- After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.
- But Abram said, O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?
- And Abram said, You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.
- Then the word of the Lord came to him: This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.
- He took him outside and said, Look up at the heavens and count the stars; if indeed you can count them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be.
- Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
- He also said to him, I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.
- But Abram said, O Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I shall gain possession of it?
- So the Lord said to him, Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.
- Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.
- Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
- As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
- Then the Lord said to him, Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and ill-treated four hundred years.
- But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterwards they will come out with great possessions.
- You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.
- In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.
- When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking brazier with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.
- On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates;
- the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
- Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,
- Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.
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