New International Reader s Version - NIrV - 1996
Genesis 15
1
Some time later, Abram had a vision. The Lord said to him, "Abram, do not be afraid. I am like a shield to you. I am your very great reward."
Reference
Parallel theme
Isaiah 41:10
Luke 12:32
References Lord
Psalm 84:11
Genesis 26:24
Isaiah 41:14
Lamentations 3:24
Psalm 5:12
Psalm 18:2
Ruth 2:12
Word
Psalm 119:114
2
But Abram said, "Lord and King, what can you give me? I still don't have any children. My servant Eliezer comes from Damascus. When I die, he will get everything I own."
People
3
Abram continued, "You haven't given me any children. So a servant in my house will get everything I own."
Reference
4
Then a message came to Abram from the Lord. He said, "This man will not get what belongs to you. A son will come from your own body. He will get everything you own."
Reference
5
The Lord took Abram outside and said, "Look up at the sky. Count the stars, if you can." Then he said to him, "That is how many children you will have."
Reference
6
Abram believed the Lord. The Lord accepted Abram because he believed. So his faith made him right with the Lord.
Reference
7
He also said to Abram, "I am the Lord. I brought you out of Ur in Babylonia. I wanted to give you this land to take as your very own."
Reference
8
But Abram said, "Lord and King, how can I know I will take this land as my own?"
Reference
Parallel theme
Luke 1:18
Luke 1:34
References God
Isaiah 7:11
References Lord
2 Kings 20:8
Psalm 86:17
9
So the Lord said to him, "Bring me a young cow. Also bring a goat and a ram. All of them must be three years old. Bring a dove and a young pigeon along with them."
Reference
10
Abram brought all of them to the Lord. Abram cut them in two. He placed the halves opposite each other. But he didn't cut the birds in half.
Reference
Parallel theme
Leviticus 1:17
11
Then large birds came down to eat the dead bodies of the animals and birds. But Abram chased the large birds away.
Reference
Parallel theme
Matthew 13:4
12
As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep. A thick and terrible darkness covered him.
Reference
13
Then the Lord said to him, "You can be sure of what I am about to tell you. Your children who live after you will be strangers in a country that does not belong to them. They will become slaves. They will be treated badly for 400 years.
Reference
14
But I will punish the nation that makes them slaves. After that, they will leave with all kinds of valuable things.
Reference
15
"But you will die in peace. You will join the members of your family who have already died. You will be buried when you are very old.
Reference
Good
1 Chronicles 29:28
Parallel theme
Job 5:26
Numbers 27:13
Acts 13:36
Job 42:17
Ecclesiastes 12:7
Genesis 49:29
Daniel 12:13
Judges 2:10
Peace
2 Chronicles 34:28
16
"Your children's grandchildren will come back here. That is because the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached the point where I must judge them."
Reference
17
The sun set and darkness fell. Then a burning torch and a fire pot filled with smoke appeared. They passed between the pieces of the animals.
Reference
18
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram. He said, "I am giving this land to your children after you. It reaches from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates.
Reference
Covenant
Nehemiah 9:8
Hebrews 13:20
Parallel theme
Genesis 13:15
Deuteronomy 11:24
Exodus 23:23
Genesis 26:4
References Egypt
Numbers 34:5
References Lord
Genesis 12:7
Genesis 24:7
Isaiah 27:12
19
It includes the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
20
Hittites, Perizzites and Rephaites.
21
The Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites also live there."
Chapter Summary
Genesis chapter fifteen is where God's promises to Abram become significantly more formal. Previously there have been verbal promises and blessings, and a few altars to mark the journey. In chapter fifteen, God establishes a covenant with Abram through a ceremony that is bound to have seemed strange to us, but that would have had a certain logic for an ancient audience.
The chapter begins with the word of the Lord coming to Abram in a vision, telling him 'not to be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.' Abram answers in a way that shows that there is something that has been troubling him, that he feels that he is not getting what he needs to have peace. He argues that no matter what he has, if he does not have a son, it will all go to Eliezer of Damascus, a servant who was born in his household. 'You have given me no children,' says Abram, 'so a servant born in my house will be my heir.'
It is a deeply human moment, showing Abram as a man who is getting great promises from God, but who still faces the daily reality of a life that shows no sign of producing a son. God does not dismiss him, but answers the unspoken question in Abram's heart when he says, 'This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own body will be your heir.' God then leads Abram out and tells him to look up at the sky and to try to count the stars if he can, and then says, 'So shall your offspring be.'
Then we are told that Abram believed the Lord, and that it was credited to him as righteousness, a sentence that becomes enormously important later on in the New Testament, where Paul draws on this story to argue that what God wants from us is not that we should try desperately to live up to some standard of our own choosing, but to believe in what God tells us and for Abram to do this is something that makes him righteous. God then reassures Abram that He will give him this land, saying that he had brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees to give it to him. Abram asks for some sign of this, saying, 'How can I know that I will actually gain possession of it?'
