GENESIS
CHAPTER 15

God's Covenant With Abram

¹ After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:

"Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield, ^[1]
your very great reward. ^[2] "

² But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD , what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit ^[3] my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" ³ And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."
⁴ Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." ⁵ He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars-if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
⁶ Abram believed the LORD , and he credited it to him as righteousness.
⁷ He also said to him, "I am the LORD , who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it."
⁸ But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD , how can I know that I will gain possession of it?"
⁹ So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon."
¹⁰ Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. ¹¹ Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
¹² As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. ¹³ Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. ¹⁵ You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶ In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."
¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. ¹⁸ On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river ^[4] of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates- ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, ²¹ Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."

Footnotes

1. 15:1 Or sovereign
2. 15:1 Or shield; / your reward will be very great
3. 15:2 The meaning of the Hebrew for this phrase is uncertain.
4. 15:18 Or Wadi

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Bible text from Gospelcom.net.  Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.

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