Genesis 15

## Summary Genesis 15 recounts a divine encounter in which Yahweh promises Abram offspring and land despite his childlessness. Abram's trust is credited to him, and the chapter closes with a formal covenant ceremony involving divided animals and a fire symbol passing between the pieces. ## Key words - *he'emin* ("he believed", H0539) — hiphil perfect of the root meaning "to be firm/reliable"; here it describes Abram's action toward Yahweh, with the causative stem suggesting an act of placing trust rather than a passive state. - *tzedaqah* ("righteousness", H6666) — feminine singular noun, the object of the verb *chashav* ("he credited", H2803H); the sentence structure has Yahweh treating Abram's trust as equivalent to this quality. - *berit* ("a covenant", H1285) — feminine singular noun, object of *karat* ("he made/cut", H3772H); the verb *karat* literally means "to cut," a collocation reflected in the animal-cutting ritual of verses 9-10. - *zera'* ("offspring/seed", H2233H) — masculine singular noun used collectively throughout (vv.3,5,13,18); its singular form allows reference to both multiple descendants and, grammatically, to an individual. - *yarash* ("inherit/possess", H3423) — root appearing in multiple stems and forms (H3423G, H3423H) across vv.3-8, linking the themes of heirship (Eliezer vs. a bodily son) and land possession. ## What the text says The chapter opens with the formulaic *hayah devar-YHWH* ("the word of Yahweh came," H1697G/H3068G), a construct phrase used elsewhere for prophetic reception, here occurring "in the vision" (*ba-machazeh*, H4236). Abram's response in verse 2 uses the interrogative *mah* ("what?", H4100) with an imperfect verb, framing his objection as an open question about future action, followed by a participle *holekh* ("going", H1980L) describing his ongoing childless state as a present condition rather than a single event. The pivotal verse 6 places *he'emin* ("he believed", H0539) as a sequential perfect (vav-consecutive), continuing the narrative flow after Yahweh's star-counting demonstration in verse 5. The following verb *yachshevah* ("he credited it", H2803H) takes the belief as its implied subject and *tzedaqah* ("righteousness", H6666) as a double accusative-type construction ("credited it to him, [as] righteousness"), without an explicit preposition equivalent to "as" in the Hebrew, though the sense of equivalence is grammatically implied by the two accusatives. The covenant ceremony (vv.9-18) uses *karat berit* ("cut a covenant", H3772H + H1285), a fixed idiom whose literal verb *karat* ("to cut") corresponds to the described action of cutting the animals in half (*batar*, H1334, vv.10). The smoking fire pot and torch (v.17) passing between the pieces occurs without either Abram or Yahweh being named as the grammatical subject performing the passage — the text simply states "which passed between these pieces," leaving the agent identified only by later context (v.18, "Yahweh cut a covenant"). ## Differences between versions In verse 2, the Hebrew *Adonai YHWH* (H0136 + H3069) is rendered in the LXX as *Despota Kurie* ("Master, Lord") and in the Vulgate as *Domine Deus*, each version choosing different double-title equivalents for the divine address. In verse 3, the LXX renders the Hebrew "son of my house" (*ben-beiti*, H1121A + H1004M) with an added Greek word *sperma sperma* ("seed, seed") not paralleled in the Hebrew clause, which reads simply "you have given me no offspring" (*lo natattah zera'*). Verses 19-21, listing the ten peoples of the land in the Hebrew (Kenite, Kenizzite, Kadmonite, Hittite, Perizzite, Rephaite, Amorite, Canaanite, Girgashite, Jebusite), correspond in the LXX text provided to a longer list inserted earlier at verse 18, naming groups such as "Kenaioi," "Kelmonaioi," and others not matching one-to-one with the Hebrew terms in that verse.