Genesis 15 — NETB
15Verse 1After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram! I am your shield and the one who will reward you in great abundance.”Verse 2But Abram said, “O sovereign Lord, what will you give me since I continue to be childless, and my heir is Eliezer of Damascus?”Verse 3Abram added, “Since you have not given me a descendant, then look, one born in my house will be my heir!”Verse 4But look, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but instead a son who comes from your own body will be your heir.”Verse 5The 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.”Verse 6Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord considered his response of faith as proof of genuine loyalty.Verse 7The Lord said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”Verse 8But Abram said, “O sovereign Lord, by what can I know that I am to possess it?”Verse 9The 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.”Verse 10So 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.Verse 11When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.Verse 12When the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep, and great terror overwhelmed him.Verse 13Then 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 four hundred years.Verse 14But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. Afterward they will come out with many possessions.Verse 15But as for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age.Verse 16In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its limit.”Verse 17When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a flaming torch passed between the animal parts.Verse 18That 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 –Verse 19the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,Verse 20Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,Verse 21Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”