1 Now when these things were done, the word of the Lord came to Abram by a vision, saying: Fear not, Abram, I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great. 2 And Abram said: Lord God, what wilt thou give me? I shall go without children: and the son of the steward of my house is this Damascus Eliezer. 3 And Abram added: But to me thou hast not given seed: and lo my servant, born in my house, shall be my heir. 4 And immediately the word of the Lord came to him, saying: He shall not be thy heir: but he that shall come out of thy bowels, him shalt thou have for thy heir. 5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said to him: Look up to heaven and number the stars, if thou canst. And he said to him: So shall thy seed be. 6 Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice. 7 And he said to him: I am the Lord who brought thee out from Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land, and that thou mightest possess it. 8 But he said: Lord God, whereby may I know that I shall possess it? 9 And the Lord answered, and said: Take me a cow of three years old, and a she goat of three years, and a ram of three years, a turtle also, and a pigeon. 10 And he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid the two pieces of each one against the other; but the birds he divided not. 11 And the fowls came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. 12 And when the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great and darksome horror seized upon him. 13 And it was said unto him: Know thou beforehand that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not their own, and they shall bring them under bondage, and afflict them four hundred years. 14 But I will judge the nation which they shall serve, and after this they shall come out with great substance. 15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and be buried in a good old age. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall return hither: for as yet the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not at the full until this present time. 17 And when the sun was set, there arose a dark mist, and there appeared a smoking furnace and a lamp of fire passing between those divisions. 18 That day God made a covenant with Abram, saying: To thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates. 19 The Cineans and Cenezites, the Cedmonites, 20 And the Hethites, and the Pherezites, the Raphaim also, 21 And the Amorrhites, and the Chanaanites, and the Gergesites, and the Jebusites.
Genesis · Douay-Rheims (Challoner), American Edition 1899
Genesis 15 Douay-Rheims (Challoner), American Edition 1899
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
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)