Genesis 15

1After these matters, the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."

2Abram said, "Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, for I am going childless, and he—the son, the steward of my house—is Eliezer of Damascus."

3Abram said, "Look, you have given me no offspring, and see, a son of my house is my heir."

4Look, Yahweh's word came to him: "This one will not be your heir, but he who comes from your own body—he will be your heir."

5He led him outside and said, "Gaze now toward the heavens and count the stars, if you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."

6He trusted in Yahweh, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

7He said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess it.”

8He said, "Lord Yahweh, how will I know that I will inherit it?"

9He said to him, "Take for me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."

10He took all these, cut them in two through the middle, and set each piece opposite its fellow; but he did not divide the bird.

11Birds of prey descended upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

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

13He said to Abram, "Know this well: your offspring will be foreigners in a land not theirs, and they will serve them, and those people will oppress them four hundred years."

14I will also judge that nation whom they serve, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.

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

16In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

17When the sun went down and darkness fell, behold, a smoking furnace and a fiery torch passed between these pieces.

18On that day Yahweh cut a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates."

19the Kenites, the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites

20the Hittites, the Perizzites, and the Rephaim

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