15:12 When the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep, 4 and great terror overwhelmed him. 5 15:13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain 6 that your descendants will be strangers 7 in a foreign country. 8 They will be enslaved and oppressed 9 for four hundred years. 15:14 But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. 10 Afterward they will come out with many possessions.
1 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn Heb “in the middle.”
3 tn Heb “to meet its neighbor.”
sn For discussion of this ritual see G. F. Hasel, “The Meaning of the Animal Rite in Genesis 15,” JSOT 19 (1981): 61-78.
4 tn Heb “a deep sleep fell on Abram.”
5 tn Heb “and look, terror, a great darkness was falling on him.”
6 tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, with the Qal infinitive absolute followed by the imperfect from יָדַע (yada’, “know”). The imperfect here has an obligatory or imperatival force.
7 tn The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger, “sojourner, stranger”) is related to the verb גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to stay for awhile”). Abram’s descendants will stay in a land as resident aliens without rights of citizenship.
8 tn Heb “in a land not theirs.”
9 tn Heb “and they will serve them and they will oppress them.” The verb עִנּוּ, (’innu, a Piel form from עָנָה, ’anah, “to afflict, to oppress, to treat harshly”), is used in Exod 1:11 to describe the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt.
10 tn The participle דָּן (dan, from דִּין, din) is used here for the future: “I am judging” = “I will surely judge.” The judgment in this case will be condemnation and punishment. The translation “execute judgment on” implies that the judgment will certainly be carried out.