Genesis 15

Count the stars

After these events, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”a ²But Abram replied, “O Lord GOD, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³Abram continued, “Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir.” ⁴Then the word of the LORD came to Abram, saying, “This one will not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” ⁵And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”b ⁶Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.c

⁷The LORD also told him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”

The covenant sealed with fire

⁸But Abram replied, “Lord GOD, how can I know that I will possess it?” ⁹And the LORD said to him, “Bring Me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a turtledove and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰So Abram brought all these to Him, split each of them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half.

¹¹And the birds of prey descended on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. ¹²As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and suddenly great terror and darkness overwhelmed him. ¹³Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.d

¹⁴But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions. ¹⁵You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.e ¹⁶In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”f ¹⁷When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses.g

¹⁸On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land—from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates—h ¹⁹the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, ²¹Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”