Genesis 15

Genesis 15

God’s Covenant with Abram

1After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”[#Gen 21.17; 26.24; Deut 33.29; Prov 11.8; Dan 10.1]

2But Abram said, “O Lord God , what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”[#Acts 7.5; #15.2 Meaning of Heb uncertain]

3And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.”[#Gen 14.14]

4But the word of the Lord came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.”[#Gal 4.28]

5He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”[#Gen 22.17; Ps 147.4; Jer 33.22; Rom 4.18; Heb 11.12]

6And he believed the Lord , and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.[#15.6 Heb he]

7Then he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.”[#Gen 11.31; 13.15, 17]

8But he said, “O Lord God , how am I to know that I shall possess it?”[#Lk 1.18]

9He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

10He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other, but he did not cut the birds in two.[#Lev 1.17; Jer 34.18]

11And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.[#Gen 2.21]

13Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years,[#Ex 12.40; Acts 7.6; #15.13 Heb he]

14but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.[#Ex 12.36]

15As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.[#Gen 25.8]

16And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”[#1 Kings 21.26]

17When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.[#Jer 34.18, 19]

18On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates,[#Gen 12.7; 24.7; Ex 23.31; Num 34.3; Deut 11.24; Josh 1.4]

19the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

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

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Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