2But Abram answered, “Sovereign LORD, what good will your reward do me, since I have no children? My only heir is Eliezer of Damascus.#15.2 My… Damascus; Hebrew unclear. 3You have given me no children, and one of my slaves will inherit my property.”

4Then he heard the LORD speaking to him again: “This slave Eliezer will not inherit your property; your own son will be your heir.” 5#Rom 4.18; Heb 11.12The LORD took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and try to count the stars; you will have as many descendants as that.”

6 # Rom 4.3; Gal 3.6; Jas 2.23 Abram put his trust in the LORD, and because of this the LORD was pleased with him and accepted him.

7Then the LORD said to him, “I am the LORD, who led you out of Ur in Babylonia, to give you this land as your own.”

8But Abram asked, “Sovereign LORD, how can I know that it will be mine?”

9He answered, “Bring me a cow, a goat, and a ram, each of them three years old, and a dove and a pigeon.” 10Abram brought the animals to God, cut them in half, and placed the halves opposite each other in two rows; but he did not cut up the birds. 11Vultures came down on the bodies, but Abram drove them off.

12 # Job 4.13, 14 When the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and fear and terror came over him. 13#Ex 1.1–14; Acts 7.6The LORD said to him, “Your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land; they will be slaves there and will be treated cruelly for 400 years. 14#Ex 12.40–41; Acts 7.7But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and when they leave that foreign land, they will take great wealth with them. 15You yourself will live to a ripe old age, die in peace, and be buried. 16It will be four generations before your descendants come back here, because I will not drive out the Amorites until they become so wicked that they must be punished.”

17When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire-pot and a flaming torch suddenly appeared and passed between the pieces of the animals. 18#Acts 7.5Then and there the LORD made a covenant with Abram. He said, “I promise to give your descendants all this land from the border of Egypt to the River Euphrates, 19including the lands of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

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Genesis 15

CHAPTER 15

1And so when these things were done, the word of the Lord was made to Abram by a vision, and said, Abram, do not thou dread, I am thy defender, and thy meed is full great.

2And Abram said, Lord God, what shalt thou give to me? I shall go without free children, and this Damascus, son of Eliezer, the procurator of mine house, shall be mine heir.

3And Abram added, Soothly thou hast not given seed to me, and, lo! my born servant shall be mine heir.

4And anon the word of the Lord was made to him, and said, This shall not be thine heir, but thou shalt have him heir, that shall go out of thy womb.

5And the Lord led out Abram, and said to him, Behold thou heaven, and number the stars, if thou mayest. And the Lord said to Abram, So thy seed shall be.

6Abram believed to God, and it was reckoned to him to rightwiseness.

7And God said to him, I am the Lord, that led thee out of Ur of Chaldees, that I should give this land to thee, and thou shouldest have it in possession.

8And Abram said, Lord God, where-by shall I know that I shall wield it?

9And the Lord answered, and said, Take thou to me a cow of three years, and a goat of three years, and a ram of three years, and a turtledove, and a culver.

10Which took all these things, and parted those [or them] by the midst [or the middle], and setted [or put] ever either part each against other; but he parted not the birds.

11And fowls came down on the carrions, and Abram drove them away.

12And when the sun was gone down, dread felled on Abram, and a great hideousness and dark assailed him.

13And it was said to him, Know thou a before-knowing, that thy seed shall be [a] pilgrim four hundred years in a land not his own, and they shall make them subject to servage, and they shall torment them;

14nevertheless I shall deem the folk to whom they shall serve; and after these things they shall go out with great chattel [or substance].

15Forsooth thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and shalt be buried in good [eld] age.

16Soothly in the fourth generation they shall turn again hither, for the wickedness of [the] Amorites be not yet [full-]filled, till to present time.

17Therefore when the sun was gone down, a dark mist was made, and a furnace smoking appeared, and a lamp of fire, and passed through those partings.

18In that day the Lord made a covenant of peace with Abram, and said, I shall give to thy seed this land, from the river of Egypt till to the great river Euphrates;

19 the lands of the Kenites, and Kenizzites, and Kadmonites,

20and Hittites, and Perizzites, and Rephaims,

21and Amorites, and Canaanites, and Girgashites, and Jebusites.

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Genesis 15

Genesis 15