< Genesis 15 >
1 After these things the word of YHWH has been to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I [am] a shield to you, your reward [is] exceedingly great.”
2 And Abram says, “Lord YHWH, what do You give to me, and I am going childless? And an acquired son in my house is Demmesek Eliezer.”
3 And Abram says, “Behold, to me You have not given seed, and behold, a servant will be my heir.”
4 And behold, the word of YHWH [is] to him, saying, “This [one] will not be your heir; but he who comes out from your bowels, he will be your heir”;
5 and He brings him out outside and says, “Now look attentively toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them”; and He says to him, “Thus is your seed.”
6 And he has believed in YHWH, and He reckons it to him—righteousness.
7 And He says to him, “I [am] YHWH who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldees, to give to you this land to possess it”;
8 and he says, “Lord YHWH, whereby do I know that I possess it?”
9 And He says to him, “Take for Me a heifer of three years, and a female goat of three years, and a ram of three years, and a turtle-dove, and a young bird”;
10 and he takes all these to Him, and separates them in the midst, and puts each piece opposite its fellow, but the bird he has not divided;
11 and the ravenous birds come down on the carcasses, and Abram causes them to turn back.
12 And the sun is about to go in, and deep sleep has fallen on Abram, and behold, a terror of great darkness is falling on him;
13 and He says to Abram, “knowing—know that your seed is a sojourner in a land not theirs, and they have served them, and they have afflicted them four hundred years,
14 and the nation also whom they serve I judge, and after this they go out with great substance;
15 and you come to your fathers in peace; you are buried in a good old age;
16 and the fourth generation turns back here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
17 And it comes to pass—the sun has gone in, and thick darkness has been and behold, a furnace of smoke, and a lamp of fire, which has passed over between those pieces.
18 In that day has YHWH made with Abram a covenant, saying, “To your seed I have given this land, from the River of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River,
19 with 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.”
