Genesis 15

1After all these things, this word of God came to Abram in a vision: “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I’m your shield. Your reward will be grand!”

2-3Abram said, “God, Master, what use are your gifts as long as I’m childless and Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit everything?” Abram continued, “See, you’ve given me no children, and now a mere house servant is going to get it all.”

4Then God’s Message came: “Don’t worry, he won’t be your heir; a son from your body will be your heir.”

5Then he took him outside and said, “Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You’re going to have a big family, Abram!”

6And he believed! Believed God! God declared him “Set-Right-with-God.”

7 God continued, “I’m the same God who brought you from Ur of the Chaldees and gave you this land to own.”

8Abram said, “Master God, how am I to know this, that it will all be mine?”

9 God said, “Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon.”

10-12He brought all these animals to him, split them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. But he didn’t split the birds. Vultures swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram scared them off. As the sun went down a deep sleep overcame Abram and then a sense of dread, dark and heavy.

13-16 God said to Abram, “Know this: your descendants will live as outsiders in a land not theirs; they’ll be enslaved and beaten down for 400 years. Then I’ll punish their slave masters; your offspring will march out of there loaded with plunder. But not you; you’ll have a long and full life and die a good and peaceful death. Not until the fourth generation will your descendants return here; sin is still a thriving business among the Amorites.”

17-21When the sun was down and it was dark, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch moved between the split carcasses. That’s when God made a covenant with Abram: “I’m giving this land to your children, from the Nile River in Egypt to the River Euphrates in Assyria—the country of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

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Genesis 15

1After these things hath the word of Jehovah been unto Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Fear not, Abram, I [am] a shield to thee, thy reward [is] exceeding great.’

2And Abram saith, ‘Lord Jehovah, what dost Thou give to me, and I am going childless? and an acquired son in my house is Demmesek Eliezer.’

3And Abram saith, ‘Lo, to me Thou hast not given seed, and lo, a domestic doth heir me.’

4And lo, the word of Jehovah [is] unto him, saying, ‘This [one] doth not heir thee; but he who cometh out from thy bowels, he doth heir thee;’

5and He bringeth him out without, and saith, ‘Look attentively, I pray thee, towards the heavens, and count the stars, if thou art able to count them;’ and He saith to him, ‘Thus is thy seed.’

6And he hath believed in Jehovah, and He reckoneth it to him — righteousness.

7And He saith unto him, ‘I [am] Jehovah who brought thee out from Ur of the Chaldees, to give to thee this land to possess it;’

8and he saith, ‘Lord Jehovah, whereby do I know that I possess it?’

9And He saith unto him, ‘Take for Me a heifer of three years, and a she-goat of three years, and a ram of three years, and a turtle-dove, and a young bird;’

10and he taketh to him all these, and separateth them in the midst, and putteth each piece over against its fellow, but the bird he hath not divided;

11and the ravenous birds come down upon the carcases, and Abram causeth them to turn back.

12And the sun is about to go in, and deep sleep hath fallen upon Abram, and lo, a terror of great darkness is falling upon him;

13and He saith to Abram, ‘knowing — know that thy seed is a sojourner in a land not theirs, and they have served them, and they have afflicted them four hundred years,

14and the nation also whom they serve I judge, and after this they go out with great substance;

15and thou — thou comest in unto thy fathers in peace; thou art buried in a good old age;

16and the fourth generation doth turn back hither, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.’

17And it cometh to pass — the sun hath gone in, and thick darkness hath been — and lo, a furnace of smoke, and a lamp of fire, which hath passed over between those pieces.

18In that day hath Jehovah made with Abram a covenant, saying, ‘To thy seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Phrat,

19with the Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite,

20and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim,

21and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.’

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Genesis 15

Genesis 15