Genesis 15
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,
aRom. 4. 18.
Thus shall thy seed be. 6 bRom. 4. 3.
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
cOr, drove them away. The LXX. seem to have read ישב for שובsat 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 own,
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
dLit. baggage.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.