Genesis 15

1 shield. Cp. Psa. iii. 3.—reward. Or, “no exceeding great is thy reward”; a declaration which accounts for Abram’s question in the next verse.

2. Lord God. “Adonai Jehovah,” names here first found combined. See note, ii. 4.—I go. Either, “I continue” or “pass away,” i.e., “die."—steward. Rather, “my heir.” (Heb., “son of possession.”)

3 in my house. Probably either Eliezer or his son, according to the custom of the country.

6 righteousness. This faith was, in its principle, its object, and its operation, one with that of Christian believers (Rom. iv.; Gal. iii. 6; Heb. xi.).

8. Whereby shall I know? Cp. Judg. vi. 17; Luke i. 18.

12 sleep. For sleep or trance, experienced by others to whom Divine revelations were given, see Numb. xxiv. 4; 1 Sam. xix. 24; Job iv. 13, 14; xxxiii. 14, 15; Dan. x. 8, 9; Acts x. 10; 2 Cor. xii. 1-4.

13 four hundred years. On the difficulties attending this computation of time, see Exod. xii. 40.

16 in the fourth generation. That is, from the going down of Jacob and his family into Egypt. Moses and Caleb belonged to the fourth generation from Levi and Judah.—Amorites. The Amorites being the principal nation among the Canaanites, their name is here used for the whole.

17 smoking furnace. The word rendered “smoking furnace” sometimes means a portable oven used for baking bread, and often represents the punishment of God’s enemies (see Psa. xxi. 9; Mal. iv. 1); whilst “a burning lamp” (or “torch,” R.V.) is the symbol of deliverance. See Isa. lxii. 1.

18 the river . . . the great river. The Nile and Euphrates represent (as in Isa. xxvii. 12; Jer. ii. 18) the two great kingdoms which were to be the opposite limits of the territories of Israel. The dominions of David and Solomon appear to have extended thus far (2 Chron. ix. 26).

19. Kadmonites. “The Easterns.” Cp. “children of the East” (Beni-Kedem), Judg. vi. 3. For the “Kenites,” see Numb. xxiv. 21.