Genesis 15:6
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The context
Genesis 15 follows the rescue of Lot and the refusal of the spoils of Sodom. Abram complains that he has no heir, and God takes him outside to look at the stars, then renews the promise of land. Verse 6 comes after the promise of descendants and before the covenant of the pieces and the long sleep.
What it establishes
The verse establishes a verdict: Abram trusted the promise, and God reckoned that trust as righteousness. The Hebrew verb is commercial in origin, and the sentence is short enough to have carried enormous weight in later argument. It is the narrator's comment, not Abram's own claim.
What it does not establish
It does not define what counting as righteousness means. The verse does not say whether faith is a gift, a work, or a substitute for obedience, and Paul and James later put different questions to it. Nor does it describe the content of his faith beyond the promise of offspring.
Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.
Cited in these answers
Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.