Genesis 15:18 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 15:18
In 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:
he (she or it) · definite article + personal pronoun, 3rd person masculine singular
day
בַּיּ֣וֹםbai.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
LORD
יְהוָ֛הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
made
כָּרַ֧תka.Rat
H3772
to cut (off · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
covenant
בְּרִ֣יתbe.Rit
H1285
a compact (because made by passing between pieces of fl… · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Abram
אַבְרָ֖ם'av.Ram
H87
Abram · proper noun, a man's name
saying
לֵאמֹ֑רle.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
seed
לְזַרְעֲךָ֗le.zar.'a.Kha
H2233
seed · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
given
נָתַ֙תִּי֙na.Ta.ti
H5414
to give · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
land
הָאָ֣רֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
river
מִנְּהַ֣רmi.ne.Har
H5104
a stream (including the sea · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Egypt
מִצְרַ֔יִםmitz.Ra.yim
H4714
Mitsrajim · proper noun, a place name
great
הַגָּדֹ֖לha.ga.Dol
H1419
great (in any sense) · definite article + adjective, masculine singular absolute
river
הַנָּהָ֥רha.na.Har
H5104
a stream (including the sea · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
river
נְהַרne.har-
H5104
a stream (including the sea · noun, common masculine singular construct
Euphrates
פְּרָֽתpe.Rat
H6578
Perath (i.e. Euphrates) · proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Joshua 1:3-4 Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.
Genesis 12:7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared u…
Genesis 24:7 The LORD God of heaven, which took me from my father’s house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto…
Genesis 13:15 For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
Deuteronomy 11:24 Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates,…
Exodus 23:27-31 I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs…
Numbers 34:2-3 Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land that shall fall unto you for an i…
Numbers 34:5 And the border shall fetch a compass from Azmon unto the river of Egypt, and the goings out of it shall be at the sea.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 15:17–end
Here is, I. The covenant ratified (Gen 15:17); the sign which Abram desired was given, at length, when the sun had gone down, so that it was dark; for that was a dark dispensation.
1. The smoking furnace signified the affliction of his seed in Egypt. They were there in the iron furnace (Deu 4:20), the furnace of affliction (Isa 48:10), labouring in the very fire. They were there in the smoke, their eyes darkened, that they could not see to the end of their troubles, and themselves at a loss to conceive what God would do with them. Clouds and darkness were round about them.
2. The burning lamp denotes comfort in this affliction; and this God showed to Abram, at the same time that he showed hi…
Take me an heifer, &c.--On occasions of great importance, when two or more parties join in a compact, they either observe precisely the same rites as Abram did, or, where they do not, they invoke the lamp as their witness. According to these ideas, which have been from time immemorial engraven on the minds of Eastern people, the Lord Himself condescended to enter into covenant with Abram. The patriarch did not pass between the sacrifice and the reason was that in this transaction he was bound to nothing. He asked a sign, and God was pleased to give him a sign, by which, according to Eastern ideas, He bound Himself. In like manner God has entered into covenant with us; and in the glory of the…
The Lord made a covenant - כרת ברית carath berith signifies to cut a covenant, or rather the covenant sacrifice; for as no covenant was made without one, and the creature was cut in two that the contracting parties might pass between the pieces, hence cutting the covenant signified making the covenant. The same form of speech obtained among the Romans; and because, in making their covenants they always slew an animal, either by cutting its throat, or knocking it down with a stone or axe, after which they divided the parts as we have already seen, hence among the percutere faedus, to smite a covenant, and scindere faedus, to cleave a covenant, were terms which signified simply to make or ente…
The Church Fathers
On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: To your descendants, I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates. The river of Egypt, which is the Nile, he does not call great but small, which separates Egypt and Palestine, where the city of Rhinocorura is. Therefore, the Lord made a covenant with Abram on that day, when he offered the sacrifices of animals and birds. Certainly, that covenant was that he and his descendants would always offer prayers and sacrifices to the Lord with a faithful heart; and the Lord in turn would grant him and his descendants the land of Canaan to possess forever.
Foreign peoples are given to Abraham as though for education and so that the most scrupulous mind of the just person might cut away their vices and correct their errors. But what is most evident here is rather the mystery of the church. Through its apostles, "who are Israelites, to whom belong the patriarchs," and from whose patriarchs "Christ was born according to the flesh" under the law, the church was to be constituted from the gathering of pagan peoples who would believe. And it is not by accident that these are indicated by the number ten but rather to show that these, at first unbelievers, when they had completed the measure of impiety, would certainly obtain the crown of faith.
When the torches had passed over the divided animals, the covenant was made. God said to Abraham, "To your descendants I will give this land," and he described in detail how far the land extended in each direction. But, through an anagogical [mystical] transposition consistent with our above remarks, we must understand that this land is given to the holy man's spiritual posterity. The Savior too promises it to those who practice gentleness. This is a promise that applies to the true children and not to all who descend from Abraham, for "it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as descendants." It is "the one who does the works of Abraham" who is in fact his child.The phrase "from the river to the river" is also well put, for the promise that belongs to the posterity of the holy man is virtue, which is placed between flowing things. Flowing things, of course, do not make up virtue but are its very borders, in the sense that if one departs from virtue, one encounters them immediately. But it is possible too that the rivers represent the trials that come to virtuous persons, since they are placed among people who oppress them, and yet the virtuous triumph over them.
