1 After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Have no fear, Abram: I will keep you safe, and great will be your reward.
2 And Abram said, What will you give me? for I have no child and this Eliezer of Damascus will have all my wealth after me.
3 And Abram said, You have given me no child, and a servant in my house will get the heritage.
4 Then said the Lord, This man will not get the heritage, but a son of your body will have your property after you.
5 And he took him out into the open air, and said to him, Let your eyes be lifted to heaven, and see if the stars may be numbered; even so will your seed be.
6 And he had faith in the Lord, and it was put to his account as righteousness.
7 And he said to him, I am the Lord, who took you from Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land for your heritage.
8 And he said, O Lord God, how may I be certain that it will be mine?
9 And he said, Take a young cow of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a sheep of three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon.
10 All these he took, cutting them in two and putting one half opposite the other, but not cutting the birds in two.
11 And evil birds came down on the bodies, but Abram sent them away.
12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep came on Abram, and a dark cloud of fear.
13 And he said to Abram, Truly, your seed will be living in a land which is not theirs, as servants to a people who will be cruel to them for four hundred years;
14 But I will be the judge of that nation whose servants they are, and they will come out from among them with great wealth.
15 As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace; at the end of a long life you will be put in your last resting-place.
16 And in the fourth generation they will come back here; for at present the sin of the Amorite is not full.
17 Then when the sun went down and it was dark, he saw a smoking fire and a flaming light which went between the parts of the bodies.
18 In that day the Lord made an agreement with Abram, and said, To your seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
19 The Kenite, the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite,
20 And the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim,
21 And the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Genesis 15
Commentary on Genesis 15 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 15
Ge 15:1-21. Divine Encouragement.
1. After these things—the conquest of the invading kings.
the word of the Lord—a phrase used, when connected with a vision, to denote a prophetic message.
Fear not, Abram—When the excitement of the enterprise was over, he had become a prey to despondency and terror at the probable revenge that might be meditated against him. To dispel his fear, he was favored with this gracious announcement. Having such a promise, how well did it become him (and all God's people who have the same promise) to dismiss fears, and cast all burdens on the Lord (Ps 27:3).
2. Lord God, what wilt thou give?—To his mind the declaration, "I am thy exceeding great reward" [Ge 15:1], had but one meaning, or was viewed but in one particular light, as bearing on the fulfilment of the promise, and he was still experiencing the sickness of hope deferred.
3. Eliezer of Damascus … one born in my house is mine heir—According to the usage of nomadic tribes, his chief confidential servant, would be heir to his possessions and honors. But this man could have become his son only by adoption; and how sadly would that have come short of the parental hopes he had been encouraged to entertain! His language betrayed a latent spirit of fretfulness or perhaps a temporary failure in the very virtue for which he is so renowned—and absolute submission to God's time, as well as way, of accomplishing His promise.
4. This shall not be thine heir—To the first part of his address no reply was given; but having renewed it in a spirit of more becoming submission, "whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it" [Ge 15:8], he was delighted by a most explicit promise of Canaan, which was immediately confirmed by a remarkable ceremony.
9-21. Take me an heifer, &c.—On occasions of great importance, when two or more parties join in a compact, they either observe precisely the same rites as Abram did, or, where they do not, they invoke the lamp as their witness. According to these ideas, which have been from time immemorial engraven on the minds of Eastern people, the Lord Himself condescended to enter into covenant with Abram. The patriarch did not pass between the sacrifice and the reason was that in this transaction he was bound to nothing. He asked a sign, and God was pleased to give him a sign, by which, according to Eastern ideas, He bound Himself. In like manner God has entered into covenant with us; and in the glory of the only-begotten Son, who passed through between God and us, all who believe have, like Abram, a sign or pledge in the gift of the Spirit, whereby they may know that they shall inherit the heavenly Canaan.