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.
Genesis · Bible in Basic English
Genesis 15 Bible in Basic English
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Abraham
Called by God, he left home in faith to become the father of a chosen people.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 12–25
Eliezer of Damascus
A man of Damascus in Abram's household whom Abram named as the heir of his house while he remained childless.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 15:2
Places
Ur
Traditionally the southern Sumerian city (Tell el-Muqayyar) with its famous ziggurat, though some scholars argue for a northern Ur (location debated). Abraham set out from here.
Cited in the guide: Genesis 11:31; Genesis 15:7; Nehemiah 9:7
Cross references (21)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Isaiah 41:10; Psalm 119:114; Psalm 84:11; Hebrews 13:5–6; Genesis 26:24
- 2 Genesis 25:21; 1 Samuel 1:11; Acts 7:5; Genesis 12:1–3; Genesis 44:1
- 3 Genesis 14:14; Proverbs 29:21; Ecclesiastes 2:7
- 4 Genesis 17:16; Galatians 4:28; 2 Samuel 7:12; Genesis 21:12; 2 Chronicles 32:21
- 5 Hebrews 11:12; Romans 4:18; Deuteronomy 1:10; Exodus 32:13; Genesis 22:17
- 6 James 2:23; Galatians 3:6–14; Romans 4:9; Romans 4:20–25; Romans 4:3–6
- 7 Genesis 12:1; Acts 7:2–4; Romans 4:13; Psalm 105:42; Genesis 13:15–17
- 8 Luke 1:18; Luke 1:34; 2 Kings 20:8; Isaiah 7:11; Psalm 86:17
- 9 Leviticus 14:22; Leviticus 14:30; Luke 2:24; Leviticus 3:6; Leviticus 3:1
- 10 Jeremiah 34:18–19; Leviticus 1:17; Genesis 15:17
- 11 Matthew 13:4; Psalm 119:13; Ezekiel 17:7; Ezekiel 17:3
- 12 Genesis 2:21; Job 33:15; Daniel 10:8–9; Acts 9:8–9; Job 4:13–14
- 13 Acts 7:6–7; Exodus 1:11; Exodus 12:40–41; Acts 7:17; Exodus 1:1–2
- 14 Nehemiah 9:9–11; Exodus 6:5–6; Exodus 12:32–38; Joshua 24:4–7; Exodus 7:1–14
- 15 Job 5:26; Genesis 25:7–9; 2 Chronicles 34:28; Numbers 27:13; Daniel 12:13
- 16 1 Kings 21:26; Daniel 8:23; Matthew 23:32–35; Exodus 12:40; 1 Thessalonians 2:16
- 17 Jeremiah 34:18–19; Judges 6:21; Jeremiah 11:4; Exodus 3:2–3; 1 Chronicles 21:26
- 18 Joshua 1:3–4; Genesis 12:7; Genesis 24:7; Genesis 13:15; Deuteronomy 11:24
- 19 Numbers 24:21–22
- 20 Genesis 14:5; Isaiah 17:5
- 21 Exodus 23:23–28; Exodus 33:2; Genesis 10:15–19; Matthew 8:28; Exodus 34:11
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
For Matthew the apostle-- knowing, as one and the same God, Him who had given promise to Abraham, that He would make his seed as the stars of heaven, and Him who, by His Son Christ Jesus, has called us to the knowledge of Himself, from the worship of stones, so that those who were not a people were made …
Here, indeed, is set down that sentence which the apostle quotes in order to commend the grace of God, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness;" lest the circumcision should glory, and be unwilling to receive the uncircumcised nations to the faith of Christ.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
For both Stephen saith, "Receive my spirit;" and Paul, "To depart and to be with Christ is far better;" and of the patriarch too the Scripture saith, that "he was gathered unto his fathers, being cherished in a good old age." And as to the proof, that neither can the souls of sinners continue here; hear the rich man making …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… last times was made visible and passible, and spake with the human race, that He might from the stones raise up children unto Abraham, and fulfil the promise which God had given him, and that He might make his seed as the stars of heaven, as John the Baptist says: "For God is able from these stones to raise up …
In the same vision, God in speaking to him also says, "I am God that brought thee out of the region of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it." And when Abram asked whereby he might know that he should inherit it, God said to him, "Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she-goat …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)