Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Genesis 15:12
Abram’s terror reflects his reaction to the flame that passed between the parts and to the revelation of the character of God that the flame represented (cf. Genesis 15:17). read more
Gênesis 15:12-16 Nvt
Thomas Constable
Thomas Constable
Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Genesis 15:13-14
Moses gave more detail regarding the history of the seed here than he had revealed previously (cf. Genesis 15:14; Genesis 15:16). The 400 years of enslavement were evidently from 1845 B.C. to 1446 B.C., the date of the Exodus. read more
Thomas Constable
Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Genesis 15:15
The ancients conceived of death as a time when they would rejoin their departed ancestors (cf. 2 Samuel 12:23). There was evidently little understanding of what lay beyond the grave at this time in history. [Note: For a synopsis of Israel’s view of life after death, see Bernhard Lang, "Afterlife: Ancient Israel’s Changing Vision of the World Beyond," Bible Review 4:1 (February 1988):12-23.] read more
Thomas Constable
Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Genesis 15:16
The Hebrew word translated "generation" really refers to a lifetime, which at this period in history was about 100 years. [Note: See W. F. Albright, The Biblical Period from Abraham to Ezra, p. 9; and Theological Workbook of the Old Testament, s.v., "dor," by Robert D. Culver, 1:186-87.] This seems a better explanation than that four literal generations are in view. The writer mentioned four literal generations in Exodus 6:16-20 and Numbers 26:58-59, but there were quite evidently gaps in those... read more
John Dummelow
John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 15:1-21
God Promises an Heir to Abraham and the Land of Canaan for his Descendants. The Promise is Ratified by a CovenantThe passage is from the Primitive source. A somewhat similar account from the Priestly narrative is given in Genesis 17. The repetition shows the importance attached by the compiler of Genesis to these records of the promises as testifying to the divine purposes for the Hebrew people.1. Vision] probably a trance, with the senses dormant, but the mind awake to spiritual impressions:... read more
Charles John Ellicott
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 15:12
(12) When the sun was going down.—The time described was the evening following the night on which he had received the assurance that his seed should be countless as the stars. He had then, in his trance, also asked for some security that Canaan should be the heritage of his posterity, and in answer had received the command to arrange, upon a large scale, the ceremonial of a solemn treaty-making. The morning had been spent in the performance of the command, and after wards he had watched,... read more
Charles John Ellicott
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 15:13
(13) Four hundred years.—The exact duration of the sojourn in Egypt was 430 years (Exodus 12:40-41), and with this agrees the genealogy of Jehoshua (1 Chronicles 7:23-27). read more
Charles John Ellicott
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 15:14
(14) That nation.—Had it been expressly revealed that the country that would afflict them was Egypt, the patriarchs might have been unwilling to go thither; but the reference to the plagues in the denunciation of judgment, and to the spoiling of the Egyptians in the promise that they should “come out with great substance” (Exodus 12:36), gave detail sufficient for future guidance, and for their assurance in time to come that the promise had been fulfilled. read more
Charles John Ellicott
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 15:15
(15) Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace.—Abram’s ancestors had died in Babylonia, but the phrase, used here for the first time, evidently involves the thought of the immortality of the soul. The body may be buried far away, but the soul joins the company of its forefathers in some separate abode, not to be absorbed, but still to enjoy a personal existence. (Comp. Genesis 25:8.) A similar, but more exact, distinction between the body and the spirit is drawn in Ecclesiastes 12:7. read more
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Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Genesis 15:16
Genesis 15:16. In the fourth generation— Either, 1st, from the descent into AEgypt; and thus Caleb was the fourth from Judah; and Moses and Aaron the fourth from Levi: or, 2nd, in the fourth generation of the Amorites; a sense which seems the more probable from the words immediately following, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. The Amorites are here put for the whole inhabitants of Canaan, as being the most considerable for their power, Amo 2:9 and being also the people among... read more