[1] Afterwards Jehovah spoke to Abram in a vision, and this is what he told him: "Don't be fearful, Abram, for I will defend you. And I will give you great blessings." [2] But Abram replied, "O Lord Jehovah, what good are all your blessings when I have no son? For without a son, some other member of my household will inherit all my wealth." [4] Then Jehovah told him, "No, no one else will be your heir, for you will have a son to inherit everything you own." [5] Then God brought Abram outside beneath the nighttime sky and told him, "Look up into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that-too many to count!" [6] And Abram believed God; then God considered him righteous on account of his faith. [7] And he told him, "I am Jehovah who brought you out of the city of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land." [8] But Abram replied, "O Lord Jehovah, how can I be sure that you will give it to me?" [9] Then Jehovah told him to take a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon, [10] and to slay them and to cut them apart down the middle, and to separate the halves, but not to divide the birds. [11] And when the vultures came down upon the carcasses, Abram shooed them away. [12] That evening as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a vision of terrible foreboding, darkness, and horror. [13] Then Jehovah told Abram, "Your descendants will be oppressed as slaves in a foreign land for 400 years. [14] But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and at the end they will come away with great wealth. [15] (But you will die in peace, at a ripe old age.) [16] After four generations they will return here to this land; for the wickedness of the Amorite nations living here now will not be ready for punishment until then." [17] As the sun went down and it was dark, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch that passed between the halves of the carcasses. [18] So that day Jehovah made this covenant with Abram: "I have given this land to your descendants from the Wadi-el-Arish to the Euphrates River. [19] And I give to them these nations: Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Jebusites."
