Genesis 15
21 verses
Genesis 15 records the formal ratification of God's covenant with Abram, and it is one of the most intimate and dramatic encounters between God and a human being in all of Scripture. Abram, still childless despite years of waiting, voices his honest doubt — what can you give me when I have no heir? God does not rebuke him but takes him outside, shows him the night sky, and says: count the stars if you can — so shall your offspring be. And Abram believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Paul quotes this exact moment in Romans 4:3 and Galatians 3:6 as the defining example of justification by faith. God then ratifies the covenant through a remarkable ceremony — the smoking fire pot and flaming torch passing between the divided animals — with God alone walking through, making this an unconditional promise. The deep sleep and the darkness Abram experiences, along with the prophecy of four hundred years of suffering in a foreign land, remind us that faith is not the absence of difficulty but the presence of God within it.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
1
After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
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2
And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
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3
And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
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4
And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
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5
And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
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6
And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
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7
And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
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8
And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
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9
And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
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10
And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
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11
And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
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12
And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
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13
And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
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14
And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
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15
And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
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16
But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
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17
And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
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18
In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
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19
The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
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20
And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
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21
And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
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