Bible Strands
Genesis 15:18
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks to Abram immediately after the smoking firepot and flaming torch passed between the halved carcasses (v. 17), the moment the covenant is ratified.
The words — כָּרַת (ka.Rat, "he cut/made") is the verb that carries the verse; the "cutting" language ties the covenant act directly to the severed animals on the ground.
The thread — The land promise first appears in Genesis 12:7, is reiterated to Abraham's servant in Genesis 24:7, and is echoed in Joshua 1:3 as a given already secured.
Why it lands — The promise is addressed to "your descendants" in the past tense ("I have given") before a single foot has crossed the border; the reader is asked to hold the gap between what is declared and what is possessed.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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:
Cross-references
- Joshua 1:3 I have given you every place where the sole of your foot will tread, just as I promised to Moses.
- Genesis 12:7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” So Abram built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
- Genesis 24:7 The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me from my father’s house and my native land, who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’—He will send His angel before you so that you can take a wife for my son from there.
- Genesis 13:15 for all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever.
- Deuteronomy 11:24 Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea.
- Exodus 23:27 I will send My terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn and run.
- Numbers 34:2 “Command the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land of Canaan, it will be allotted to you as an inheritance with these boundaries:
- Numbers 34:5 where it will turn from Azmon, join the Brook of Egypt, and end at the Sea.
- Nehemiah 9:8 You found his heart faithful before You, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites and Hittites, of the Amorites and Perizzites, of the Jebusites and Girgashites—to give it to his descendants. You have kept Your promise, because You are righteous.
- Isaiah 27:12 In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered one by one.