1After this word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Fear not, Abram: I am your shield, and your exceeding great reward.” 2And Abram said, “LORD God, what will You give me, since I go childless, and the heir of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? 3You have given me no children: and so, this servant born in my house is my heir.” 4Then this word of the LORD came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; but a son that shall come of your own flesh and blood shall be your heir.” 5And He took him outside, and said, “Look up into heaven, and count the stars. If indeed you can count them, so shall the number of your descendants be.” 6And Abram believed the LORD; and God credited it to him for righteousness.

7And He said to him, “I am the LORD Who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land as an inheritance.” 8And Abram said, “LORD God, how shall I know that I shall inherit it?” 9And God said to Abram, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10And he brought to Him all these, and divided them down the center, and laid each half - one opposite the another; but the birds he did not divide. 11And when the vultures came down to eat the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12And as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13And God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants shall be strangers (sojourners) in a land that is not theirs (Egypt), and shall serve the Egyptians; and they shall afflict your descendants for four hundred years; 14And I will also judge that nation that they shall serve as slaves; and afterward, they shall depart with great wealth. 15As for you, you shall die in peace; and be buried in a good old age. 16But in the fourth generation, they shall return here; for the iniquity of the Amorites does not yet warrant their destruction.”

17And when the sun had set, and it was dark, a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp passed between those pieces. 18In the same day, the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, from the Wadi (river) of Egypt to the great Euphrates River: 19The lands of Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”