After these things, [the miracles wrought for him in vanquishing the kings, (Avram worrying that he might thereby have received his full reward)], the word of the L-rd came to Avram in a vision, saying: Do not fear, Avram; I am a shield [against punishment] for you [for the men that you have killed; and, as to your concern over having received your full reward], your reward is extremely great.

אחר הדברים האלה — Wherever the term אחר is used it signifies immediately after the preceding event; whilst אחרי signifies a long time afterwards. אחר הדברים האלה AFTER THESE THINGS means: after this miracle has been wrought for him in that he slew the kings and he was in great anxiety, saying, “Perhaps I have already received, in this God-given victory reward for all my good deeds” — therefore the Omnipresent said to him, אל תירא אברם אנכי מגן לך FEAR NOT ABRAM, I AM THY SHIELD against punishment: for you shall not be punished on account of all these people whom you have slain. And as for your being anxious regarding the receipt of any further reward, know that שכרך הרבה מאד THY REWARD WILL BE EXCEEDING GREAT (Genesis Rabbah 44:5).

[I AM THY SHIELD.] I was your shield and saved you from the kings. I will also reward you because, of your own free will, leading a small force and relying on Me, you saved your nephew.

THE WORD OF THE ETERNAL CAME UNTO ABRAM IN A VISION. Abraham now merited that the word of G-d should come to him in a daytime vision for at first his prophecy came to him in nocturnal visions. The meaning of the word bemachzeh (in a vision) is as in the meaning of the verse, And all the people saw the thunderings, and the secret thereof is known to those who are learned in the mysteries of the Torah.

FEAR NOT ABRAM. Abraham feared two things: that the four kings — either they or their successors — might increase their forces against him and he would go down into the battle and perish, or that his day shall come to die without child. [To remove these two fears from Abraham, the Eternal] promised him that He will be his shield against them, and that his reward for walking with G-d shall be very great.

אל תירא אברם, do not worry that the four kings will avenge themselves on you.

שכרך, not only that, but your reward over and beyond that is so great that your merits have not decreased on account of your success in that battle. You deserve much more reward for having gone to the assistance of your brother, displaying a supreme degree of love for him and for those belonging to him. You have liberated the victims of kidnappers.

הרבה מאד, both in this world

and in the world to come. We have been taught, and recite daily in our prayers, that there are things for which one receives some dividends in this world, whereas the principal comes due in the hereafter. One of the good deeds which qualify for such reward is known as גמילות חסדים, the performing of deeds of loving kindness involving not only one’s checkbook but one’s very body (Peah, 1,1).

But Abram said, “O my Sovereign GOD, what can You give me, seeing that I shall die childless, and the one in charge of my household is Dammesek Eliezer!”

AND ABRAM SAID, O LORD ETERNAL, WHAT WILT THOU GIVE ME? “Behold, Thou hast saved me from the kings, but Thou hast not assured me against extinction. Thou hast only said that Thou wilt give me great reward, but what can my reward be without children?”
Now it had not occurred to Abraham that this great reward would be in the World to Come for there is no necessity for such a promise; every servant of G-d will find life in the hereafter before him. But in this world there are righteous men, unto whom it happened according to the work of the wicked. It is for this reason that the righteous have need of assurance. Moreover, very great implies that he will merit both worlds with all the best therein without any punishment whatever as befits the really righteous people. Moreover, an assurance is given for that which a person fears. [Hence, he needed no assurance concerning the hereafter. But he feared being childless; therefore G-d] rejoined and explained that His assurance included that he should not fear this either, as He will make his children as the stars of heaven for multitude.
You may ask: Has it not been told to Abraham already, For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, and so, how could Abraham now say, Since I go childless…lo, my household slave will be mine heir? And why did he not believe in the first prophecy, as he would believe in this [second one which G-d will now relate to him?] The answer is that the righteous ones have no trust in themselves, fearing they might have sinned in error. Thus it is written At one instant I may speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and plant it; but if that nation turn and do evil before Me, then I repent of the good. Now when Abraham saw himself advanced in years and the first prophecy concerning him had not yet been fulfilled, he thought that his sins had withheld that good from him. And perhaps he now feared that he would be punished for the people that he killed in the war, as our Rabbis have said. They have expressed a similar thought in Bereshith Rabbah: “Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. From this we derive the principle that there is no assurance for the righteous ones in this world, etc.”

