| | 1 | After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." | |
| | 2 | But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" | |
| | 3 | And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir." | |
| | 4 | Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." | |
| | 5 | He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." | |
| | 6 | Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. | |
| | 7 | He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it." | |
| | 8 | But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?" | |
| | 9 | So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon." | |
| | 10 | Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. | |
| | 11 | Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. | |
| | 12 | As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. | |
| | 13 | Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. | |
| | 14 | But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. | |
| | 15 | You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. | |
| | 16 | In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." | |
| | 17 | When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. | |
| | 18 | On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates-- | |
| | 19 | the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, | |
| | 20 | Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, | |
| | 21 | Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites." | |
