15:1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram! I am your shield 1 and the one who will reward you in great abundance.” 2
15:2 But Abram said, “O sovereign Lord, 3 what will you give me since 4 I continue to be 5 childless, and my heir 6 is 7 Eliezer of Damascus?” 8 15:3 Abram added, 9 “Since 10 you have not given me a descendant, then look, one born in my house will be my heir!” 11
15:4 But look, 12 the word of the Lord came to him: “This man 13 will not be your heir, 14 but instead 15 a son 16 who comes from your own body will be 17 your heir.” 18 15:5 The Lord 19 took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars – if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”
15:6 Abram believed 20 the Lord, and the Lord 21 considered his response of faith 22 as proof of genuine loyalty. 23
15:7 The Lord said 24 to him, “I am the Lord 25 who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans 26 to give you this land to possess.” 15:8 But 27 Abram 28 said, “O sovereign Lord, 29 by what 30 can I know that I am to possess it?”
15:9 The Lord 31 said to him, “Take for me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” 15:10 So Abram 32 took all these for him and then cut them in two 33 and placed each half opposite the other, 34 but he did not cut the birds in half. 15:11 When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
15:12 When the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep, 35 and great terror overwhelmed him. 36 15:13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain 37 that your descendants will be strangers 38 in a foreign country. 39 They will be enslaved and oppressed 40 for four hundred years. 15:14 But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. 41 Afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15:15 But as for you, 42 you will go to your ancestors 43 in peace and be buried at a good old age. 44 15:16 In the fourth generation 45 your descendants 46 will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.” 47
15:17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch 48 passed between the animal parts. 49 15:18 That day the Lord made a covenant 50 with Abram: “To your descendants I give 51 this land, from the river of Egypt 52 to the great river, the Euphrates River – 15:19 the land 53 of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 15:20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 15:21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.” 54
6:1 When humankind 55 began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born 56 to them, 57 6:2 the sons of God 58 saw that the daughters of humankind were beautiful. Thus they took wives for themselves from any they chose.
25:2 It is the glory of God 60 to conceal 61 a matter,
and it is the glory of a king to search out a matter.
1 sn The noun “shield” recalls the words of Melchizedek in 14:20. If God is the shield, then God will deliver. Abram need not fear reprisals from those he has fought.
2 tn Heb “your reward [in] great abundance.” When the phrase הַרְבּה מְאֹדֵ (harbeh mÿod) follows a noun it invariably modifies the noun and carries the nuance “very great” or “in great abundance.” (See its use in Gen 41:49; Deut 3:5; Josh 22:8; 2 Sam 8:8; 12:2; 1 Kgs 4:29; 10:10-11; 2 Chr 14:13; 32:27; Jer 40:12.) Here the noun “reward” is in apposition to “shield” and refers by metonymy to God as the source of the reward. Some translate here “your reward will be very great” (cf. NASB, NRSV), taking the statement as an independent clause and understanding the Hiphil infinitive absolute as a substitute for a finite verb. However, the construction הַרְבּה מְאֹדֵ is never used this way elsewhere, where it either modifies a noun (see the texts listed above) or serves as an adverb in relation to a finite verb (see Josh 13:1; 1 Sam 26:21; 2 Sam 12:30; 2 Kgs 21:16; 1 Chr 20:2; Neh 2:2).
3 tn The Hebrew text has אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה (’adonay yehvih, “Master,
4 tn The vav (ו) disjunctive at the beginning of the clause is circumstantial, expressing the cause or reason.
5 tn Heb “I am going.”
6 tn Heb “the son of the acquisition of my house.”
7 tn The pronoun is anaphoric here, equivalent to the verb “to be” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 23, §115).
8 sn The sentence in the Hebrew text employs a very effective wordplay on the name Damascus: “The son of the acquisition (בֶּן־מֶשֶׁק, ben-mesheq) of my house is Eliezer of Damascus (דַּמֶּשֶׁק, dammesheq).” The words are not the same; they have different sibilants. But the sound play gives the impression that “in the nomen is the omen.” Eliezer the Damascene will be Abram’s heir if Abram dies childless because “Damascus” seems to mean that. See M. F. Unger, “Some Comments on the Text of Genesis 15:2-3,” JBL 72 (1953): 49-50; H. L. Ginsberg, “Abram’s ‘Damascene’ Steward,” BASOR 200 (1970): 31-32.
9 tn Heb “And Abram said.”
