15:1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."

15:2 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?"

15:3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."

15:4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir."

15:5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."

15:6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

15:7 He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it."

15:8 But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?"

15:9 So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon."

15:10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.

15:11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

15:12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.

15:13 Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

15:14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.

15:15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.

15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."

15:17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.

15:18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates--

15:19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,

15:20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,

15:21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."