1After these things, Yahweh spoke to Abram in a vision. He said, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your protector, your very great reward.”
2Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, what will you give me? I have no child, and Eliezer of Damascus will inherit my estate.”
3Abram continued, “Look, you haven’t given me any children, so a servant born in my house will be my heir.”
4Then Yahweh spoke to him and said, “This man will not be your heir. Your heir will be a son from your own body.”
5Yahweh brought him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can count them.” He told Abram, “That’s how many descendants you will have.”
6Abram believed Yahweh, and Yahweh considered Abram’s faith to be righteousness.
7Yahweh also said to Abram, “I am Yahweh, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to own.”
8Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, how will I know that I will own it?”
9He said to Abram, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10Abram brought all of these to him. He cut them in half and laid each half opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds in half.
11Birds of prey came down on the dead animals, but Abram chased them away.
12As the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great, terrifying darkness came over him.
13Then Yahweh said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs. They will serve the people there, who will oppress them for four hundred years.
14But I will judge the nation they serve. Afterward, your descendants will come out with great wealth.
15As for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age.
16In the fourth generation, your descendants will return here, because the evil of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.”
17When the sun had set and it was dark, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the cut pieces of the animals.
18On that day, Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I have given this land to your descendants, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River:
19the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
20the Hittites, the Perizzites, and the Rephaim,
21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”