Dictionary and topics
Calf — Calves were commonly made use of in sacrifices, and are therefore frequently mentioned in Scripture. The “fatted calf” was regarded as the choicest of animal food; it was frequently also offered as a…
Chronology — Is the arrangement of facts and events in the order of time. The writers of the Bible themselves do not adopt any standard era according to which they date events. Sometimes the years are reckoned,…
Covenant — A contract or agreement between two parties. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word berith is always thus translated. Berith is derived from a root which means “to cut,” and hence a covenant is a…
David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
Euphrates — Hebrew, Perath; Assyrian, Purat; Persian cuneiform, Ufratush, whence Greek Euphrates, meaning “sweet water.” The Assyrian name means “the stream,” or “the great stream.” It is generally called in the…
Nile — Dark; blue, not found in Scripture, but frequently referred to in the Old Testament under the name of Sihor, i.e., “the black stream” (Isa. 23:3; Jer. 2:18) or simply “the river” (Gen. 41:1; Ex.…
Palestine — Originally denoted only the sea-coast of the land of Canaan inhabited by the Philistines (Ex. 15:14; Isa. 14:29, 31; Joel 3:4), and in this sense exclusively the Hebrew name Pelesheth (rendered…
River — (1.) Heb. ‘aphik, properly the channel or ravine that holds water (2 Sam. 22:16), translated “brook,” “river,” “stream,” but not necessarily a perennial stream (Ezek. 6:3; 31:12; 32:6; 34:13). (2.)…
River of Egypt — (1.) Heb. nahar mitsraim, denotes in Gen. 15:18 the Nile, or its eastern branch (2 Chr. 9:26). (2.) In Num. 34:5 (R.V., “brook of Egypt”) the Hebrew word is nahal, denoting a stream flowing rapidly…
Syria — (Heb. Aram), the name in the Old Testament given to the whole country which lay to the north-east of Phoenicia, extending to beyond the Euphrates and the Tigris. Mesopotamia is called (Gen. 24:10;…
In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram,.... Which he confirmed by passing between the pieces and accepting his sacrifice:
saying, unto thy seed have I given this land; he had given it in his purpose, and he had given the promise of it, and here he renews the grant, and ratifies and confirms it, even the land of Canaan, where Abram now was, though only a sojourner in it; and which is described by its boundaries and present occupants, in this and the following verses, as is usually done in grants of lands and deeds of conveyance:
from the river of Egypt, unto the great river, the river of Euphrates; the river of Egypt is the Nile, which overflowed it annually and made it fruitfu…
In the same day the Lord made a covenant. I willingly admit what I have alluded to above, that the covenant was ratified by a solemn rite, when the animals were divided into parts. For there seems to be a repetition, in which he teaches what was the intent of the sacrifice which he has mentioned. Here, also, we may observe, what I have said, that the word is always to be joined with the symbols, lest our eyes be fed with empty and fruitless ceremonies. God has commanded animals to be offered to him; but he has shown their end and use, by a covenant appended to them. If, then, the Lord feeds us by sacraments, we infer, that they are the evidences of his grace, and the tokens of those spiritua…
In Gen 15:18-21 this divine revelation is described as the making of a covenant (בּרית, from בּרה to cut, lit., the bond concluded by cutting up the sacrificial animals), and the substance of this covenant is embraced in the promise, that God would give that land to the seed of Abram, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates. The river (נהר) of Egypt is the Nile, and not the brook (נחל) of Egypt (Num 34:5), i.e., the boundary stream Rhinocorura, Wady el Arish. According to the oratorical character of the promise, the two large rivers, the Nile and the Euphrates, are mentioned as the boundaries within which the seed of Abram would possess the promised land, the exact limits of whi…
God specified the boundaries of the Promised Land. His clear message to Abram was that despite prospects of death and suffering (enslavement), he and his descendants would eventually receive the promises, for God had sworn an oath (see Heb 6:13-14). Nothing can separate God’s people from his love or the fulfillment of his plans (see Rom 8:18-39; 2 Pet 1:3-4).
Rashi on Genesis 15:18
לזרעך נתתי UNTO THY SEED HAVE I GIVEN — The promise of the Holy One, blessed be He, is as an accomplished fact. (Consequently the perfect tense is here used) (Genesis Rabbah 44:22).
הנהר הגדול THE GREAT RIVER—Because it is associated with (mentioned in connection with; see Rashi on Deuteronomy 1:7) the land of Israel, Scripture calls it “great” although it is the last mentioned of the four rivers that went out of Eden — as it is said (Genesis 2:14). And the fourth river is the Euphrates”. There is a popular proverb: “A king’s servant is a king; attach yourself to a captain and people will bow down to you” (Genesis Rabbah 16:3).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Abraham · General references — General references
Canaan · .Promised to Abraham and his seed — .Promised to Abraham and his seed
Canaanites · Territory of — Territory of
Canaanites, The · Abraham: Was promised the country of, of inheritance — Abraham: Was promised the country of, of inheritance
Condescension Of God · Enters into covenant with Abraham — Enters into covenant with Abraham
Covenant, The · Made with: Abraham — Made with: Abraham
Euphrates · The eastern limit of the kingdom of Israel — The eastern limit of the kingdom of Israel
Euphrates, The · Called: The great river — Called: The great river
Holy Land · Extent of: As promised — Extent of: As promised
Jews, The · Promises respecting made to: Abraham — Promises respecting made to: Abraham
Rivers · Some of: Great and mighty — Some of: Great and mighty
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
