This chapter informs us of a gracious appearance of God to Abram, and of a kind promise made unto him, Gen. 15:1; of Abram’s request for an heir, Gen. 15:2, Gen. 15:3; of an answer to it, that he should have one, and even a numberless seed, Gen. 15:4, Gen. 15:5; which he gave credit to, Gen.

After these things The battle of the kings, the captivity of Lot, the rescue of him and his goods, and of those of Sodom and Gomorrah by Abram, and the conversation that passed between him, and the kings of Sodom and Salem: the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision; Christ, the essential…

And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless As if he should say, what signifies what thou givest me of temporal blessings, if thou withholdest from me the blessing of a child; from whom it might be hoped and believed would spring the promised Messiah, in whom all nations…

And Abram said, behold, to me thou hast given no seed He had bestowed many temporal blessings on him, as well as spiritual ones, having given himself in covenant, and all things in it, but he had not given him a child: and lo, one born in my house is mine heir; meaning either Eliezer or his son,…

And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him Either having disappeared, and then came a second time, or he again spoke unto him: saying, this shall not be thine heir; this Eliezer, this servant of thine, as thou hast made him, or hast intended to make him, giving up all hopes of having issue by…

And he brought him forth abroad Out of his tent into the open air, which was done through his call, and at his direction; or by an impulse upon his mind; or this might not be real and local, only vision: and said, look now towards heaven; either with his bodily eyes, or with the eyes of his mind:…

And he believed in the Lord The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan are, “in the Word of the Lord;” in the essential Word of the Lord, in Christ the Lord his righteousness; he believed in the promise of God, that he should have a seed, and a very numerous one; he believed that the Messiah would spring…

And he said unto him After he had expressed his faith in him, and in his word, and the blessedness of a justifying righteousness came openly upon him, and he was declared a justified person: I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees; not only called him, but brought him out of it;…

And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? ] Not as questioning or doubting whether he should or not; but this he asked for the further confirmation of his faith in the promise, and for the sake of his posterity, that they might more easily and strongly believe that they…

And he said unto him, take me an heifer of three years old, &c.] This, with what follows, is the sign by which Abram might know that he, that is, his seed, should inherit the land of Canaan; for the whole of this is an emblem of the state and condition of his posterity, until they should enter into…

And he took unto him all these The heifer, goat, ram, turtle, and young pigeon, not to himself, but to the Lord, as he was bid, and offered them before him, as the above Targums paraphrase it; or however he took them for his use, and set them before him, and did with them as he directed him: and…

And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses Upon the birds, as Aben Ezra and Ben Melech interpret it, whose carcasses were whole; or rather upon the divided carcasses of the animals, and indeed on both: this is to be understood of birds of prey, as eagles, vultures, kites, crows and are an…

And when the sun was going down Just setting, descending below the hemisphere; or “about to enter” [[11]] into his chamber, as Piscator observes, from whence he went forth in the morning, as a strong man to run his race; which at sunset is finished according to human appearance, and the common…

And he said unto Abram While he was in a deep sleep; this he said to him in a vision of prophecy: know of a surety, or “in knowing thou shall or mayest know” [[12]]; and be assured of it, being now told it by the Lord himself, who foreknows all things that ever come to pass; many of which he…

And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge It is not said “the land” in which they were strangers, though God did judge, condemn, and punish the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, and drove them out of it, to make way for Israel; but the “nation” they should “serve”, meaning the…

And thou shall go to thy fathers in peace Or die, which is a going the way of all flesh, to a man’s long home, out of this world to another, to the world of spirits, to those that are gone before them; which is no inconsiderable proof of the immortality of the soul.

And in the fourth generation they shall come hither again, &c.] The seed of Abram were in the land of Canaan before their descent into Egypt; and it is here predicted and promised, that they should come thither again, as they did, in the fourth generation of those that descended thither; for Moses…

And it came to pass, when the sun went down It was going down when the deep sleep fell on Abram, and now it was quite gone or set: and it was dark; which is not always the case as soon as the sun is set, there is a twilight for a while, and if a clear night the stars appear; but, as Aben Ezra…

In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram Which he confirmed by passing between the pieces and accepting his sacrifice: saying, unto thy seed have I given this land; he had given it in his purpose, and he had given the promise of it, and here he renews the grant, and ratifies and confirms…

The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites. ] In this and the following verses ten nations are reckoned as occupying the land of Canaan at this time, whereas only seven are mentioned in the times of Moses and Joshua; and these three are not among them, and seem before those times to have…

And the Hittites Who had their name from Heth, a son of Canaan, see ; they dwelt about Hebron, in the south of the land of Canaan: and the Perizzites; these dwelt in the wood country of the land, ; and seem to have their name from dwelling in villages, and at a distance from towns and cities, and…

And the Amorites The same with the Amorite, ; they inhabited both on this and the other side Jordan: and the Canaanites; which were a particular tribe or nation that bore the name of their great ancestor Canaan, see : and the Girgashites; the same with the Gergesenes in ; of these see : and the…