- And after these things the word of the
Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying,
Fear not, Abram, I shield thee, thy reward
shall be very great.
- And Abram said,
Master and Lord, what wilt thou give me?
whereas I am departing without a child, but
the son of Masek my home-born female
slave, this Eliezer of Damascus is mine heir.
- And Abram said, I am grieved since thou
hast given me no seed, but my home-born
servant shall succeed me.
- And immediately there was a voice of the Lord to him,
saying, This shall not be thine heir but he
that shall come out of thee shall be thine
heir.
- And he brought him out and said to
him, Look up now to heaven, and count the
stars, if thou shalt be able to number them
fully, and he said, [a] Thus shall thy seed be.
- [b] And Abram believed God, and it was
counted to him for righteousness.
- And he said to him, I am God that brought thee
out of the land of the Chaldeans, so as to
give thee this land to inherit.
- And he said, Master and Lord, how shall I know
that I shall inherit it?
- And he said to
him, Take for me an heifer in her third
year, and a she-goat in her third year, and a
ram in his third year, and a dove and a
pigeon.
- So he took to him all these, and
divided them in the midst, and set them
opposite to each other, but the birds he did
not divide.
- And birds came down upon
the bodies, even upon the divided parts of
them, and Abram [c] sat down by them.
- And about sunset a trance fell upon Abram, and
lo! a great gloomy terror falls upon him.
- And it was said to Abram, Thou shalt
surely know that thy seed shall be a sojourner
in a land not their own, and they shall enslave them,
and afflict them, and humble
them four hundred years.
- And the nation
whomsoever they shall serve I will judge;
and after this, they shall come forth hither
with much [d] property.
- But thou shalt depart to thy fathers in peace, nourished in a
good old age.
- And in the fourth generation they shall return hither, for the sins of
the Amorites are not yet filled up, even until now.
- And when the sun was about to
set, there was a flame, and behold a smoking
furnace and lamps of fire, which passed between these divided pieces.
- In that day
the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To thy seed I will
give this land, from
the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates.
- The Kenites, and the Kenezites,
and the Kedmoneans,
- and the Chettites, and the Pherezites, and the Raphaim,
- and the Amorites, and the Chananites, and the
Evites, and the Gergesites and the Jebusites.
[a] Rom. 4. 18.
[b] Rom. 4. 3.
[c] Or, drove them away.
The LXX. seem to have read [Heb. here] for [Heb. here]
[d] Lit. baggage.
[English translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee
Brenton (1807-1862) originally published by Samuel Bagster & Sons,
Ltd., London, 1851]