Genesis 15:1-21
15 After this the word of Jehovah came to Aʹbram in a vision, saying: “Do not fear,+ Aʹbram. I am a shield for you.+ Your reward will be very great.”+
2 Aʹbram replied: “Sovereign Lord Jehovah, what will you give me, seeing that I continue childless and the one who will inherit my house is a man of Damascus, E·li·eʹzer?”+
3 Aʹbram added: “You have given me no offspring,*+ and a member* of my household is succeeding me as heir.”
4 But look! Jehovah’s word in reply to him was, “This man will not succeed you as heir, but your own son* will succeed you as heir.”+
5 He now brought him outside and said: “Look up, please, to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to do so.” Then he said to him: “So your offspring* will become.”+
6 And he put faith in Jehovah,+ and He counted* it to him as righteousness.+
7 Then he added: “I am Jehovah, who brought you out of Ur of the Chal·deʹans to give you this land as your possession.”+
8 To this he said: “Sovereign Lord Jehovah, how will I know that I will take possession of it?”
9 He replied to him: “Take for me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10 So he took all of these and cut them in two and put each part opposite the other,* but he did not cut up the birds.
11 Then the birds of prey began to descend on the carcasses, but Aʹbram kept driving them away.
12 When the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Aʹbram and a great and frightening darkness descended on him.
13 Then He said to Aʹbram: “Know for certain that your offspring* will be foreigners in a land not theirs and that the people there will enslave them and afflict them for 400 years.+
14 But I will judge the nation they will serve,+ and after that they will go out with many goods.+
15 As for you, you will go to your forefathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.+
16 But they will return here+ in the fourth generation, because the error of the Amʹor·ites has not yet reached its full measure.”+
17 When the sun had set and it had become very dark, a smoking furnace appeared, and a fiery torch passed between the pieces.
18 On that day Jehovah made with Aʹbram a covenant,+ saying: “To your offspring* I will give this land,+ from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Eu·phraʹtes:+
19 the land of the Kenʹites,+ the Kenʹiz·zites, the Kadʹmon·ites,
20 the Hitʹtites,+ the Perʹiz·zites,+ the Rephʹa·im,+
21 the Amʹor·ites, the Caʹnaan·ites, the Girʹga·shites, and the Jebʹu·sites.”+
