Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Parallel translations
- WEB He believed in Yahweh, who credited it to him for righteousness.
- KJV And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
- NKJV And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.
- NASB Then he believed in the Lord; and He credited it to him as righteousness.
- NLT And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.
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
Abram believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. This is the Bible's foundational statement of justification by faith.
Overview
This pivotal verse declares that Abram was counted righteous not by works but by trusting God's promise. Paul cites it in Romans 4 and Galatians 3 as proof that justification has always been by faith, and James 2 shows such faith is living and active. It points directly to the gospel: sinners are reckoned righteous through faith in Christ, the promised seed.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Jas 2:23And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called a friend of God.
- Gal 3:6–14So also, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
- Rom 4:9Is this blessing only on the circumcised, or also on the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.
- Rom 4:20–25Yet he did not waver through disbelief in the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,
- Rom 4:3–6For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
- Ps 106:31It was credited to him as righteousness for endless generations to come.
- Heb 11:8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.
- Rom 4:11And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.
- 2 Cor 5:19that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 15:6 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.