Genesis 15, Count the Stars!

Abram has just won a battle with four kings, rescuing Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah.

Genesis 15:1-6, Covenant
After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."

But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."

Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir."  He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."

Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

God repeats His plans to bless Abram and provide an eternal heritage. Obviously it will be hard for Abram to have descendants like the stars if he has NO children! Apparently in the ANE (says Walton) it was customary for a childless couple to adopt a son to care for them and to inherit their estate. Eliezer of Damascus is identified in this role. God promises Abram that this will not be Eliezer's role but that Abram wil have a true son.

Abram's belief that YHWH will give him a son makes Abram "righteous" in God's eyes. In the New Testament, the missionary Paul uses verse 6 to argue that righteousness came to Abram long before the Mosaic Law given on Mt. Sinai. Thus says Paul (Romans 4:1-3, Galatians 3:5-9) righteousness is given by one's faith in YHWH, not by one's obedience to the Law, This raises some basic questions: What does Abram believe? What does it mean to be righteous in this environment? Walton cautions against reading into Abram's actions a full blown theory of salvation.

Genesis 15:7-11, Covenant ratified
He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it."

But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?"

So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon."

Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

Abram, already identified as believing God's promise, insists on ratifying the covenant with a sacrifice. Alter says the arraignment of cut-up animals was a standard way of sealing a covenant in the Ancient Near East -- the parties walked between the animal pieces and the bloody pieces served as a symbol of what would happen to the two parties if they broke the agreement.

Genesis 15:12-16, Prophesy about the Exodus
As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.  Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age."

"In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."

The descendants of Abraham will eventually leave for the land for Egypt, be captives there, and return. The length of time in Egypt is given as both four centuries and four "generations".  Some argue that the Hebrew word dor (דּוֹר), translated "generations" in verse 15, could be mean "lifespan", in which case it meshes better with the "four hundred years" of verse 13.

This vision, as part of a deep sleep, includes an aura of darkness and fear.

Genesis 15:17-21, A promise of the Promised Land
When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates-- the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."

What a strange image, the torch and firepot moving between the animal halves!  God (YHWH, Yahweh) repeats His covenant promises about the land of Canaan. The torch and smoking firepot pass between the pieces of animals, symbolizing God's commitment to the covenant. Abram does not pass between the animal pieces --he is asleep -- at this time the covenant does not place conditions on him.

Some Hebrew vocabulary

Our Hebrew word for the day is tsedaqah, 

צְדָקָה

a feminine noun meaning justice, righteousness. It appears in verse 6, describing Abram after his belief in God's promise.

Some Random Thoughts

What were Abram's religious beliefs? And what did this covenant mean?

It is easy, given the later Mosaic Covenant, the book of Deuteronomy and other Old Testament writings, to read back into Abram the Jewish belief system. But little of that appears here. Abram is aware that the One God has chosen him and that presumably there are certain expectations of him. But those expectations are not spelled out. Abram is to trust YHWH to plan out his descendants. And presumably there is an emphasis on worshipping only YHWH and not a pantheon of gods. Indeed, if the tower of Babel was an ancient ziggurat, a staircase for the gods, and if Ur was a city with a famous ziggurat, then chapter 11 of Genesis describes Abram leaving a culture that worshipped many gods, to create a tribe that only worshiped the One God, the Creator, YHWH. 

In setting up the covenant, YHWH initiates a process in which He slowly reveals Himself to a family of peoples. Later, in chapter 17 of Genesis, covenant expectations will be extended. But at this time, Abram's job is to just trust this supernatural entity and hang on! 

(The website gotquestions.org has this article on the Abrahamic Covenant.)

.

First published Jan 18, 2023; updated Jan 17, 2026