Genesis 15

Yahweh’s Covenant with Abram

¹After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying: “Do not be afraid, Abram; I am your shield, and your reward shall be very great.”[#Literally “was”]

²Then Abram said, “O Yahweh, my Lord, what will you give me? I continue to be childless, and my heir is Eliezer of Damascus.”[#Or “And”; #Literally “I am going”; #Literally “the son of the inheritance of my house”]

³And Abram said, “Look, you have not given me a descendant, and here, a member of my household is my heir.”[#Literally “a son of my house”; #Literally “inheriting me”]

⁴And behold, the word of Yahweh came to him saying, “This person will not be your heir, but your own son will be your heir.”[#Literally “inherit you”; #Literally “he who goes out from your body, he will inherit you”]

⁵And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward the heavens and count the stars if you are able to count them.” And he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

⁶And he believed in Yahweh, and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.

⁷And he said to him, “I am Yahweh, who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give this land to you, to possess it.”

⁸And he said, “O Yahweh God, how shall I know that I will possess it?”

⁹And he said to him, “Take for me a three-year-old heifer, and a three-year-old female goat, and a three-year-old ram, and a turtledove and a young pigeon.”

¹⁰And he took for him all these and cut them in pieces down the middle. And he put each piece opposite the other, but the birds he did not cut.[#Literally “its companion”]

¹¹And the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

¹²And it happened that, as the sun went down, then a deep sleep fell upon Abram and, behold, a great terrifying darkness fell upon him.[#Literally “to go”]

¹³And he said to Abram, “You must surely know that your descendants shall be as aliens in a land not their own. And they shall serve them and they shall oppress them four hundred years.[#Literally “knowing you must know”; #Literally “not to them”; #Some nation hostile to Abram’s descendants (Egypt in later history); #Some nation hostile to Abram’s descendants (Egypt in later history)]

¹⁴And also that the nation which they serve I will judge. Then afterward they shall go out with great possessions.[#That is, Abram’s descendants; #Or “And”]

¹⁵And as for you, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.[#Or “fathers”]

¹⁶And the fourth generation shall return here, for the guilt of the Amorites is not yet complete.”[#Literally “is not complete up to now”]

¹⁷And after the sun had gone down and it was dusk, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between those half pieces.

¹⁸On that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram saying, “To your offspring I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates river,[#Literally “cut”]

¹⁹the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

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