| 1 | After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” |
| 2 | But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” |
| 3 | And Abram said, “You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.” |
| 4 | But the word of the LORD came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.” |
| 5 | He brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” |
| 6 | And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness. |
| 7 | Then he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” |
| 8 | But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” |
| 9 | He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” |
| 10 | He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. |
| 11 | And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. |
| 12 | As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him. |
| 13 | Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years; |
| 14 | but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. |
| 15 | As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. |
| 16 | And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” |
| 17 | When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. |
| 18 | On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, |
| 19 | the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, |
| 20 | the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, |
| 21 | the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” |
