God's Covenant with Abram

¹After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: c“Fear not, Abram, I am dyour shield; your reward shall be very great.” ²But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue1 childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and ea member of my household will be my heir.” ⁴And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; fyour very own son2 shall be your heir.” ⁵And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and gnumber the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, h“So shall your offspring be.” ⁶And ihe believed the Lord, and jhe counted it to him as righteousness.

⁷And he said to him, “I am the Lord who kbrought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans lto give you this land to possess.” ⁸But he said, “O Lord God, mhow am I to know that I shall possess it?” ⁹He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰And he brought him all these, ncut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But ohe did not cut the birds in half. ¹¹And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹²As the sun was going down, a pdeep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. ¹³Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain qthat your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and rthey will be afflicted for sfour hundred years. ¹⁴But tI will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward uthey shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; vyou shall be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for wthe iniquity of the Amorites xis not yet complete.”

¹⁷When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. ¹⁸On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, y“To your offspring I give3 this land, from zthe river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, ¹⁹the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

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