Genesis 15:1-21 NET

[1] After these things the LORD's message came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram! I am your shield and the one who will reward you in great abundance." [2] But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what will you give me since I continue to be childless, and my heir is Eliezer of Damascus?" [3] Abram added, "Since you have not given me a descendant, then look, one born in my house will be my heir!" [4] But look, the LORD's message came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but instead a son who comes from your own body will be your heir." [5] The LORD took him outside and said, "Gaze into the sky and count the stars-if you are able to count them!" Then he said to him, "So will your descendants be." [6] Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD credited it as righteousness to him. [7] The LORD said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess." [8] But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, by what can I know that I am to possess it?" [9] The LORD said to him, "Take for me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon." [10] So Abram took all these for him and then cut them in two and placed each half opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds in half. [11] When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. [12] When the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep, and great terror overwhelmed him. [13] Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign country. They will be enslaved and oppressed for 400 years. [14] But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. Afterward they will come out with many possessions. [15] But as for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. [16] In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit." [17] When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch passed between the animal parts. [18] That day the LORD made a covenant with Abram: "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River- [19] the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, [20] Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, [21] Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites."