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¹ After these things the word of the LORD came to Avram in a vision, saying, "Don't be afraid, Avram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward."

² Avram said, "Lord GOD, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eli`ezer of Dammesek?" ³ Avram said, "Behold, to me you have given no seed: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir." ⁴ Behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This man will not be your heir, but he who will come forth out of your own body will be your heir." ⁵ The LORD brought him outside, and said, "Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." He said to Avram, "So shall your seed be." ⁶ He believed in the LORD; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness.

⁷ He said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Kasdim, to give you this land to inherit it." ⁸ He said, "Lord GOD, whereby will I know that I will inherit it?" ⁹ He said to him, "Take me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon." ¹⁰ He took him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each half opposite the other; but he didn't divide the birds. ¹¹ The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Avram drove them away.

¹² When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Avram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him. ¹³ He said to Avram, "Know for sure that your seed will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years. ¹⁴ I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great substance. ¹⁵ But you will go to your fathers in shalom. You will be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶ In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amori is not yet full."

¹⁷ It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace, and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. ¹⁸ In that day the LORD made a covenant with Avram, saying, "To your seed have I given this land, from the river of Mitzrayim to the great river, the river Perat: ¹⁹ the Kinim, the Kenizzi, the Kadmoni, ²⁰ the Hitti, the Perizzi, the Refa'im, ²¹ the Amori, the Kana`anim, the Girgashi, and the Yevusi."