Skip to main content
📋

Chapter Summary

Genesis 15 contains God's formal covenant ceremony with Abram. God promises Abram his own son as heir and tells him to count the stars - so shall his descendants be. Abram believes God, and it is "counted to him as righteousness." God then makes a covenant through a ceremony of split animals, prophesying 400 years of slavery for Abram's descendants before their return to Canaan.

Key Verses in This Chapter

Verse 1 - Fear not, Abram. I am your shield and exceeding great reward
Verse 5 - Count the stars - so shall your offspring be
Verse 6 - He believed the Lord and it was counted as righteousness

Genesis Chapter 15

Chapter 15 of Genesis from the Holy Bible

Verses: 21Reading time: ~3 min
Reading

Verses

Genesis 15:1

After these things Yahweh’s word came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

Genesis 15:2

Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?”

Genesis 15:3

Abram said, “Behold, to me you have given no children: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir.”

Genesis 15:4

Behold, Yahweh’s word came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir, but he who will come out of your own body will be your heir.”

Genesis 15:5

Yahweh brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So will your offspring be.”

Genesis 15:6

He believed in Yahweh, who credited it to him for righteousness.

Genesis 15:7

He said to Abram, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.”

Genesis 15:8

He said, “Lord Yahweh, how will I know that I will inherit it?”

Genesis 15:9

He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

Genesis 15:10

He brought him all these, and divided them in the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he didn’t divide the birds.

Genesis 15:11

The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

Genesis 15:12

When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him.

Genesis 15:13

He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years.

Genesis 15:14

I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth,

Genesis 15:15

but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age.

Genesis 15:16

In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.”

Genesis 15:17

It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

Genesis 15:18

In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I have given this land to your offspring, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:

Genesis 15:19

the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

Genesis 15:20

the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

Genesis 15:21

the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

People Also Ask

Why is Genesis 15:6 so important?

Genesis 15:6 ("Abram believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness") is foundational to the doctrine of justification by faith. Paul cites it in Romans 4 and Galatians 3 to show that righteousness comes through faith, not works. Abraham was declared righteous before circumcision or the Law existed.