10 tn The construction uses הֵן (hen) to introduce the foundational clause (“since…”), and וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh) to introduce the main clause (“then look…”).
11 tn Heb “is inheriting me.”
12 tn The disjunctive draws attention to God’s response and the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh, translated “look”) mirrors Abram’s statement in v. 3 and highlights the fact that God responded to Abram.
13 tn The subject of the verb is the demonstrative pronoun, which can be translated “this one” or “this man.” That the
14 tn Heb “inherit you.”
15 tn The Hebrew כִּי־אִם (ki-’im) forms a very strong adversative.
16 tn Heb “he who”; the implied referent (Abram’s unborn son who will be his heir) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
17 tn The pronoun could also be an emphatic subject: “whoever comes out of your body, he will inherit you.”
18 tn Heb “will inherit you.”
19 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
20 tn The nonconsecutive vav (ו) is on a perfect verbal form. If the composer of the narrative had wanted to show simple sequence, he would have used the vav consecutive with the preterite. The perfect with vav conjunctive (where one expects the preterite with vav consecutive) in narrative contexts can have a variety of discourse functions, but here it probably serves to highlight Abram’s response to God’s promise. For a detailed discussion of the vav + perfect construction in Hebrew narrative, see R. Longacre, “Weqatal Forms in Biblical Hebrew Prose: A Discourse-modular Approach,” Biblical Hebrew and Discourse Linguistics, 50-98. The Hebrew verb אָמַן (’aman) means “to confirm, to support” in the Qal verbal stem. Its derivative nouns refer to something or someone that/who provides support, such as a “pillar,” “nurse,” or “guardian, trustee.” In the Niphal stem it comes to mean “to be faithful, to be reliable, to be dependable,” or “to be firm, to be sure.” In the Hiphil, the form used here, it takes on a declarative sense: “to consider something reliable [or “dependable”].” Abram regarded the God who made this promise as reliable and fully capable of making it a reality.
21 tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the
22 tn Heb “and he reckoned it to him.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix refers back to Abram’s act of faith, mentioned in the preceding clause. On third feminine singular pronouns referring back to verbal ideas see GKC 440-41 §135.p. Some propose taking the suffix as proleptic, anticipating the following feminine noun (“righteousness”). In this case one might translate: “and he reckoned it to him – [namely] righteousness.” See O. P. Robertson, “Genesis 15:6: A New Covenant Exposition of an Old Covenant Text,” WTJ 42 (1980): 259-89.
23 tn Or “righteousness”; or “evidence of steadfast commitment.” The noun is an adverbial accusative. The verb translated “considered” (Heb “reckoned”) also appears with צְדָקָה (tsÿdaqah, “righteousness”) in Ps 106:31. Alluding to the events recorded in Numbers 25, the psalmist notes that Phinehas’ actions were “credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.” Reference is made to the unconditional, eternal covenant with which God rewarded Phinehas’ loyalty (Num 25:12-13). So צְדָקָה seems to carry by metonymy the meaning “loyal, rewardable behavior” here, a nuance that fits nicely in Genesis 15, where God responds to Abram’s faith by formally ratifying his promise to give Abram and his descendants the land. (See R. B. Chisholm, “Evidence from Genesis,” A Case for Premillennialism, 40.) In Phoenician and Old Aramaic inscriptions cognate nouns glossed as “correct, justifiable conduct” sometimes carry this same semantic nuance (DNWSI 2:962).
24 tn Heb “And he said.”
25 sn I am the
26 sn The phrase of the Chaldeans is a later editorial clarification for the readers, designating the location of Ur. From all evidence there would have been no Chaldeans in existence at this early date; they are known in the time of the neo-Babylonian empire in the first millennium
27 tn Here the vav carries adversative force and is translated “but.”
28 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
29 tn See note on the phrase “sovereign
30 tn Or “how.”
31 tn Heb “He”; the referent (the
32 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
33 tn Heb “in the middle.”
34 tn Heb “to meet its neighbor.”
35 tn Heb “a deep sleep fell on Abram.”
36 tn Heb “and look, terror, a great darkness was falling on him.”
37 tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, with the Qal infinitive absolute followed by the imperfect from יָדַע (yada’, “know”). The imperfect here has an obligatory or imperatival force.
38 tn The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger, “sojourner, stranger”) is related to the verb גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to stay for awhile”). Abram’s descendants will stay in a land as resident aliens without rights of citizenship.
39 tn Heb “in a land not theirs.”
