Genesis 15

God’s Covenant with Abram

15After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram ^ain a vision, saying, ^b“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your ^cshield, ¹your exceedingly ^dgreat reward.”

^2eBut Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, ^fseeing I ²go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed ^gone ³born in my house is my heir!”

⁴And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who ^hwill come from your own body shall be your heir.” ⁵Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and ⁱcount the ^jstars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, ^k“So shall your ^ldescendants be.”

⁶And he ^mbelieved in the Lord, and He ⁿaccounted it to him for righteousness.

⁷Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who ^obrought you out of ^pUr of the Chaldeans, ^qto give you this land to inherit it.”

⁸And he said, “Lord God, ^rhow shall I know that I will inherit it?”

⁹So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰Then he brought all these to Him and ^scut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut ^tthe birds in two. ¹¹And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹²Now when the sun was going down, ^ua deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. ¹³Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly ^vthat your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and ^wthey will afflict them four hundred years. ¹⁴And also the nation whom they serve ^xI will judge; afterward ^ythey shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵Now as for you, ^zyou shall ⁴go ^ato your fathers in peace; ^byou shall be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶But ^cin the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity ^dof the Amorites ^eis not yet complete.”

¹⁷And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that ^fpassed between those pieces. ¹⁸On the same day the Lord ^gmade a covenant with Abram, saying:

^h“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—¹⁹the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”