Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 15

After these things. — After the war with Chedorlaomer.

The word of the Lord came to Abram. (Hebrew, was) — This phrase, used so frequently afterwards to signify revelation, occurs here for the first time. The revelation on this occasion was made by night (Genesis 15:5), not in a dream, however, but in a trance, during which Abram's senses were closed to all earthly impressions and he became passive in the hands of the Almighty.

Until this time, Abram had received only general promises of offspring and of the land being the possession of his seed; but years were passing by, and the fulfilment of his hopes remained as distant as ever.

By the war with the Elamite king, Abram had also made powerful enemies for himself; and though the immediate result was fortunate, yet many Canaanite nations may have witnessed with displeasure so remarkable an exhibition of the power and energy of an “immigrant.”

And so, the time had come when the patriarch needed and obtained more formal assurances: first, of the bestowal of offspring on him (Genesis 15:1–6), and second, of the future possession of Palestine (Genesis 15:18–21).

Lord God. —This is not Jehovah Elohim, but Lord Jehovah, where “Lord” is the ordinary title of respect. Usually, Jehovah takes the vowels of ‘adonai, “lord,” but because the two words occur here together, it takes the vowels of Elohim. Hence, the translation in our version, in obedience to a superstition of the Jews (Genesis 4:1).

What will you give me? —There is a slight tone of complaint in these words. Jehovah promised Abram a “reward great exceedingly.” Abram answers that no reward can truly be great as long as he has no heir.

I go childless. —This means either, I am going to my grave childless (Psalms 39:13), or, preferably, I continue to be, I pass my days, in childlessness.

The steward of my house. —In Hebrew, this is the benmeshek of my house. Ben-meshek is generally explained as meaning “the son of possession”—that is, the possessor or owner of my house when I die. Other authorities derive meshek from a verb meaning “to run about,” as if it was Eliezer’s responsibility to go to and fro in carrying out Abram’s orders.

This term is rare and was evidently chosen for the play on words with Dammesek (Damascus). This might also explain the last words, which are literally, he is Damascus Eliezer. Grammatically, it should have been, “he is the Damascene Eliezer,” but this would have spoiled the assonance between ben-meshek (probably pronounced bemmeshek) and Dammesek.

One born in my house. —This is a mistake. Those born in Abram’s house were his servants (Genesis 14:14). The Hebrew is, the son of my house, my house-son, not born of me, but the chief of the house next to myself, and its representative. Eliezer was probably born at Damascus.

He brought him forth. —There is no reason for regarding this as a poetical description of a merely mental emotion. With his senses dormant, but alive to every spiritual impression, Abram feels himself led forth from the tent into the open space around, and is there commanded to count the stars. As a matter of fact, the stars visible to the naked eye are not very numerous, but they have always been a received metaphor for an infinite multitude, probably because, as people gaze, they perpetually see the faint radiance of more and more distant constellations. Thus they cannot be counted, and Abram’s seed was to be countless, because of the vastness of its number.

He believed in the Lord (in Jehovah) — We have here the germ of the doctrine of free justification.

Abram was both a holy man and one who proved his faith by his works. Nevertheless, the inspired narrator inserts this reflection, not after the history of the offering of Isaac, but in the account of this vision.

In this vision, all that Abram did was to believe, and on account of that belief, he was accounted righteous before God.

For the definite conclusions St. Paul deduced from this verse, see Romans 4:0.

The quotation there is from the Septuagint, and gives the general sense, but the correct rendering of the Hebrew is that given in our version.