translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: GEN

label: NET study note

text: The noun “shield” recalls the words of Melchizedek in 14:20 . If God is the shield, then God will deliver. Abram need not fear reprisals from those he has fought.


text: The sentence in the Hebrew text employs a very effective wordplay on the name Damascus : “The son of the acquisition ( בֶּן־מֶשֶׁק , ben-mesheq ) of my house is Eliezer of Damascus ( דַּמֶּשֶׁק , dammesheq ).” The words are not the same; they have different sibilants. But the sound play gives the impression that “in the nomen is the omen.” Eliezer the Damascene will be Abram’s heir if Abram dies childless because “Damascus” seems to mean that. See M. F. Unger, “Some Comments on the Text of Genesis 15:2-3 ,” JBL 72 (1953): 49-50; H. L. Ginsberg, “Abram’s ‘Damascene’ Steward,” BASOR 200 (1970): 31-32.


text: I am the Lord . The Lord initiates the covenant-making ceremony with a declaration of who he is and what he has done for Abram. The same form appears at the beginning of the covenant made at Sinai (see Exod 20:1 ).


text: The phrase of the Chaldeans is a later editorial clarification for the readers, designating the location of Ur. From all evidence there would have been no Chaldeans in existence at this early date; they are known in the time of the neo-Babylonian empire in the first millennium b.c.


text: You will go to your ancestors . This is a euphemistic expression for death.


text: The term generation is being used here in its widest sense to refer to a full life span. When the chronological factors are considered and the genealogies tabulated, there are four hundred years of bondage. This suggests that in this context a generation is equivalent to one hundred years.


text: A smoking pot with a flaming torch . These same implements were used in Mesopotamian rituals designed to ward off evil (see E. A. Speiser, Genesis [AB], 113-14).


text: The river of Egypt is a wadi (a seasonal stream) on the northeastern border of Egypt, not to the River Nile.