1After this, Abram had a vision and heard the LORD say to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I will shield you from danger and give you a great reward.”
2But Abram answered, “Sovereign LORD , what good will your reward do me, since I have no children? My only heir is Eliezer of Damascus.[#15.2 … ; Hebrew unclear.]
3You have given me no children, and one of my slaves will inherit my property.”
4Then he heard the LORD speaking to him again: “This slave Eliezer will not inherit your property; your own son will be your heir.”
5The LORD took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and try to count the stars; you will have as many descendants as that.”[#Rom 4.18; Heb 11.12]
6Abram put his trust in the LORD , and because of this the LORD was pleased with him and accepted him.[#Rom 4.3; Gal 3.6; Jas 2.23]
7Then the LORD said to him, “I am the LORD , who led you out of Ur in Babylonia, to give you this land as your own.”
8But Abram asked, “Sovereign LORD , how can I know that it will be mine?”
9He answered, “Bring me a cow, a goat, and a ram, each of them three years old, and a dove and a pigeon.”
10Abram brought the animals to God, cut them in half, and placed the halves opposite each other in two rows; but he did not cut up the birds.
11Vultures came down on the bodies, but Abram drove them off.
12When the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and fear and terror came over him.[#Job 4.13, 14]
13The LORD said to him, “Your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land; they will be slaves there and will be treated cruelly for 400 years.[#Ex 1.1–14; Acts 7.6]
14But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and when they leave that foreign land, they will take great wealth with them.[#Ex 12.40–41; Acts 7.7]
15You yourself will live to a ripe old age, die in peace, and be buried.
16It will be four generations before your descendants come back here, because I will not drive out the Amorites until they become so wicked that they must be punished.”
17When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire-pot and a flaming torch suddenly appeared and passed between the pieces of the animals.
18Then and there the LORD made a covenant with Abram. He said, “I promise to give your descendants all this land from the border of Egypt to the River Euphrates,[#Acts 7.5]
19including the lands of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”