Genesis, Chapter 15

1. After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am your shield, and your exceeding great reward.    2. And Abram said, LORD God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?    3. And Abram said, Behold, to me you have given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.    4. And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be yours heir; but he that shall come forth out of yours own bowels shall be yours heir.    5. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if you be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall your seed be.    6. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.    7. And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.    8. And he said, LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?    9. And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.    10. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.    11. And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.    12. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.    13. And he said unto Abram, Know certainly that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not their's, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;    14. And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.    15. And you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.    16. But in the fourth generation they shall come here again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.    17. And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.    18. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:    19. The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,    20. And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,    21. And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.