Genesis 15:16
in Genesis 15In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.
KJV
But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
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This verse in Genesis 15
Commentary
11 notes on this verseIn 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.
This site's exposition
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 record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
The history of the Jews, who went down into Egypt and came out from Egypt, seems to accord with this. The years they spent there were 430, but not all of them lived a hundred years and more, as did Moses and Joshua, so that the time of the fourth generation would be appropriate in this context. So let us search rather for a mystical sense. In fact, the number four adapts well to all numbers, and it is in a certain sense the root and base of the decimal. It also represents the midpoint of the number seven. In fact, the ninety-third psalm is entitled "fourth day of the week" because this number is the intermediary between the first three and those that follow. In fact, three days precede it: the first, the second and the third; and three follow: the fifth, the sixth, the seventh. One who sings this psalm is proceeding through the life of this world, so to speak, in accordance with aptly placed numbers, like a quadrangle stable and perfect. In four books the Gospel is complete and perfect. There are four mystical animals; and there are also four parts of the world, from which the assembled children of the church have propagated the most holy kingdom of Christ, coming from east and west and north and south. The holy church, therefore, has arisen with four sides. The decade too derives from this number. For if you total up the numbers from one to four you will have the number ten. Count one, add two to this: this makes three. Add three to three, this makes six. And to six add four, and this makes ten. Four then generates the decade, and the decade includes all numbers. Four is also the number of ages of a man: childhood, adolescence, virility and maturity. He rises gradually, and his wisdom is consolidated. Thus the fullness of wisdom comes, considering the ages, in fourth place.
After having said this of Abraham himself, God speaks of the children who will come from him: "In the fourth generation they shall come back here," meaning the generation that would return to the land of inheritance.
(Verse 16) But in the fourth generation they will return here. There is no doubt that these will be the ones who are descended from Abraham. It is asked how it is written in Exodus: In the fifth generation the children of Israel went forth from the land of Egypt (Exodus 15:18). On this chapter, we have published a small volume.
The Medieval Church1 voice
But in the fourth generation, they shall return here. Kohath entered Egypt with his father Levi, whose son was Amram, whose son was Aaron, whose son was Eleazar, who was the fourth from Kohath.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
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.
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again,....
But God ensures both to him; and that which made these two, the promised seed and the promised land, comforts indeed to this great believer was that they were both typical of those two invaluable blessings, Christ and heaven; and so, we have reason to think, Abram eyed them. God's Covenant with Abram.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3043: “Filling Up the Measure of Iniquity” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
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.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3043: “Filling Up the Measure of Iniquity” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
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. It would take more than 400 years, during which time God's patience would wait while the Amorites continued to heap sin upon sin, iniquity upon iniquity, until they reached a certain point—and then God would bear with them no longer. When the Lord uttered the words of our text, the Amorites had not come up to that fatal point and, therefore, He did not at once mete out their punishment to them, for the measure of iniquity was not yet full. It is a well-known Truth of God that God has great long-suffering, but that there is a point beyond which even His long-suffering will not go. It has been so in the great judgments of God in the world. Before the days of Noah, men had revolted from God, but Noah was sent to them as a preacher of righteousness. And he did preach and the Spirit of God was with him. Yet, for all that, the antediluvian world turned not from its sin and when the 120 years had expired—but not till then—God opened the windows of Heaven and down came the deluge which destroyed the whole race with the exception of the eight souls who were preserved in the ark. Those old-world sinners had had 120 years for repentance, and 120 years of earnest, faithful warning from holy Noah—and not till all those year's had expired did God's patience come to an end and His judgments begin. Remember also the case of the children of Israel in the wilderness.
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְד֥וֹר | vedor | and [the] generation | H1755 → | 167 times |
| רְבִיעִ֖י | revii | fourth | H7243 → | 56 times |
| יָשׁ֣וּבוּ | yashuvu | they will return | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| הֵ֑נָּה | henah | hither | H2008 → | 49 times |
| כִּ֧י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| לֹא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| שָׁלֵ֛ם | shalem | [is] complete | H8003 → | 28 times |
| עֲוֹ֥ן | ʾavon | [the] iniquity of | H5771 → | 233 times |
| הָאֱמֹרִ֖י | haemori | the Amorite[s] | H567 → | 87 times |
| עַד־ | ʾad- | until | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| הֵֽנָּה׃ | henah | now | H2008 → | 49 times |
וְד֥וֹרand [the] generation
vedorH1755 →167 times
רְבִיעִ֖יfourth
reviiH7243 →56 times
יָשׁ֣וּבוּthey will return
yashuvuH7725 →1056 times
הֵ֑נָּהhither
henahH2008 →49 times
כִּ֧יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
לֹא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
שָׁלֵ֛ם[is] complete
shalemH8003 →28 times
עֲוֹ֥ן[the] iniquity of
ʾavonH5771 →233 times
הָאֱמֹרִ֖יthe Amorite[s]
haemoriH567 →87 times
עַד־until
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
הֵֽנָּה׃now
henahH2008 →49 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Daniel 8:23In the latter part of their reign, when the rebellion has reached its full measure, an insolent king, skilled in intrigue, will come to the throne.
it leads to
- 2 Thessalonians 2:9–11
The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder,
- Revelation 13:11–14
Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. This beast had two horns like a lamb, but spoke like a dragon.
- Revelation 19:20
But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and…
- Daniel 8:9–12
From one of these horns a little horn emerged and grew extensively toward the south and the east and toward the Beautiful Land.
- 1 Timothy 4:1
Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons,
- 2 Thessalonians 2:9–11
Through
1 Thessalonians 2:16hindering us from telling the Gentiles how they may be saved. As a result, they continue to heap up their sins to full capacity; the utmost wrath has come upon them.
it leads to
- Acts 17:13
But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that Paul was also proclaiming the word of God in Berea, they went there themselves to incite and agitate the crowds.
- Acts 14:19
Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, presuming he was dead.
- Acts 17:13
Through
Exodus 12:40Now the duration of the Israelites’ stay in Egypt was 430 years.
it leads to
- Genesis 15:13
Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
- Genesis 15:13
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies36
On this chapter
- Abraham
- The Armor of God
- Caleb
- Chaldea
- Fear Not: How Often Scripture Says It
- Covenant Theology and Dispensationalism
Show the next 6 titles
Show the next 6 titles
- Hope Against Hope
- Put That on Mine Account: Imputation
- Justification by Faith: the Verdict of the Cross
- Mazzaroth
- The Mosaic Covenant
- Names of God
Show the next 6 titles
About Genesis
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Ambrose of Milan, On Abraham; Bede, Commentary on Genesis (Hexaemeron); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3043: “Filling Up the Measure of Iniquity” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Didymus the Blind, ON GENESIS 232-33; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.