בן ביתי יורש אותי, even though, in the end, You will give me biological offspring, as You have said in 12,7 לזרעך אתן את הארץ הזאת, “I will give this land to your descendants,” such children will only be minors at the time, so that my servant Eliezer will have to raise them and guide them, in effect being my heir.

Abram said further, “Since You have granted me no offspring, my steward will be my heir.”

The word of GOD came to him in reply, “That one shall not be your heir; none but your very own issue shall be your heir.”

AND, BEHOLD, THE WORD OF THE ETERNAL CAME UNTO HIM, SAYING: THIS MAN SHALL NOT BE THINE HEIR. Since Abraham had his son who would be his heir after his old age, the Eternal assured him only concerning the inheritance, i.e., that he should not worry, and his seed will inherit it.
The meaning of the expression, And, behold, the word of the Eternal came unto him, is that while Abraham was still saying, And, lo, my household slave will be mine heir, the word of G-d suddenly came to him, saying This man shall not be thine heir.

[Then in the vision, God] took him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them”—continuing, “So shall your offspring be.”

ויוצא אתו החוצה AND HE BROUGHT HIM FORTH OUTSIDE — Its real meaning is: He brought him outside his tent so that he could look at the stars. Its Midrashic explanation is: Go forth from (give up) your astrological speculations — that you have seen by the planets that you will not raise a son; Abram indeed may have no son but Abraham will have a son: Sarai may not bear a child but Sarah will bear. I will give you other names, and your destiny (מזל planet, luck) will be changed. Another explanation: He brought him forth from the terrestrial sphere, elevating him above the stars, and this is why He uses the term הבט ‘‘look”, when He said “look at the heavens” — for this word signifies looking from above downward (Genesis Rabbah 44:12).

כה יהיה זרעך, “so shall be your seed.” Rabbi Tanchuma son of Acha, basing himself on this phrase, commented that it is an assurance that there will never be fewer than 30 righteous people on earth at all times. He uses the word יהיה, “will be (singular),” as his proof. [The numerical value of the combined letters in that word is 30. Ed.]

‎Genesis 23,1. “The years of Sarah’s life were one hundred years, ‎etc.;” I believe, G’d willing, that I have understood the reason ‎why Sarah is the only woman in the Bible of whose age at the ‎time of her death we have been told. The Talmud Nedarim ‎‎64, in referring to Rachel’s outburst (Genesis 30,1) that unless her ‎husband Yaakov would give her children she considered herself as ‎‎“dead,” is quoted by Rashi on that verse saying that seeing ‎that a woman’s primary task in life is to mother children, any ‎woman who has not given birth to a live child is considered as ‎dead. We also know from Shabbat 156, that when G’d took ‎Avraham outside (Genesis 15,5) that He showed him that ‎according to the constellation of the stars, Sarai was not slated to ‎give birth to children. This ‎מזל‎, astrological prognosis of her life, ‎could be changed only due to merits she would acquire during the ‎years to come. She did indeed acquire such merits, as our sages ‎conclude from a comment they made in Shir Hashirim ‎Rabbah, 2,32 where the phenomenon of all the matriarchs ‎originally being barren is discussed. Among a variety of answers ‎offered there, one is that G’d was desirous of listening to their ‎praying to Him to be granted children, just as He is desirous of ‎listening to the prayers of the righteous, generally. In other ‎words, Sarah, (after a name change) both due to her merits and ‎her supplications, was “lifted” out of the limitations predicted for ‎her by a zodiac sign she had been born under, so that she could ‎conceive. When the Torah refers to her “life” as being 127 years ‎long, this means nothing less than that she had spent all these ‎years accumulating merits for the good deeds she performed. ‎Expressed somewhat differently, the Torah states that it was ‎Sarah, who with her good deeds gave “life” to her years.‎

And he put his trust in GOD, who reckoned it to his merit.

'והאמין בה AND HE BELIEVED IN THE LORD — He did not ask Him for a sign regarding this; but in respect to the promise that he would possess the land he asked for a sign, inquiring of God, במה אדע “By what sign shall I know [that I shall possess it?]” (Genesis 15:8).

ויחשבה לו צדקה AND HE ACCOUNTED IT UNTO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS — The Holy One, blessed be He, accounted it unto Abraham as a merit, because of the faith with which he had trusted in Him. Another explanation of במה אדע is: he did not, by these words, ask for a sign regarding this promise that he would possess the land, but he said to Him, “Tell me by what merit they (my descendants) will remain in it (the land).” God answered him, through the merit of the sacrifices (Taanit 27b).

