15:12 When the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep, 1 and great terror overwhelmed him. 2 15:13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain 3 that your descendants will be strangers 4 in a foreign country. 5 They will be enslaved and oppressed 6 for four hundred years.
1 tn Heb “a deep sleep fell on Abram.”
2 tn Heb “and look, terror, a great darkness was falling on him.”
3 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.
4 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.
5 tn Heb “in a land not theirs.”
6 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.