40 tn Heb “and they will serve them and they will oppress them.” The verb עִנּוּ, (’innu, a Piel form from עָנָה, ’anah, “to afflict, to oppress, to treat harshly”), is used in Exod 1:11 to describe the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt.
41 tn The participle דָּן (dan, from דִּין, din) is used here for the future: “I am judging” = “I will surely judge.” The judgment in this case will be condemnation and punishment. The translation “execute judgment on” implies that the judgment will certainly be carried out.
42 tn The vav with the pronoun before the verb calls special attention to the subject in contrast to the preceding subject.
43 sn You will go to your ancestors. This is a euphemistic expression for death.
44 tn Heb “in a good old age.”
45 sn The term generation is being used here in its widest sense to refer to a full life span. When the chronological factors are considered and the genealogies tabulated, there are four hundred years of bondage. This suggests that in this context a generation is equivalent to one hundred years.
46 tn Heb “they”; the referent (“your descendants”) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
47 tn Heb “is not yet complete.”
48 sn A smoking pot with a flaming torch. These same implements were used in Mesopotamian rituals designed to ward off evil (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 113-14).
49 tn Heb “these pieces.”
50 tn Heb “cut a covenant.”
51 tn The perfect verbal form is understood as instantaneous (“I here and now give”). Another option is to understand it as rhetorical, indicating certitude (“I have given” meaning it is as good as done, i.e., “I will surely give”).
52 sn The river of Egypt is a wadi (a seasonal stream) on the northeastern border of Egypt, not to the River Nile.
53 tn The words “the land” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
54 tn Each of the names in the list has the Hebrew definite article, which is used here generically for the class of people identified.
55 tn The Hebrew text has the article prefixed to the noun. Here the article indicates the generic use of the word אָדָם (’adam): “humankind.”
56 tn This disjunctive clause (conjunction + subject + verb) is circumstantial to the initial temporal clause. It could be rendered, “with daughters being born to them.” For another example of such a disjunctive clause following the construction וַיְהִיכִּי (vayÿhiki, “and it came to pass when”), see 2 Sam 7:1.
57 tn The pronominal suffix is third masculine plural, indicating that the antecedent “humankind” is collective.
58 sn The Hebrew phrase translated “sons of God” (בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים, bÿne-ha’elohim) occurs only here (Gen 6:2, 4) and in Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7. There are three major interpretations of the phrase here. (1) In the Book of Job the phrase clearly refers to angelic beings. In Gen 6 the “sons of God” are distinct from “humankind,” suggesting they were not human. This is consistent with the use of the phrase in Job. Since the passage speaks of these beings cohabiting with women, they must have taken physical form or possessed the bodies of men. An early Jewish tradition preserved in 1 En. 6-7 elaborates on this angelic revolt and even names the ringleaders. (2) Not all scholars accept the angelic interpretation of the “sons of God,” however. Some argue that the “sons of God” were members of Seth’s line, traced back to God through Adam in Gen 5, while the “daughters of humankind” were descendants of Cain. But, as noted above, the text distinguishes the “sons of God” from humankind (which would include the Sethites as well as the Cainites) and suggests that the “daughters of humankind” are human women in general, not just Cainites. (3) Others identify the “sons of God” as powerful tyrants, perhaps demon-possessed, who viewed themselves as divine and, following the example of Lamech (see Gen 4:19), practiced polygamy. But usage of the phrase “sons of God” in Job militates against this view. For literature on the subject see G. J. Wenham, Genesis (WBC), 1:135.
59 tc Theodotian adds “in Israel,” perhaps to broaden the matter beyond the local village.
60 sn The proverb provides a contrast between God and the king, and therein is the clue to the range of application involved. The interest of the king is ruling or administering his government; and so the subject matter is a contrast to the way God rules his kingdom.
61 sn The two infinitives form the heart of the contrast – “to conceal a matter” and “to search out a matter.” God’s government of the universe is beyond human understanding – humans cannot begin to fathom the intentions and operations of it. But it is the glory of kings to search out matters and make them intelligible to the people. Human government cannot claim divine secrecy; kings have to study and investigate everything before making a decision, even divine government as far as possible. But kings who rule as God’s representatives must also try to represent his will in human affairs – they must even inquire after God to find his will. This is their glorious nature and responsibility. For more general information on vv. 2-27, see G. E. Bryce, “Another Wisdom ‘Book’ in Proverbs,” JBL 91 (1972): 145-57.