He believed. He had utter confidence that God would fulfill His promise, even if it required a miracle.

And this He accounted. God reckoned Avraham’s trust as an act of righteousness, which proves that his subsequent inquiry, “How will I know, etc.?” could not have been an expression of doubt.

Then [God] said to him, “I am GOD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to assign this land to you as a possession.”

THAT BROUGHT THEE OUT OF UR OF THE CHALDEES. This verse proves what I have earlier noted, that God’s command to Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, etc., was given in Ur of the Chaldees, not in Haran.

Abraham had complete faith in God’s word that he would beget a son who would be his heir. It was only with regard to the possession of the land that he asked for a sign. He acted like Gideon. Furthermore, all prophecies are conditional. God’s oaths, on the other hand, are unconditional. Hence Abraham did not sin in requesting that a covenant be made between God and himself.

'אני ה, He had not previously mentioned His name Hashem, the Essence, to Avram. When G’d mentioned this name of His now, it was not to inform Avram that this was His true name, His Essence. Avram had been familiar with that name from the time he had first gotten to know G’d. He only mentioned it now to tell Avram that He would keep His promise in His capacity of Hashem. It is as if G’d had said: “I swear by My name Hashem.”

אשר הוצאתיך מאור כשדים, it was not for nothing that I have taken you out of that environment, but in order to give you this land to inherit it. G’d meant that Avram’s descendants would inherit the land of Canaan. The relationship between this land and Avram would become comparable to the inheritance a father leaves to his sons.

And he said, “O my Sovereign GOD, how shall I know that I am to possess it?”

במה אדע, for possibly my descendants will sin and forfeit their claim to this land.

Came the reply, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young bird.”

עגלה משלשת means THREE HEIFERS: symbolical of three sacrifices of bullocks, viz., the bullock offered on the Day of Atonement, the bullock offered when the correct interpretation of a precept was unknown (העלם) to leaders of the nation (see Leviticus 4:13), and the heifer whose neck had to be broken (see Deuteronomy 21:4) (Genesis Rabbah 44:14).

ועז משולשת THREE GOATS — symbolical of the goat the blood of which was sprinkled in the Holy of Holies, of the goats of the additional sacrifices on Festivals, and of the goat brought as a sin-offering by an individual (Genesis Rabbah 44:14).

ואיל משולש AND THREE RAMS—symbolical of the trespass offering brought by a man who knows for certain that he has committed certain offences, the offering brought by a man who is in doubt whether he has committed such offence, and the ewe brought by an individual as a sin-offering.

ותור וגוזל means A TURTLE DOVE AND A YOUNG PIGEON (Genesis Rabbah 44:14).

“He said: My Lord God, how can I know that I will inherit it?” (Genesis 15:8).
“He said: My Lord God, how can I know” – Rabbi Ḥiyya ben Rabbi Ḥanina said: [Abraham said this] not like someone who is complaining, but rather, he said to Him: ‘By what merit [will I inherit it]?’ He said to him: ‘By means of the atonements that I will provide for your descendants.’
“He said to him: Take for Me three calves, and three goats, and three rams, and a dove, and a young pigeon” (Genesis 15:9).
“He said to him: Take for Me three calves” – He showed him three types [of atonement] involving bulls, three types involving goats, and three types involving rams: Three types involving bulls: the bull of Yom Kippur; the bull that is brought for the transgression of any of the mitzvot; and the beheaded calf. Three types involving goats: the goats of the festivals; the goats of the New Moon; and the goat offered by the individual. Three types involving rams: the definite guilt offering; the provisional guilt offering; and the lamb offered by the individual. “And a dove, and a young pigeon.”
“He took all these for Him. He divided them in the middle, and placed each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not divide” (Genesis 15:10).
“He took all these for him” – Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai and the Rabbis, Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai says: He showed him all the [other] types of atonement, but the tenth of an ephah [meal offering] He did not show him. The Rabbis say: He showed him the tenth of an ephah as well. It is stated here: “He took all these [eleh] for Him” and it is stated elsewhere: “You shall bring the meal offering that is prepared of these [eleh] to the Lord” (Leviticus 2:8).
“But the birds he did not divide” – the Holy One blessed be He showed him that [the head of] the bird burnt-offering is to be severed but [the head of] the bird sin-offering is not to be severed.

