis 15:4 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Genesis 15:2.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Augustine of Hippo, City of God; Bede, Commentary on Genesis; Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.