Old Testament · Law

Genesis 15

Counted as Righteous

God takes Abram outside, points at the stars, and makes a promise. Abram believes — and it changes everything about how we understand faith.

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1After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

2And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

3And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.

4And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.

5And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

6And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

7And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

8And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?

9And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

10And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.

11And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.

12And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

13And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

14And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

15And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

16But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

17And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

18In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

19The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,

20And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,

21And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Understand This

Genesis 15, explained

What Genesis 15 is saying

God speaks to Abram in a vision, promising protection and reward. Abram questions how the promises can be fulfilled without an heir, and God shows him the stars as a picture of his future descendants. Abram believes, and it is credited to him as righteousness. God then makes a covenant through a dramatic ceremony involving split animals and a smoking firepot passing between them.

The background behind it

The covenant ceremony in this chapter follows a well-attested ancient Near Eastern treaty ritual where parties walked between split animals, invoking death upon themselves if they broke the covenant. Remarkably, only God (symbolized by the firepot and torch) passes through, making this a unilateral, unconditional covenant.

Themes running underneath

Genesis 15:6 becomes the foundational text for the doctrine of justification by faith, cited by Paul in Romans 4 and Galatians 3. The unilateral covenant ceremony reveals that God stakes His own existence on keeping His promises. The four-hundred-year prophecy of Egyptian servitude grounds the Exodus in divine foreknowledge.

Why it still matters

Faith is credited as righteousness not because belief is meritorious, but because it rightly responds to a trustworthy God. The covenant ceremony assures us that God's promises rest on His character, not ours.

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Scripture text: King James Version — public domain.