Chapter 15

¹After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

²Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³Abram said, “Behold, to me you have given no seed: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir.”

⁴Behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir, but he who will come forth out of your own body will be your heir.” ⁵Yahweh brought him outside, and said, “Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So shall your seed be.” ⁶He believed in Yahweh; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness. ⁷He said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.”

⁸He said, “Lord Yahweh, how will I know that I will inherit it?”

⁹He 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.” ¹⁰He brought him all of these, and divided them in the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he didn’t divide the birds. ¹¹The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

¹²When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him. ¹³He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your seed will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years. ¹⁴I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth, ¹⁵but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.” ¹⁷It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. ¹⁸In that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates: ¹⁹the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”