1 After these events, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” 2 But Abram replied, “O Lord GOD, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram continued, “Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir.” 4 Then the word of the LORD came to Abram, saying, “This one will not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5 And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness. 7 The LORD also told him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But Abram replied, “Lord GOD, how can I know that I will possess it?” 9 And the LORD said to him, “Bring Me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a turtledove and a young pigeon.” 10 So Abram brought all these to Him, split each of them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 And the birds of prey descended on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and suddenly great terror and darkness overwhelmed him. 13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” 17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates— 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
Genesis · Majority Standard Bible
Genesis 15 Majority Standard Bible
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)