Genesis 15:2-21

15:2 But Abram said, “O sovereign Lord, ¹  what will you give me since ²  I continue to be ³  childless, and my heir ⁴  is ⁵  Eliezer of Damascus?” ⁶  15:3 Abram added, ⁷  “Since ⁸  you have not given me a descendant, then look, one born in my house will be my heir!” ⁹ 

15:4 But look, ¹⁰  the word of the Lord came to him: “This man ¹¹  will not be your heir, ¹²  but instead ¹³  a son ¹⁴  who comes from your own body will be ¹⁵  your heir.” ¹⁶  15:5 The Lord ¹⁷  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 ¹⁸  the Lord, and the Lord ¹⁹  considered his response of faith ²⁰  as proof of genuine loyalty. ²¹ 

15:7 The Lord said ²²  to him, “I am the Lord ²³  who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans ²⁴  to give you this land to possess.” 15:8 But ²⁵  Abram ²⁶  said, “O sovereign Lord, ²⁷  by what ²⁸  can I know that I am to possess it?”

15:9 The Lord ²⁹  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 ³⁰  took all these for him and then cut them in two ³¹  and placed each half opposite the other, ³²  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, ³³  and great terror overwhelmed him. ³⁴  15:13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain ³⁵  that your descendants will be strangers ³⁶  in a foreign country. ³⁷  They will be enslaved and oppressed ³⁸  for four hundred years. 15:14 But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. ³⁹  Afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15:15 But as for you, ⁴⁰  you will go to your ancestors ⁴¹  in peace and be buried at a good old age. ⁴²  15:16 In the fourth generation ⁴³  your descendants ⁴⁴  will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.” ⁴⁵ 

15:17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch ⁴⁶  passed between the animal parts. ⁴⁷  15:18 That day the Lord made a covenant ⁴⁸  with Abram: “To your descendants I give ⁴⁹  this land, from the river of Egypt ⁵⁰  to the great river, the Euphrates River – 15:19 the land ⁵¹  of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 15:20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 15:21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.” ⁵² 

[15:2]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text has אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה (’adonay yehvih, “Master, Lord”). Since the tetragrammaton (YHWH) usually is pointed with the vowels for the Hebrew word אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “master”) to avoid pronouncing the divine name, that would lead in this place to a repetition of אֲדֹנָי. So the tetragrammaton is here pointed with the vowels for the word אֱלֹהִים (’elohim, “God”) instead. That would produce the reading of the Hebrew as “Master, God” in the Jewish textual tradition. But the presence of “Master” before the holy name is rather compelling evidence that the original would have been “Master, Lord,” which is rendered here “sovereign Lord.”

[15:2]  ² tn The vav (ו) disjunctive at the beginning of the clause is circumstantial, expressing the cause or reason.

[15:2]  ³ tn Heb “I am going.”

[15:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “the son of the acquisition of my house.”

[15:2]  ⁵ tn The pronoun is anaphoric here, equivalent to the verb “to be” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 23, §115).

[15:2]  ⁶ 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.

[15:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “And Abram said.”

[15:3]  ⁸ tn The construction uses הֵן (hen) to introduce the foundational clause (“since…”), and וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh) to introduce the main clause (“then look…”).

[15:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “is inheriting me.”

[15:4]  ¹⁰ 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.

[15:4]  ¹¹ tn The subject of the verb is the demonstrative pronoun, which can be translated “this one” or “this man.” That the Lord does not mention him by name is significant; often in ancient times the use of the name would bring legitimacy to inheritance and adoption cases.

[15:4]  ¹² tn Heb “inherit you.”

[15:4]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew כִּי־אִם (ki-’im) forms a very strong adversative.

[15:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “he who”; the implied referent (Abram’s unborn son who will be his heir) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:4]  ¹⁵ tn The pronoun could also be an emphatic subject: “whoever comes out of your body, he will inherit you.”

[15:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “will inherit you.”

[15:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:6]  ¹⁸ 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.

[15:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:6]  ²⁰ 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.

[15:6]  ²¹ 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).

[15:7]  ²² tn Heb “And he said.”

[15:7]  ²³ sn I am the Lord. The Lord initiates the covenant-making ceremony with a declaration of who he is and what he has done for Abram. The same form appears at the beginning of the covenant made at Sinai (see Exod 20:1).

[15:7]  ²⁴ 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 b.c.

[15:8]  ²⁵ tn Here the vav carries adversative force and is translated “but.”

[15:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:8]  ²⁷ tn See note on the phrase “sovereign Lord” in 15:2.

[15:8]  ²⁸ tn Or “how.”

[15:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “He”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:10]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[15:10]  ³¹ tn Heb “in the middle.”

[15:10]  ³² tn Heb “to meet its neighbor.”

[15:12]  ³³ tn Heb “a deep sleep fell on Abram.”

[15:12]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and look, terror, a great darkness was falling on him.”

[15:13]  ³⁵ 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.

[15:13]  ³⁶ 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.

[15:13]  ³⁷ tn Heb “in a land not theirs.”

[15:13]  ³⁸ 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.

[15:14]  ³⁹ 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.

[15:15]  ⁴⁰ tn The vav with the pronoun before the verb calls special attention to the subject in contrast to the preceding subject.

[15:15]  ⁴¹ sn You will go to your ancestors. This is a euphemistic expression for death.

[15:15]  ⁴² tn Heb “in a good old age.”

[15:16]  ⁴³ 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.

[15:16]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “they”; the referent (“your descendants”) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[15:16]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “is not yet complete.”

[15:17]  ⁴⁶ 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).

[15:17]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “these pieces.”

[15:18]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “cut a covenant.”

[15:18]  ⁴⁹ 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”).

[15:18]  ⁵⁰ sn The river of Egypt is a wadi (a seasonal stream) on the northeastern border of Egypt, not to the River Nile.

[15:19]  ⁵¹ tn The words “the land” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[15:21]  ⁵² tn Each of the names in the list has the Hebrew definite article, which is used here generically for the class of people identified.