Genesis 15:4-21 ▼

4 Then the word of the LORD {YHWH} came to Abram, saying, “This one will not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir.”

5 And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be .”

6 Abram believed the LORD {YHWH}, and it was credited to him as righteousness .

7 The LORD also told him, “I am the LORD {YHWH}, who brought you out of Ur (flame) of the Chaldeans (clod-breakers) to give you this land to possess.”

8 But Abram replied, “Lord GOD {Adonai YHWH}, how can I know that I will possess it?”

9 And the LORD said to him, “Bring Me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a turtledove and a young pigeon.”

10 So Abram brought all these to Him, split each of them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half.

11 And the birds of prey descended on the carcasses, but Abram (exalted father) drove them away.

12 As the sun was setting, Abram (exalted father) fell into a deep sleep, and suddenly great terror and darkness overwhelmed him.

13 Then the LORD said to Abram (exalted father), “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

14 But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions .

15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.

16 In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites (sayers) is not yet complete.”

17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses.

18 On that day the LORD {YHWH} made a covenant with Abram (exalted father), saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt (land of bondage) to the great River Euphrates (fruitfulness)—

19 the land of the Kenites (smiths), Kenizzites, Kadmonites (easterners),

20 Hittites, Perizzites (villagers), Rephaites,

21 Amorites (sayers), Canaanites (merchants), Girgashites (dwelling on clay), and Jebusites (Jerusalemites).”