God’s Covenant with Abram
1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ch. 26:24;Dan. 10:12;Luke 1:13,30"Fear not, Abram, I am Ps. 3:3;18:2;84:11;119:114your shield; your reward shall be very great." 2 But Abram said, "O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue15:2 Or I shall die childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and ch. 14:14a member of my household will be my heir." 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: "This man shall not be your heir; ch. 17:16your very own son15:4 Hebrew what will come out of your own loins shall be your heir." 5 And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and Ps. 147:4number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, ch. 22:17;26:4;Ex. 32:13;Deut. 1:10;10:22;1 Chr. 27:23;Heb. 11:12;Cited Rom. 4:18"So shall your offspring be." 6 And Rom. 4:9,22;Gal. 3:6;James 2:23he believed the Lord, and Cited Rom. 4:3;[Ps. 106:31]he counted it to him as righteousness.
7 And he said to him, "I am the Lord who ch. 11:31;12:1;Neh. 9:7,8;Acts 7:2-4brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans Ps. 105:42,44to give you this land to possess." 8 But he said, "O Lord God, [Judg. 6:17;2 Kgs. 20:8;Ps. 86:17;Isa. 7:11-13;Luke 1:18]how am I to know that I shall possess it?" 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." 10 And he brought him all these, Jer. 34:18,19cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But Lev. 1:17he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was going down, a ch. 2:21deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, "Know for certain Acts 7:6,7that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and Ex. 1:11,12;3:7they will be afflicted for Acts 7:6;[Ex. 12:40,41;Gal. 3:17]four hundred years. 14 But Ex. 6:6I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward Ex. 12:36;Ps. 105:37they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; ch. 25:8you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for 1 Kgs. 21:26;Amos 2:9the iniquity of the Amorites [Dan. 8:23;Matt. 23:32;1 Thess. 2:16]is not yet complete."
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ch. 12:7;13:15;24:7;26:4;Num. 34:2;Deut. 34:4;Neh. 9:8"To your offspring I give15:18 Or have given this land, from Ex. 23:31;Deut. 1:7;Josh. 1:4the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites."