Genesis 15

¹ After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying: Fear not, Abram, I am your shield, your exceeding great reward.

² Then Abram said, Lord GOD, what will you give me, since I am childless, and Eliezer of Damascus is the steward of my house?

³ And Abram said, Behold, thou hast given me no children, and behold, one born in my house shall be my heir.

⁴ And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This shall not be your heir; But whoever comes out of your womb will be your heir.

⁵ Then he took him outside, and said, Look now into the heavens, and count the stars, if you can number them. And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

⁶ And he believed in the Lord, and counted it unto him for righteousness.

⁷ And he said unto him, I am the Lord, which brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give thee this land to inherit it.

⁸ And he said, Lord GOD, how shall I know that I shall inherit it?

⁹ And he said unto him, Take me a heifer of three years old, and a goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

¹⁰ And he brought all these to him, and divided them in half, and laid each part of them opposite the other; but the birds did not leave.

¹¹ And the birds descended on the corpses; Abram, however, drove them away.

¹² And when the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, great terror and great darkness fell upon him.

¹³ Then he said to Abram: Know that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will be enslaved, and will be afflicted four hundred years,

¹⁴ But I also will judge the nation, which it must serve, and then it will come out with great wealth.

¹⁵ And you will go to your parents in peace; in a good old age you will be buried.

¹⁶ And the fourth generation will return here; for the measure of the injustice of the Amorites is not yet full.

¹⁷ And it came to pass, when the sun had set, that there was darkness, and behold a furnace of smoke, and a torch of fire, which passed through those halves.

¹⁸ That same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “I have given this land to your descendants, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates;

¹⁹ And 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.