15:1  After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram, I have become a shield to you; Your reward shall grow very great."

15:2  Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I have no children, and the heir of my house I designate as Eliezer of Damascus?"

15:3  And Abram said, "Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house I can claim as my heir."

15:4  Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This man will not become your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall become your heir."

15:5  And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you could count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants become."

15:6  Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

15:7  And He said to him, "I proclaim myself the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it."

15:8  He said, "O Lord GOD, how may I know that I will possess it?"

15:9  So He said to him, "Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon."

15:10  Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds.

15:11  The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

15:12  Now when the sun had gone down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.

15:13  God said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will become strangers in a land that does not belong to them, where their captors will enslave and oppress them for four hundred years.

15:14  "But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.

15:15  "As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; people will bury you at a good old age.

15:16  "Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite has not yet reached completion."

15:17  It came about when the sun had set, that it had become very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.

15:18  On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:

15:19  the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite

15:20  and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim

15:21  and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite."