1After these things YHWH’s word came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Don’t fear, Abram. I’m a shield for you. Your reward is very much.”
2And Abram said, “My Lord, YHWH, what would you give me when I go childless and my household is an acquired person!” (That is Damascus Eliezer.)
3And Abram said, “Here, you haven’t given me seed. And, here, a member of my household is taking possession of what is mine.”
15:3. a member of my household is taking possession. The word for “taking possession” means to inherit or acquire. Why would Nahor or Lot not inherit what is Abraham’s? Because they are not there. Abraham’s brother Nahor did not make the trip to Canaan with Abraham, and Lot moved away to the east. So, if they were to come to claim Abraham’s possessions, who would enforce their claim? There is no central government of Canaan. We are told over and over that it is a land of Canaanites, Jebusites, Perizzites, and so on—a variety of communities in separate cities.
4And, here, YHWH’s word came to him, saying, “This one won’t take possession from you, but rather one who will come out of your in-sides: he will take possession from you.”
15:3–4. take possession. This term occurs three times here, emphasizing that Abraham’s own offspring will someday take possession of everything that is promised to him. It then occurs over sixty times in Deuteronomy as the Israelites are about to enter the land, leaving no doubt of the point that this promise is to be fulfilled.
5And He brought him outside and said, “Look at the skies and count the stars—if you’ll be able to count them.” And He said to him, “That is how your seed will be.”
6And he trusted in YHWH, and He considered it for him as virtue.
15:6. virtue. We were not told the reason for God’s choosing Abraham. We must derive it from Abraham’s later behavior: his virtue, his combination of obedience and willingness to question, humility as well as boldness, trust in his God as well as caring about his fellow human beings.
7And He said to him, “I am YHWH, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land, to possess it.”
8And he said, “My Lord YHWH, how will I know that I’ll possess it?”
9And He said to him, “Take a three-year-old heifer and a three-year-old she-goat and a three-year-old ram and a dove and a pigeon for me.”
10And he took all of these for Him and split them up the middle and set each half opposite its other half, but he did not split the birds.
15:10. he took all of these for Him and split them. This is the beginning of a covenant ceremony. Such use of animals is well known in ancient Near Eastern covenant ceremonies. The Abrahamic covenant takes up the rest of this chapter and then is added to in Genesis 17.
11And birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram retrieved them.
15:11. Abram retrieved them. This is usually taken to mean that Abram drove the birds of prey away, but the Hebrew plural must refer to the split carcasses, not the birds (which are identified by a singular noun, meaning either a single bird or a group of birds for which a collective noun is used).
12And the sun was about to set, and a slumber had come over Abram; and, here, a big, dark terror was coming over him.
13And He said to Abram, “You shall know that your seed will be an alien in a land that is not theirs, and they will serve them, and they will degrade them four hundred years.
15:13. alien. No English term is quite equivalent to the Hebrew g
r. The English term “alien” has a variety of connotations, but most commonly it means a person residing in a place where he is not a regular citizen, which is what a gr is. In rabbinic Hebrew, gr is the word for a convert to Judaism, but that is not its meaning in the Torah.
14But I’ll judge the nation whom they’ll serve as well, and after that they’ll go out with much property.
15And you: you’ll come to your fathers in peace. You’ll be buried at a good old age.
16And a fourth generation will come back here, because the Amor-ite’s crime is not yet complete.”
17And the sun was setting, and there was darkness, and here was an oven of smoke and a flame of fire that went between these pieces.
15:17. a flame of fire. The presence of God is expressed through fire here in the covenant with Abraham. Fire will be the expression of God’s presence many more times, including most notably the miraculous burning bush when Moses first meets God, and the fire on Sinai in the covenant with Israel.
18In that day YHWH made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I’ve given this land to your seed, from the river of Egypt to the big river, the river Euphrates:
15:18. river of Egypt. This is generally understood to refer to the Wadi el-‘Arîsh.
19the Cainites and the Kenizzites and the Kad-monites
20and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Rephaim
21and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Girgashites and the Jebu-sites.”