God tells him to take a heifer, a goat, a ram, each three years old, with a dove and a young pigeon, and he is to cut the animals in half and lay the halves opposite one another, but he is not told to cut up the birds. This is obviously a covenant ceremony, but it is worth remembering that in such matters the Israelites were not innovators, and that the practices described in the Torah were those that had been adopted locally. In such a covenant ceremony, people would walk between the split animals, in token of the judgement that would come upon them if they broke their word, and we are told that birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and that Abram had to drive them away.
As the sun went down Abram was overcome by a deep sleep and a thick and dreadful darkness came upon him, as God said to him, 'Know this, your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land; they will be enslaved and maltreated for four hundred years. But I will bring judgement on the nation that enslaved them, and afterwards they shall come out with great possessions. You yourself, however, shall die in peace, and you shall be buried in a good old age. It will be in the fourth generation that they shall return to this land, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.'
It is worth noting that God does not say here that the Amorites have committed any sin at all, only that He is waiting for the iniquity to reach its full measure before bringing judgement on them. It is a sign of the grace of God that He always gives people time to repent, and to turn away from evil.
Then as the sun went down, and it was night, the smoking firepot with the glowing coal came between the split animals, and we are told that God passed between the opposites as a sign of the covenant that He was making with Abram, but this is interesting because it is not Abram who passes between the opposing halves, but rather God. In a normal covenant, both sides take part, and each puts something on the line, but in this case, it is God who is making the covenant with Abram, and it is He who puts Himself on the line.
On the day that this took place, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying that He would give this land to Abram's descendants, and the chapter ends by giving details of the borders of the territory. It goes from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, and includes the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites and many others.
Taken together, these make up chapter fifteen of Genesis, and it is an important chapter because Abram's unspoken fears are aired and answered. What God has promised, Abram will receive, and it becomes clear that God has made it so that it is not us who put ourselves on the line before God, but rather it is He who puts Himself on the line for us.
The chapter begins with the word of the Lord coming to Abram in a vision, telling him 'not to be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.' Abram answers in a way that shows that there is something that has been troubling him, that he feels that he is not getting what he needs to have peace. He argues that no matter what he has, if he does not have a son, it will all go to Eliezer of Damascus, a servant who was born in his household. 'You have given me no children,' says Abram, 'so a servant born in my house will be my heir.'
It is a deeply human moment, showing Abram as a man who is getting great promises from God, but who still faces the daily reality of a life that shows no sign of producing a son. God does not dismiss him, but answers the unspoken question in Abram's heart when he says, 'This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own body will be your heir.' God then leads Abram out and tells him to look up at the sky and to try to count the stars if he can, and then says, 'So shall your offspring be.'
Then we are told that Abram believed the Lord, and that it was credited to him as righteousness, a sentence that becomes enormously important later on in the New Testament, where Paul draws on this story to argue that what God wants from us is not that we should try desperately to live up to some standard of our own choosing, but to believe in what God tells us and for Abram to do this is something that makes him righteous. God then reassures Abram that He will give him this land, saying that he had brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees to give it to him. Abram asks for some sign of this, saying, 'How can I know that I will actually gain possession of it?'
God tells him to take a heifer, a goat, a ram, each three years old, with a dove and a young pigeon, and he is to cut the animals in half and lay the halves opposite one another, but he is not told to cut up the birds. This is obviously a covenant ceremony, but it is worth remembering that in such matters the Israelites were not innovators, and that the practices described in the Torah were those that had been adopted locally. In such a covenant ceremony, people would walk between the split animals, in token of the judgement that would come upon them if they broke their word, and we are told that birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and that Abram had to drive them away.
As the sun went down Abram was overcome by a deep sleep and a thick and dreadful darkness came upon him, as God said to him, 'Know this, your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land; they will be enslaved and maltreated for four hundred years. But I will bring judgement on the nation that enslaved them, and afterwards they shall come out with great possessions. You yourself, however, shall die in peace, and you shall be buried in a good old age. It will be in the fourth generation that they shall return to this land, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.'
It is worth noting that God does not say here that the Amorites have committed any sin at all, only that He is waiting for the iniquity to reach its full measure before bringing judgement on them. It is a sign of the grace of God that He always gives people time to repent, and to turn away from evil.
Then as the sun went down, and it was night, the smoking firepot with the glowing coal came between the split animals, and we are told that God passed between the opposites as a sign of the covenant that He was making with Abram, but this is interesting because it is not Abram who passes between the opposing halves, but rather God. In a normal covenant, both sides take part, and each puts something on the line, but in this case, it is God who is making the covenant with Abram, and it is He who puts Himself on the line.
On the day that this took place, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying that He would give this land to Abram's descendants, and the chapter ends by giving details of the borders of the territory. It goes from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, and includes the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites and many others.
Taken together, these make up chapter fifteen of Genesis, and it is an important chapter because Abram's unspoken fears are aired and answered. What God has promised, Abram will receive, and it becomes clear that God has made it so that it is not us who put ourselves on the line before God, but rather it is He who puts Himself on the line for us.