< Genesis 15 >
1 After these things the word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram. I am thy shield, thy exceedingly great reward.
2 And Abram said, O lord Jehovah, what will thou give me, since I go childless. And he who shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?
3 And Abram said, Behold, thou have given no seed to me. And, lo, a man born in my house is my heir.
4 And, behold, the word of Jehovah came to him, saying, This man shall not be thine heir, but he who shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and number the stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said to him, So shall thy seed be.
6 And he believed in Jehovah, and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.
7 And he said to him, I am Jehovah who brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
8 And he said, O lord Jehovah, how shall I know that I shall inherit it?
9 And he said to him, Take a heifer three years old for me, and a she-goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.
10 And he took all these for him, and divided them in the midst, and laid each half opposite the other. But he did not divide the birds.
11 And the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram. And, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him.
13 And he said to Abram, Know of a certainty that thy seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs. And shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years.
14 And also I will judge that nation, whom they shall serve, and afterward they shall come out with great substance.
15 But thou will go to thy fathers in peace; thou will be buried in a good old age.
16 And in the fourth generation they shall come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.
17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch that passed between these pieces.
18 In that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, To thy seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
19 the Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite,
20 and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim,
21 and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.