The Hebrew Bible says God told Abraham, "Fear not, I am your shield" (Genesis 15:1). Targum Onkelos renders this as "My Word is your strength." The shield becomes a Word. The protection becomes power. And the entire Covenant Between the Parts unfolds through this lens of divine speech rather than divine physicality.
Abraham's response is raw and human: "My Master, God, what will You give me since I continue to be childless?" (Genesis 15:2). Onkelos translates this without softening. The patriarch is not serene. He is desperate. His heir is a household servant named Eliezer of Damascus, not a son of his own body.
God takes Abraham outside. "Look towards the heavens and count the stars if you are able to count them. So numerous will your descendants be" (Genesis 15:5). Then the verse that defines Abrahamic faith: "He believed in God, and this He accounted to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:6). Onkelos adds one word: "He believed in the Word of God." Abraham's faith is not in a vague deity. It is in God's specific, articulated promise. Faith, for Onkelos, is trust in divine communication.
The covenant ceremony—the split animals, the vultures, the deep sleep, the smoking furnace and flaming torch passing between the pieces—Onkelos translates as Abraham "sacrificing before" God. The raw, almost primal ritual of the Hebrew becomes a formal offering. And the prophecy of four hundred years of slavery in a foreign land stands unadorned, a preview of the Exodus that will not come for generations.
1. After these things the word (\it pithgama\it*) of the Lord came to Abram in prophecy, saying, Fear not, Abram: My Word (\it Memra\it*) shall be thy strength, and thy exceeding great reward.
2. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, and I go without a child: and this son of business (bar phargama) who is in My house is the Damasekah Elieser?
3. And Abram said, Behold, Thou hast not given me a child, and, behold, the son of my house is my heir.
4. And, lo, the word (\it pithgama\it*) of the Lord was with him, saying, This shall not be thy heir, but a son whom thou shalt beget will be thine heir.
5. And He led him without, and said, Behold now the heavens, and number the stars, if thou art able to number them; and He said to him, So will be thy sons.
6. And he believed in the Word of the Lord, (\it Memra da Yeya\it*,) and He reckoned it to him unto justification.
7. And He said to him, I am the Lord, who brought thee forth from Ura of the Kasdaee, to give thee this land to inherit it.
8. And he said, Lord God, by what may I know that I shall inherit it?
9. And He said to him, Bring Me three calves, and three goats, and three rams, and a turtle dove, and the young of a pigeon.
10. And he brought before Him all these. And be divided them equally, and set the divisions a division against his fellow; but the birds he did not divide.
11. And the fowl descended upon the divisions, and Abram drave them away.
12. And it was sunset, and sleep fell upon Abram: and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him.
13. And He said unto Abram, Knowing thou shalt know that thy sons will be sojourners (or aliens) in a land not theirs, and they will serve among them; and they will afflict them four hundred years.
14. And the people whom they will serve I will judge, and go forth with much substance.
15. And thou shalt be gathered to thy fathers in peace, and shalt be buried in good old age.
16. And in the fourth age (or generation) they will return hither; because not (yet) complete is the guilt of the Amoraah.
17. And it was at the going away of the sun, and there was darkness. And behold a furnace that burned, and a flame of fire which passed between those divisions.
18. In that day the Lord compacted with Abram a covenant, saying, To thy sons will I give this land; from the river of Mizraim unto the great river, the river of Pherat, the Shalmaee,
19. and the Kenizaee, and the Kadmonaee,
20. and the Hittaee, and the Pherizaee, and the Gibbaraee,
21. and the Amoraee, and the Kenaanaee, and the Girgashaee, and the Yebusaee.
