1 The word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision: »Do not be afraid, Abram; I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great.«
2 Abram said: »O Jehovah God, what will you give me? I continue childless! The heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.«
3 Abram also said: »You have given me no offspring. So a slave born in my house is to be my heir.«
4 The word of Jehovah came to him: »This man shall not be your heir. No one but your very own issue shall be your heir.«
5 He brought him outside and said: »Look toward heaven and count the stars. Are you able to count them?« He continued: »So shall your descendants be.«
6 He believed in Jehovah. Jehovah considered Abrams faith as his righteousness.
7 Then God said to him: »I AM JEHOVAH, who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.«
8 Abram replied: »O Jehovah God, how will I know that I shall possess it?«
9 He God said to him: »Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.«
10 Abram brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other. He did not cut the birds in two.
11 When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.
13 Jehovah said to Abram: »Know this for sure; your offspring will be strangers aliens in a land that is not theirs. They will be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years.
14 »I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve! Afterward they will come out with great possessions.
15 »As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace. You shall be buried at a good old age.
16 »They shall come back here in the fourth generation. The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.«
17 The sun went down and it was dark. A smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
18 On that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram. He said: »To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.«