NRSV Genesis 15 Chapter
15:1
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great."
15:2
But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
15:3
And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir."
15:4
But the word of the LORD came to him, "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir."
15:5
He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be."
15:6
And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.
15:7
Then he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess."
15:8
But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?"
15:9
He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."
15:10
He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.
15:11
And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
15:12
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.
15:13
Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years;
15:14
but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
15:15
As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.
15:16
And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."
15:17
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
15:18
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
15:19
the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
15:20
the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
15:21
the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."