Genesis 15:3-21

3 You have given me no children, and one of my slaves will inherit my property."

4 Then he heard the Lord speaking to him again: "This slave Eliezer will not inherit your property; your own son will be your heir."

5 The Lord took him outside and said, "Look at the sky and try to count the stars; you will have as many descendants as that." ¹

6 Abram put his trust in the Lord, and because of this the Lord was pleased with him and accepted him. ²

7 Then the Lord said to him, "I am the Lord, who led you out of Ur in Babylonia, to give you this land as your own."

8 But Abram asked, "Sovereign Lord, how can I know that it will be mine?"

9 He answered, "Bring me a cow, a goat, and a ram, each of them three years old, and a dove and a pigeon."

10 Abram brought the animals to God, cut them in half, and placed the halves opposite each other in two rows; but he did not cut up the birds.

11 Vultures came down on the bodies, but Abram drove them off.

12 When the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and fear and terror came over him. ³

13 The Lord said to him, "Your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land; they will be slaves there and will be treated cruelly for four hundred years. ⁴

14 But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and when they leave that foreign land, they will take great wealth with them. ⁵

15 You yourself will live to a ripe old age, die in peace, and be buried.

16 It will be four generations before your descendants come back here, because I will not drive out the Amorites until they become so wicked that they must be punished."

17 When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch suddenly appeared and passed between the pieces of the animals.

18 Then and there the Lord made a covenant with Abram. He said, "I promise to give your descendants all this land from the border of Egypt to the Euphrates River, ⁶

19 including the lands of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."

Genesis 15:3-21 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. 15.5Romans 4.18;Hebrews 11.12.
• 2. 15.6 +21Macc 2.52; +1Ro 4.3;Galatians 3.6;James 2.23.
• 3. 15.12Job 4.13, 14.
• 4. 15.13Exodus 1.1-14;Acts 7.6.
• 5. 15.14Exodus 12.40, 41;Acts 7.7.
• 6. 15.18Acts 7.5.