Genesis 15

¹After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision : Fear not , Abram , I am your shield ; your reward shall be very great .

²But Abram said , O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless , and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus ?

³And Abram said , Behold , you have given me no offspring , and a member of my household will be my heir .

⁴And behold , the word of the Lord came to him: This man shall not be your heir ; your very own son shall be your heir .

⁵And he brought him outside and said , Look toward heaven , and number the stars , if you are able to number them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be .

⁶And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness .

⁷And he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess .

⁸But he said , O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?

⁹He said to him, Bring me a heifer three years old , a female goat three years old , a ram three years old , a turtledove , and a young pigeon .

¹⁰And he brought him all these, cut them in half , and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half .

¹¹And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses , Abram drove them away .

¹²As the sun was going down , a deep sleep fell on Abram . And behold , dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.

¹³Then the Lord said to Abram , Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years .

¹⁴But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve , and afterward they shall come out with great possessions .

¹⁵As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace ; you shall be buried in a good old age .

¹⁶And they shall come back here in the fourth generation , for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete .

¹⁷When the sun had gone down and it was dark , behold , a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces .

¹⁸On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram , saying , To your offspring I give this land , from the river of Egypt to the great river , the river Euphrates ,

¹⁹the land of the Kenites , the Kenizzites , the Kadmonites ,

²⁰the Hittites , the Perizzites , the Rephaim ,

²¹the Amorites , the Canaanites , the Girgashites and the Jebusites .