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¹ And after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I shield thee, thy reward shall be very great.

² And Abram said, Master and Lord, what wilt thou give me? whereas I am departing without a child, but the son of Masek my home-born female slave, this Eliezer of Damascus is mine heir. ³ And Abram said, I am grieved since thou hast given me no seed, but my home-born servant shall succeed me. ⁴ And immediately there was a voice of the Lord to him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come out of thee shall be thine heir. ⁵ And he brought him out and said to him, Look up now to heaven, and count the stars, if thou shalt be able to number them fully, and he said, Thus shall thy seed be. ⁶ And Abram believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.

⁷ And he said to him, I am God that brought thee out of the land of the Chaldeans, so as to give thee this land to inherit. ⁸ And he said, Master and Lord, how shall I know that I shall inherit it? ⁹ And he said to him, Take for me an heifer in her third year, and a she-goat in her third year, and a ram in his third year, and a dove and a pigeon. ¹⁰ So he took to him all these, and divided them in the midst, and set them opposite to each other, but the birds he did not divide. ¹¹ And birds came down upon the bodies, even upon the divided parts of them, and Abram sat down by them.

¹² And about sunset a trance fell upon Abram, and lo! a great gloomy terror falls upon him. ¹³ And it was said to Abram, Thou shalt surely know that thy seed shall be a sojourner in a land not their won, and they shall enslave them, and afflict them, and humble them four hundred years. ¹⁴ And the nation whomsoever they shall serve I will judge; and after this, they shall come forth hither with much property. ¹⁵ But thou shalt depart to thy fathers in peace, nourished in a good old age. ¹⁶ And in the fourth generation they shall return hither, for the sins of the Amorites are not yet filled up, even until now.

¹⁷ And when the sun was about to set, there was a flame, and behold a smoking furnace and lamps of fire, which passed between these divided pieces. ¹⁸ In that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To thy seed I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates. ¹⁹ The Kenites, and the Kenezites, and the Kedmoneans, ²⁰ and the Chettites, and the Pherezites, and the Raphaim, ²¹ and the Amorites, and the Chananites, and the Evites, and the Gergesites, and the Jebusites.