Genesis 15

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great.” Abram said, “Lord GOD, what will you give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my household is Eliezer of Damascus?” Abram said, “Look, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So will your offspring be.” Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted it to him as righteousness. He said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” Abram said, “Lord GOD, how will I know that I will possess it?” The LORD said to him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Abram brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds in half. Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. The LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be foreigners in a land not their own. They will serve its people, who will oppress them for 400 years. But I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will come out with great wealth. As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, there was a smoking furnace and a flaming torch that passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates: the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, and the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

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