He brought all these and cut them in two, placing each half opposite the other; but he did not cut up the bird.

ויבתר אתם AND HE SPLIT THEM — He divided each into two portions. This verse does not lose its literal meaning although there are various Midrashic explanations of it. Since He was making a covenant with him to keep His promise to give the land as an inheritance to his children — as it is written (Genesis 15:18), “In that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying …” — and as it was the custom for parties to a covenant to divide an animal and to pass between its parts, as it is said elsewhere (Jeremiah 34:19) “who passed between the parts of the calf”, so also here the smoking furnace and the flaming torch which passed between the pieces (Genesis 15:17) were representative of the Divine Shechinah which is spoken of as fire.

ואת הצפור לא בתר BUT THE BIRDS SPLIT HE NOT — Because other nations are compared to bulls, rams and goats, as it is said (Psalms 22:13) “Many bulls have encompassed me”, and it says, (Daniel 8:20) “The ram which thou sawest having two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia” and it further says, (Daniel 8:21) “And the rough he-goat is the king of Greece” — and Israel is compared to young doves, as it is written, (Song 2:14) ‘‘O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock” — he therefore divided the animals indicating that other nations will gradually perish, ואת הצפור לא בתר but “the birds split he not”, suggesting thereby that Israel will live forever (Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer 28).

Birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

“Birds of prey descended upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away” (Genesis 15:11).
“Birds of prey descended upon the carcasses [and Abram drove them away]” – Rabbi Asi said: Abraham took a stick and was striking them, but they would not yield to his blows. Nevertheless, “Abram drove them away [vayashev]” – by means of repentance [teshuva].
Rabbi Azarya said: [God said:] When your descendants will become like carcasses without sinews and bones, your merit will stand them in good stead.

וישב [AND ABRAM] SCARED THEM AWAY — The word means “blowing upon a thing and making a thing fly away”, similar to (Psalms 147:18) יַשֵּׁב רוחו “He causeth His wind to blow”. It is a symbol that David, the son of Jesse, will wish to destroy them (the nations), but that he will not be permitted by God to do so until king Messiah comes (Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer 28).

As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great dark dread descended upon him.

'והנה אימה וגו AND, LO, AN HORROR etc. — This is symbolic of the woes and the gloom of the Jews in Exile (Genesis Rabbah 44:17).

AND IT CAME TO PASS, THAT, WHEN THE SUN WAS GOING DOWN. This clause indicates that Abraham took him all these (v. 10) during the day after he awoke from his prophetic vision.

AND LO, A DREAD, EVEN A GREAT DARKNESS FELL UPON HIM. The Rabbis in the Midrash have interpreted this fourfold expression to be an allusion to the servitude of the four exiles, for the prophet Abraham found his soul overtaken by “a dread,” followed by “darkness,” which in turn became “a great darkness,” and then he felt as if an overwhelmingly heavy load “fell” upon him. Thus the Rabbis have said: “A dread, this is Babylon. Darkness, this is Media that darkened the eyes of Israel with fasting and affliction. Great, this is the kingdom of Antiochus. Fell upon him, this is Edom.
This experience came to Abraham because when the Holy One, blessed be He, made a covenant with him to give the land to his children as an everlasting possession, He said to him, by way of a residuary of His gift, that during the four exiles the nations will subjugate his children and rule in their land, subject to the condition that they sin before Him. Following this general allusion, He then informed him explicitly concerning another exile into which they will first go, namely, the Egyptian exile with which he had already been punished, as I have explained.

And [God] said to Abram, “Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years;

כי גר יהיה זרעך THAT THY SEED SHALL BE A STRANGER — From the birth of Isaac until Israel left Egypt was a period of 400 years. How so? Isaac was 60 years old when Jacob was born, and Jacob when he went down to Egypt himself stated, (Genesis 47:9) “The days of the years of my sojournings are a hundred and thirty years”, making together 190 years. In Egypt they were 210 years — corresponding to the numerical value of the word רדו (see Rashi in Genesis 42:2) — making altogether 400 years. If, however, you say that they were in Egypt 400 years — well, Kohath was one of those who went down to Egypt with Jacob; go and add up the years of Kohath (130), those of Amram (137), and the 80 years that Moses was old when Israel left Egypt, and you only have about 350, and you really have to deduct all the years that Kohath lived after Amram was born, and those that Amram lived after the birth of Moses (Megillah 9a).

