¹After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, and he said, “Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield and very much your reward.” ²Then Abram said, “My Lord the Lord, what will you give me, for I go childless, and the superintendent of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.” ³And Abram said, “Look, you have not given me any seed, and look, a member of my household staff will inherit from me.” ⁴Then what happened was that the word of the Lord came to him and said, “This man will not inherit from you, but it is rather he who will come out of your inward parts who will inherit from you.” ⁵And he brought him outside and said, “Just look up to the sky and count the stars, if you can count them.” And he said to him, “So shall your seed be.” ⁶And he believed the Lord, and he imputed it to him as righteousness. ⁷And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land, for you to inherit it.” ⁸At this he said, “My Lord the Lord, by what token will I know that I will inherit it?” ⁹And he said to him, “Take for me a three-year-old cow-calf and a three-year-old goat-kid, and a three-year-old ram, and a turtle-dove and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰So he took all these together and cut them in pieces down the middle, and he put each piece opposite its counterpart, but he did not cut the birds up. ¹¹Then the birds of prey descended on the carcases, but Abram drove them away. ¹²Now the sun was on the point of setting, and a slumber fell on Abram, and what happened was that dread – a great darkness – fell on him. ¹³And he said to Abram, “Know with certainty that your seed will be outsiders in a land which is not theirs, and they will serve them; and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. ¹⁴But also that I will judge the people whom they serve, and after that they will go out with considerable property. ¹⁵And you will go to your fathers in peace – you will be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶And the fourth generation will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not full so far.” ¹⁷Then as the sun set, a thick darkness came on, and then there appeared a furnace of smoke and a fiery flame which passed between these pieces. ¹⁸On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your seed I have given this land, from the River of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates: ¹⁹the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites ²⁰and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Rephaim ²¹and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Reference(s) in Chapter 15: v.5 ↔ Romans 4:18, Hebrews 11:12 ● v.6 ↔ Romans 4:3, Romans 4:22, Galatians 3:6, James 2:23 ● v.13 ↔ Acts 7:6 ● v.14 ↔ Acts 7:7.