Genesis 15:16

The Hebrew word translated "generation" really refers to a lifetime, which at this period in history was about 100 years. [Note: See W. F. Albright, The Biblical Period from Abraham to Ezra, p. 9; and Theological Workbook of the Old Testament, s.v., "dor," by Robert D. Culver, 1:186-87.] This seems a better explanation than that four literal generations are in view. The writer mentioned four literal generations in Exodus 6:16-20 and Numbers 26:58-59, but there were quite evidently gaps in those genealogies. [Note: Kitchen, Ancient Orient . . ., p. 54.] "The Amorite" serves as a synecdoche for the ten Canaanite nations listed in Genesis 15:19-20. A synecdoche is a figure of speech in which one part of a whole represents the whole, as here, or the whole represents a part.