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Genesis · Unlocked Literal Bible

Genesis 15 Unlocked Literal Bible

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About ULB
  • Protestant
  • OT: Masoretic Hebrew
  • NT: Critical text (not verified)
  • Protestant (66 books)
  • Formal (word for word)
  • 2017
  • CC BY-SA 4.0

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

1 After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Fear not, Abram! I am your shield and your very great reward.” 2 Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, since I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram said, “Since you have given me no descendant, see, the steward of my house is my heir.” 4 Then, behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but rather the one who will come from your own body will be your heir.” 5 Then he brought him outside, and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.” 6 He believed Yahweh, and he counted it to him as righteousness. 7 He said to him, “I am Yahweh, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” 8 He said, “Lord Yahweh, how will I know that I will inherit it?” 9 Then he said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a dove, and a young pigeon.” 10 He brought him all these, and cut them in two, and placed each half opposite the other, but he did not divide the birds. 11 When the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12 Then when the sun was going down, Abram fell sound asleep and, behold, a deep and terrifying darkness overwhelmed him. 13 Then Yahweh said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. 14 I will judge that nation that they will serve, and afterward they will come out with abundant possessions. 15 But you will go to your fathers in peace, and you will be buried in a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.” 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces. 18 On that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I hereby give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— 19 the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaites, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

People & places in this chapter

From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.

People

  • Abraham

    Father of nations

    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

    Servant in Abram's household

    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

    Today: Southern Iraq (near the Euphrates)

    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. 1 Isaiah 41:10; Psalm 119:114; Psalm 84:11; Hebrews 13:5–6; Genesis 26:24
  2. 2 Genesis 25:21; 1 Samuel 1:11; Acts 7:5; Genesis 12:1–3; Genesis 44:1
  3. 3 Genesis 14:14; Proverbs 29:21; Ecclesiastes 2:7
  4. 4 Genesis 17:16; Galatians 4:28; 2 Samuel 7:12; Genesis 21:12; 2 Chronicles 32:21
  5. 5 Hebrews 11:12; Romans 4:18; Deuteronomy 1:10; Exodus 32:13; Genesis 22:17
  6. 6 James 2:23; Galatians 3:6–14; Romans 4:9; Romans 4:20–25; Romans 4:3–6
  7. 7 Genesis 12:1; Acts 7:2–4; Romans 4:13; Psalm 105:42; Genesis 13:15–17
  8. 8 Luke 1:18; Luke 1:34; 2 Kings 20:8; Isaiah 7:11; Psalm 86:17
  9. 9 Leviticus 14:22; Leviticus 14:30; Luke 2:24; Leviticus 3:6; Leviticus 3:1
  10. 10 Jeremiah 34:18–19; Leviticus 1:17; Genesis 15:17
  11. 11 Matthew 13:4; Psalm 119:13; Ezekiel 17:7; Ezekiel 17:3
  12. 12 Genesis 2:21; Job 33:15; Daniel 10:8–9; Acts 9:8–9; Job 4:13–14
  13. 13 Acts 7:6–7; Exodus 1:11; Exodus 12:40–41; Acts 7:17; Exodus 1:1–2
  14. 14 Nehemiah 9:9–11; Exodus 6:5–6; Exodus 12:32–38; Joshua 24:4–7; Exodus 7:1–14
  15. 15 Job 5:26; Genesis 25:7–9; 2 Chronicles 34:28; Numbers 27:13; Daniel 12:13
  16. 16 1 Kings 21:26; Daniel 8:23; Matthew 23:32–35; Exodus 12:40; 1 Thessalonians 2:16
  17. 17 Jeremiah 34:18–19; Judges 6:21; Jeremiah 11:4; Exodus 3:2–3; 1 Chronicles 21:26
  18. 18 Joshua 1:3–4; Genesis 12:7; Genesis 24:7; Genesis 13:15; Deuteronomy 11:24
  19. 19 Numbers 24:21–22
  20. 20 Genesis 14:5; Isaiah 17:5
  21. 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).

  1. Quotes verse 15:5 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (Book III, Chapter VII)

    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 …

    Read in context · Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885)

  2. Quotes verse 15:6 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 22–24)

    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)

  3. Quotes verse 15:15 John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew (Homily XXVIII)

    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)

  4. Quotes verse 15:5 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (Book IV, Preface)

    … 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 …

    Read in context · Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885)

  5. Quotes verse 15:7 Augustine of Hippo, The City of God (Book XVI, Chapters 22–24)

    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)