Genesis 15 / 50
- 1After 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. "
- 2But 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?"
- 3And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."
- 4Then 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."
- 5He 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."
- 6Abram believed the LORD , and he credited it to him as righteousness.
- 7He 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."
- 8But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD , how can I know that I will gain possession of it?"
- 9So 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."
- 10Abram 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.
- 11Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
- 12As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
- 13Then 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 mistreated four hundred years.
- 14But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.
- 15You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.
- 16In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."
- 17When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.
- 18On 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-
- 19the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
- 20Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,
- 21Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."