Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 15:16
(16) The fourth generation.—Heb., dôr. (See Note on Genesis 6:9.) As the four generations are identical with the four centuries of Genesis 15:13, we have here an undesigned testimony to the long duration of human life. So Abram was 100 years old when Isaac was born, and Isaac was 60 at the birth of his children, and Jacob 64 years of age at his marriage. But the word dôr had probably come down from a remote antiquity, and, like the Latin word seculum, signified a century.The iniquity of the... read more
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Genesis 15:15
(15) Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace.—Abram’s ancestors had died in Babylonia, but the phrase, used here for the first time, evidently involves the thought of the immortality of the soul. The body may be buried far away, but the soul joins the company of its forefathers in some separate abode, not to be absorbed, but still to enjoy a personal existence. (Comp. Genesis 25:8.) A similar, but more exact, distinction between the body and the spirit is drawn in Ecclesiastes 12:7. read more