< Genesis 15 >

1 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.
Some time later, Abram had a vision in which Yahweh spoke to him and said, “Do not be afraid of (anything/your enemies). I will protect you [MTY], and I will give a great reward.”
2 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.]
But Abram replied, “Yahweh God, how can you give me what I truly want, because I have no children, and the one who will be like a son and inherit all my possessions is my servant Eliezer from Damascus!”
3 And Abram said, [I am grieved] since thou hast given me no seed, but my home-born [servant] shall succeed me.
Abram added, “You have not given me any children, so think about this: A servant in my household will inherit all I own!”
4 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.
Yahweh replied, “No! He will not be the one who will inherit it. Instead, you yourself will be the father of the one who will inherit everything you own.”
5 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, Thus shall thy seed be.
Then Yahweh took Abram outside [of his tent] and said, “Look up at the sky! Can you count the stars? No, you cannot count them because there are so many of them, and your descendants will be as numerous as the stars.”
6 And Abram believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
Abram believed that what Yahweh said would happen. And because of that, Yahweh considered that Abram was righteous.
7 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.
Yahweh also said to him, “I am Yahweh. I am the one who brought you from Ur in Chaldea land. I brought you here to give you this land to possess.”
8 And he said, Master [and] Lord, how shall I know that I shall inherit it?
But Abram replied, “Yahweh God, how can I know for sure that this land will belong to me?”
9 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.
God said to him, “Bring a three-year-old heifer and a three-year-old goat to me, and a dove and a pigeon.”
10 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.
So Abram brought all of them and killed them and cut each of the animals in half. He arranged the halves of each one, side by side. But he did not cut the pigeon and dove in half.
11 And birds came down upon the bodies, [even] upon the divided parts of them, and Abram sat down by them.
Birds that eat dead flesh came down to eat the carcasses, but Abram shooed them away.
12 And about sunset a trance fell upon Abram, and lo! a great gloomy terror falls upon him.
As the sun was going down, Abram fell sound asleep, and suddenly everything around him became dark and frightening.
13 And it was said to Abram, Thou shalt surely know that thy seed shall be a sojourner in a land not their won, and they shall enslave them, and afflict them, and humble them four hundred years.
Then God said to Abram, “I want you to know that your descendants will become foreigners living in a land that does not belong to them. They will become slaves of the owners of that land. The owners of the land will mistreat them for 400 years.
14 And the nation whomsoever they shall serve I will judge; and after this, they shall come forth hither with much property.
But then I will punish the people of that country that made them become slaves, and then your descendants will leave that country, taking many possessions with them.
15 But thou shalt depart to thy fathers in peace, nourished in a good old age.
But as for you, you will die [EUP] peacefully when you are very old.
16 And in the fourth generation they shall return hither, for the sins of the Amorites are not yet filled up, even until now.
After your descendants have been slaves for 400 years, they will return here, and take control of this land and defeat the Amor people-group. Those people will, because those people have not yet sinned enough to deserve to be punished now.”
17 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.
When the sun had set and it had become dark, [unexpectedly] a blazing torch and a clay pot containing burning coals from which smoke was rising appeared and went between the halves of the animals.
18 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.
And on that day Yahweh made an agreement with Abram. Yahweh told him, “I will give to your descendants all the land between the river that is on the eastern border of Egypt to the south, and north to the huge Euphrates River.
19 The Kenites, and the Kenezites, and the Kedmoneans,
That is the land where the Ken, the Keniz, the Kidmon,
20 and the Chettites, and the Pherezites, and the Raphaim,
the Heth, the Periz, the Repha,
21 and the Amorites, and the Chananites, and the Evites, and the Gergesites, and the Jebusites.
the Amor, the Canaan, the Girgash, and the Tebus people-groups live.”

< Genesis 15 >