He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years.
Parallel translations
- KJV And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
- BSB Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
- NKJV Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years.
- NASB Then God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.
- NLT Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God foretold that Abram's descendants would be enslaved and afflicted in a foreign land for four hundred years. He revealed hardship before deliverance.
Overview
The Lord discloses the future bondage in Egypt long before it occurs, showing His sovereign foreknowledge over history. The promise comes wrapped in a warning of suffering, teaching that God's purposes often pass through affliction. This prophecy assures that even Israel's slavery lay within God's plan, leading toward the exodus and ultimately toward redemption in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Acts 7:6–7God spoke in this way: that his offspring would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.
- Exod 1:11Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.
- Exod 12:40–41Now the time that the children of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred thirty years.
- Acts 7:17“But as the time of the promise came close which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
- Gal 3:17Now I say this. A covenant confirmed beforehand by God in Christ, the law, which came four hundred thirty years after, does not annul, so as to make the promise of no effect.
- Exod 1:1–2Now these are the names of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt (every man and his household came with Jacob):
- Lev 19:34The stranger who lives as a foreigner with you shall be to you as the native-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.
- Gen 17:8I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God.”
- Exod 23:9“You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, since you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
- Ps 105:11–12saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance”;
- Heb 11:8–13By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went.
- Deut 10:19Therefore love the foreigner; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
- Exod 5:1–23Afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said to Pharaoh, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’”
- Ps 105:23–25Israel also came into Egypt. Jacob lived in the land of Ham.
- Exod 22:21“You shall not wrong an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 15:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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