Genesis 15
1 Now when these things were done, the word of the Lord came to Abram by a vision, saying: Fear not, Abram, I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great.
Some time later, Abram had a vision in which Yahweh spoke to him and said, “Do not be afraid of (anything/your enemies). I will protect you [MTY], and I will give a great reward.”
2 And Abram said: Lord God, what wilt thou give me? I shall go without children: and the son of the steward of my house is this Damascus Eliezer.
But Abram replied, “Yahweh God, how can you give me what I truly want, because I have no children, and the one who will be like a son and inherit all my possessions is my servant Eliezer from Damascus!”
3 And Abram added: But to me thou hast not given seed: and lo my servant, born in my house, shall be my heir.
Abram added, “You have not given me any children, so think about this: A servant in my household will inherit all I own!”
4 And immediately the word of the Lord came to him, saying: He shall not be thy heir: but he that shall come out of thy bowels, him shalt thou have for thy heir.
Yahweh replied, “No! He will not be the one who will inherit it. Instead, you yourself will be the father of the one who will inherit everything you own.”
5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said to him: Look up to heaven and number the stars, if thou canst. And he said to him: So shall thy seed be.
Then Yahweh took Abram outside [of his tent] and said, “Look up at the sky! Can you count the stars? No, you cannot count them because there are so many of them, and your descendants will be as numerous as the stars.”
6 Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice.
Abram believed that what Yahweh said would happen. And because of that, Yahweh considered that Abram was righteous.
7 And he said to him: I am the Lord who brought thee out from Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land, and that thou mightest possess it.
Yahweh also said to him, “I am Yahweh. I am the one who brought you from Ur in Chaldea land. I brought you here to give you this land to possess.”
8 But he said: Lord God, whereby may I know that I shall possess it?
But Abram replied, “Yahweh God, how can I know for sure that this land will belong to me?”
9 And the Lord answered, and said: Take me a cow of three years old, and a she goat of three years, and a ram of three years, a turtle also, and a pigeon.
God said to him, “Bring a three-year-old heifer and a three-year-old goat to me, and a dove and a pigeon.”
10 And he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid the two pieces of each one against the other; but the birds he divided not.
So Abram brought all of them and killed them and cut each of the animals in half. He arranged the halves of each one, side by side. But he did not cut the pigeon and dove in half.
11 And the fowls came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
Birds that eat dead flesh came down to eat the carcasses, but Abram shooed them away.
12 And when the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great and darksome horror seized upon him.
As the sun was going down, Abram fell sound asleep, and suddenly everything around him became dark and frightening.
13 And it was said unto him: Know thou beforehand that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not their own, and they shall bring them under bondage, and afflict them four hundred years.
Then God said to Abram, “I want you to know that your descendants will become foreigners living in a land that does not belong to them. They will become slaves of the owners of that land. The owners of the land will mistreat them for 400 years.
14 But I will judge the nation which they shall serve, and after this they shall come out with great substance.
But then I will punish the people of that country that made them become slaves, and then your descendants will leave that country, taking many possessions with them.
15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and be buried in a good old age.
But as for you, you will die [EUP] peacefully when you are very old.
16 But in the fourth generation they shall return hither: for as yet the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not at the full until this present time.
After your descendants have been slaves for 400 years, they will return here, and take control of this land and defeat the Amor people-group. Those people will, because those people have not yet sinned enough to deserve to be punished now.”
17 And when the sun was set, there arose a dark mist, and there appeared a smoking furnace and a lamp of fire passing between those divisions.
When the sun had set and it had become dark, [unexpectedly] a blazing torch and a clay pot containing burning coals from which smoke was rising appeared and went between the halves of the animals.
18 That day God made a covenant with Abram, saying: To thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates.
And on that day Yahweh made an agreement with Abram. Yahweh told him, “I will give to your descendants all the land between the river that is on the eastern border of Egypt to the south, and north to the huge Euphrates River.
19 The Cineans and Cenezites, the Cedmonites,
That is the land where the Ken, the Keniz, the Kidmon,
20 And the Hethites, and the Pherezites, the Raphaim also,
the Heth, the Periz, the Repha,
21 And the Amorrhites, and the Chanaanites, and the Gergesites, and the Jebusites.
the Amor, the Canaan, the Girgash, and the Tebus people-groups live.”
