Side by side
Genesis 15
Our retelling next to the Bible text it comes from. Each row lines up one scene with the verses it retells.
Scene 4: "Do Not Be Afraid"Verse 1
Time went by, and many things happened. Abram was not always brave. Once, in Egypt, he was afraid for his life. He asked Sarai to say she was his sister, not his wife (12:11-13). He went to war to rescue Lot (14:14-16).
God kept promising. But there was still no baby.
Then the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision. A vision is something God shows a person, like a dream while awake.
God said, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward" (15:1).
A shield is what a soldier holds up to stay safe. This is a comparison. God was saying he himself would protect Abram. A reward is a gift given to someone. God was saying he himself was Abram's reward.
1After 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.”
Scene 5: Abram's Honest ComplaintVerses 2 to 4
Abram did not pretend. He answered God honestly.
"O Lord GOD, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" (15:2).
An heir is the person who receives your things after you die. Abram had no son. So a servant named Eliezer would get everything.
Abram said it again. "Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir" (15:3).
One likely reason Abram spoke this way: he was tired of waiting. God had promised a great nation. Abram could not even see one child.
God did not get angry. He answered. "This one will not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir" (15:4). Abram would have a son of his own.
2But Abram replied, “O Lord GOD, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3Abram continued, “Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir.” 4Then 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.”
Scene 6: Count the StarsVerses 5 to 6
Then the LORD took Abram outside.
God said, "Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able" (15:5).
Abram could not count them. Nobody can.
Then God told him, "So shall your offspring be" (15:5). Abram's family would be like the stars: too many to count. This is a comparison.
Nothing had changed yet. Abram was still old. Sarai still had no baby. Abram had only God's word.
"Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness" (15:6).
Credited means counted, like money written into someone's account. This is a comparison. Righteousness means being right with God.
Abram did not earn it. Abram trusted God's promise. So God counted Abram as right with God. The baby had not come. But the promise was sure.
5And 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.” 6Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Between scenesVerses 7 to 21
This part isn't retold as its own scene.
7The LORD also told him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8But Abram replied, “Lord GOD, how can I know that I will possess it?” 9And 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.” 10So 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. 11And the birds of prey descended on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. 12As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and suddenly great terror and darkness overwhelmed him. 13Then 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. 14But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions. 15You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. 16In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” 17When 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. 18On 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— 19the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
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