Genesis 15

1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

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, LORD God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

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, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is my heir.

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, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, This shall not be thy heir; but he that shall come forth out of thy own loins shall be thy 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 forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if thou art able to number them: and he said to him, So 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 he believed in the LORD; and he counted it 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 the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

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, Lord GOD, by what 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 me an heifer of three years old, and a female goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young 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 And he took to him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: 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 when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.

Birds that eat dead flesh came down to eat the carcasses, but Abram shooed 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.

As the sun was going down, Abram fell sound asleep, and suddenly everything around him became dark and frightening.

13 And he said to Abram, Know certainly that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict 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 also that nation, which they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

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 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

But as for you, you will die [EUP] peacefully when you are very old.

16 But in the fourth generation they shall come here again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

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 it came to pass, that, when the sun had gone down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those 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 same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, To thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the 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 Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,

That is the land where the Ken, the Keniz, the Kidmon,

20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,

the Heth, the Periz, the Repha,

21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

the Amor, the Canaan, the Girgash, and the Tebus people-groups live.”