Genesis 15

1 After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am shielding you. Your reward will be very great.” 2 And Abram said, “Master, what will you give me? I am departing childless — and the son of Masek, my slave woman born in my house: that is Eliezer of Damascus.” [a] 3 And Abram said, “Since you have given me no seed, a servant born in my house will be my heir.” 4 At once the voice of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir. The one who comes from your own body — he will be your heir.” 5 Then he brought him outside and said to him, “Look up now at heaven, and count the stars — if you can number them all.” And he said, “So shall your seed be.” 6 And Abram believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. †

7 And he said to him, “I am the God who brought you out of the land of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit.” 8 And he said, “Master and Lord, how will I know that I will inherit it?” 9 And he said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram three years old, a dove, and a pigeon.” 10 So he brought him all these. He divided them down the middle and laid the halves facing each other — but the birds he did not divide. 11 And birds came down on the carcasses, on the divided halves, and Abram sat down beside them. [b]

12 About sunset a deep trance fell on Abram, and look — a great dark terror fell upon him. 13 And it was said to Abram: “Know this for certain: your seed will live as strangers in a land not their own. They will be enslaved and mistreated and humbled for four hundred years. 14 But the nation they serve, I will judge — and afterward they will come out here with many possessions. 15 As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace, buried at a good old age. 16 And in the fourth generation they will return here — for the sins of the Amorites are not yet full, even now.” 17 When the sun was about to set, there came a flame — and look: a smoking oven and torches of fire, and they passed between the divided pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your seed I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates: 19 the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” [c]