Genesis 15
1 After all these things, this word of God came to Abram in a vision: "Don't be afraid, Abram. I'm your shield. Your reward will be grand!"
2-3 Abram said, "God, Master, what use are your gifts as long as I'm childless and Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything?" Abram continued, "See, you've given me no children, and now a mere house servant is going to get it all."
4 Then God's Message came: "Don't worry, he won't be your heir; a son from your body will be your heir."
5 Then he took him outside and said, "Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You're going to have a big family, Abram!"
6 And he believed! Believed God! God declared him "Set-Right-with-God."
7 God continued, "I'm the same God who brought you from Ur of the Chaldees and gave you this land to own."
8 Abram said, "Master God, how am I to know this, that it will all be mine?"
9 God said, "Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon."
10-12 He brought all these animals to him, split them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. But he didn't split the birds. Vultures swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram scared them off. As the sun went down a deep sleep overcame Abram and then a sense of dread, dark and heavy.
13-16 God said to Abram, "Know this: your descendants will live as outsiders in a land not theirs; they'll be enslaved and beaten down for 400 years. Then I'll punish their slave masters; your offspring will march out of there loaded with plunder. But not you; you'll have a long and full life and die a good and peaceful death. Not until the fourth generation will your descendants return here; sin is still a thriving business among the Amorites."
17-21 When the sun was down and it was dark, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch moved between the split carcasses. That's when God made a covenant with Abram: "I'm giving this land to your children, from the Nile River in Egypt to the River Euphrates in Assyria—the country of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites."
Genesis 15
1 After these things the word of Jehovah came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.2 And Abram said, O Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?3 And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.4 And, behold, the word of Jehovah came unto him, saying, This man shall not be thine heir; But he that 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 unto him, So shall thy seed be.6 And he believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.7 And he said unto him, I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.8 And he said, O Lord Jehovah, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?9 And he said unto him, Take me a heifer three years old, 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 him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each half over against the other: but the birds divided he not.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 unto Abram, Know of a surety 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 that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.15 But thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.16 And in the fourth generation they shall come hither 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, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto 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.