בארץ לא להם IN A LAND THAT IS NOT THEIRS — It does not say here in the land of Egypt but in a land that is not theirs; for soon after Isaac was born it states, (Genesis 21:34) “And Abraham sojourned (ויגר) [in the land of the Philistines]”; in regard to Isaac it is said, (Genesis 26:3) “Sojourn (גור) in this land (Canaan)”, and of Jacob Scripture states, (Psalms 105:23) “Jacob sojourned (גר) in the land of Ham”, whilst of his sons it is said, (Genesis 47:4) “To sojourn (לגור) in the land (of Egypt) have we come”.

but I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve, and in the end they shall go free with great wealth.

וגם את הגוי AND ALSO THAT NATION — The word וגם and also—(that nation also will I judge)—suggests that other nations will be judged as well: it is used here to include the four Monarchies (of the book of Daniel) who also will perish because they enslaved Israel (Genesis Rabbah 44:19).

וגם את הגוי AND ALSO THAT NATION — The word וגם and also—(that nation also will I judge)—suggests that other nations will be judged as well: it is used here to include the four Monarchies (of the book of Daniel) who also will perish because they enslaved Israel (Genesis Rabbah 44:19).

דן אנכי I WILL JUDGE with ten plagues (Genesis Rabbah 44:20).

ברכוש גדול WITH GREAT SUBSTANCE — with great wealth, as it is said, (Exodus 12:36) “And they despoiled the Egyptians.”

As for you,
You shall go to your ancestors in peace;You shall be buried at a ripe old age.

And they shall return here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

ודור רביעי BUT A FOURTH GENERATION — i.e. after they go into exile in Egypt they will be there three generations, and the fourth will return to this land (הֵנָה hither). For He was then speaking to him in the land of Canaan and it was there that He made this covenant, as it is written (v.7) “to give thee this land to inherit it”. Thus it really was: Jacob went down to Egypt. Go and count up his generations: Judah, Perez, Hezron— and Caleb (whose father Jephuneh is identified with Hezron, see Sotah 11b) was amongst those who entered the land of Canaan.

כי לא שלם עון האמורי FOR THE INIQUITY OF THE AMORITE IS NOT YET FULL enough that he should be driven out of his land until that time, for the Holy One, blessed be He, does not exact punishment from any nation until its measure is full, as it is said, (Isaiah 27:8) “In her full measure wilt thou contend with her when thou sendest her away” (Sotah 9a).

When the sun set and it was very dark, there appeared a smoking oven, and a flaming torch that passed between those pieces.

'והנה תנור עשן וגו BEHOLD A SMOKING FURNACE — He foreshadowed to him that these Monarchies would descend into Gehinom (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 28).

THICK DARKNESS. Alatah (thick darkness) means darkness. The word alatah is also found in Ezekiel (12:6, 7, 12). It means a cloudy night. It might also refer to the darkness that sets in as soon as the last light has disappeared in the clouds.

BETWEEN THESE PIECES. Ben ha-gezarim means between the pieces. This was the actual taking of the oath. The words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof (Jer. 34:18) is similar. We thus read in the next verse, In that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘Unto thy seed have I given this land,’ etc.

AND BEHOLD, A SMOKING FURNACE, AND A FLAMING TORCH. It appeared to Abraham as if the furnace was all smoke and in its midst a flaming torch was burning, similar to a great smoke, with a fire flashing up. The “smoke” mentioned here is the cloud, and thick darkness mentioned at the giving of the Torah, and “the flaming torch” in its midst is “the fire” mentioned there: And thou didst hear His words out of the midst of the fire; and it is further written: And the appearance of the glory of the Eternal was like devouring fire, etc. Thus the Divine Glory passed between the parts of the sacrifices, and this is the covenant which He made with Abraham forever. This is the meaning of the verse, the Eternal made a covenant with Abraham, as the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself carried through “the covenant of between the parts.” The student versed in the mysteries of the Torah will understand.

(17) When the sun set and it was very dark, there appeared a smoking oven, and a flaming torch that passed between those pieces. (18) On that day GOD made a covenant with Abram: “To your offspring I assign this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates— (19) the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, (20) the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, (21) the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”