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¹ AFTER these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram; I am your shield, and your reward is exceedingly great.

² And Abram said, O LORD God, what will thou give me, for I will die childless, and Eliezer of Damascus, one of my household, will be my heir?³ And Abram said, Behold, thou hast given me no son; and, behold, one of the members of my household will be my heir.⁴ Then the LORD said to him, This man shall not be your heir; but your own son that shall come out of your own loins shall be your heir.⁵ And he brought him outside, and said to him, Look now toward heaven and number the stars, if you are able to number them; and he said to him, So shall your descendants be.⁶ And Abram believed in the LORD; and it was counted to him for righteousness.

⁷ And he said to him, I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.⁸ And Abram said, O LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?⁹ And he said to him, Take for yourself a heifer, three years old, a three year old ram, a three year old she-goat, a pigeon, and a young dove.¹⁰ And he took to himself all these, and cut them in two, and laid each piece against another; but the birds he did not divide.¹¹ And when the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹² And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram; and, lo, fear and a great darkness fell upon him.¹³ And the LORD said to Abram, Know of a surety that your descendants shall be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and shall be in servitude: and they shall afflict them for four hundred years;¹⁴ But I will judge the nation which they shall serve; and afterward they shall come out with great wealth.¹⁵ And you shall depart from this life and go to your fathers in peace; and you shall be buried at a good old age.¹⁶ And after four centuries, they shall return here; for the iniquities of the Amorites are not yet full.

¹⁷ And it came to pass that when the sun had set and it was dark, behold there appeared a smoking furnace and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.¹⁸ On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your descendants have I given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:¹⁹ The land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,²⁰ The Hittites, the Perizzites, the Giants,²¹ The Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.