Genesis 15:3-13

3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.”

5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring^[a] be.”

6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

7 He also said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”

8 But Abram said, “Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”

9 So the LORD said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.”

10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.

11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.

13 Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there.

Genesis 15:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 15

This chapter informs us of a gracious appearance of God to Abram, and of a kind promise made unto him, Ge 15:1; of Abram's request for an heir, Ge 15:2,3; of an answer to it, that he should have one, and even a numberless seed, Ge 15:4,5; which he gave credit to, Ge 15:6; upon which he has a fresh promise of the land of Canaan, Ge 15:7; of his inheriting of which he desires a sign, and this was given him, Ge 15:8-12; and at the same time it was predicted to him how long his posterity should be afflicted in a land not theirs, and afterwards come out with great substance, Ge 15:13-16; and the grant of the land of Canaan to his seed is renewed, Ge 15:17-21.

Cross References

• 1. Genesis 24:2,34
• 2. S Genesis 12:5
• 3. Galatians 4:28
• 4. Job 11:8; Job 35:5; Psalms 8:3; Psalms 147:4; Jeremiah 33:22
• 5. S Genesis 12:2; Genesis 22:17; Exodus 32:13; S Jeremiah 30:19; Romans 4:18*; Hebrews 11:12
• 6. Psalms 106:31; Ro 4:3*,20-24*; Galatians 3:6*; James 2:23*
• 7. Genesis 12:1; Exodus 20:2; Acts 7:3; Hebrews 11:8
• 8. S Genesis 11:28; Acts 7:4
• 9. S Genesis 13:17; Genesis 17:8; Genesis 28:4; Genesis 35:12; Genesis 48:4; Exodus 6:8; Deuteronomy 9:5
• 10. S ver 2
• 11. Luke 1:18
• 12. Deuteronomy 12:20; Deuteronomy 19:8
• 13. Numbers 19:2; Deuteronomy 21:3; Hosea 4:16; Amos 4:1
• 14. 1 Samuel 1:24
• 15. Leviticus 1:14; Leviticus 5:7,11; Leviticus 12:8
• 16. ver 17; Jeremiah 34:18
• 17. Leviticus 1:17; Leviticus 5:8
• 18. Deuteronomy 28:26; Jeremiah 7:33
• 19. S Genesis 2:21
• 20. Exodus 1:11; Exodus 3:7; Exodus 5:6,10-14,18; Exodus 6:5; Deuteronomy 5:15; Job 3:18
• 21. ver 16; Exodus 12:40; Numbers 20:15; Acts 7:6,17; Galatians 3:17

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "seed"