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. ""2 But Abram said, "Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit "my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?"3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir."5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the sky and count the stars —if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring "be."6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.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."8 But Abram said, "Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?"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."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.11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.13 Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there.14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age.16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi "of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates —19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."
1 His itaque transactis, factus est sermo Domini ad Abram per visionem dicens : Noli timere, Abram : ego protector tuus sum, et merces tua magna nimis. 2 Dixitque Abram : Domine Deus, quid dabis mihi ? ego vadam absque liberis, et filius procuratoris domus me iste Damascus Eliezer. 3 Addiditque Abram : Mihi autem non dedisti semen, et ecce vernaculus meus, hres meus erit. 4 Statimque sermo Domini factus est ad eum, dicens : Non erit hic hres tuus, sed qui egredietur de utero tuo, ipsum habebis hredem. 5 Eduxitque eum foras, et ait illi : Suscipe clum, et numera stellas, si potes. Et dixit ei : Sic erit semen tuum. 6 Credidit Abram Deo, et reputatum est illi ad justitiam. 7 Dixitque ad eum : Ego Dominus qui eduxi te de Ur Chaldorum ut darem tibi terram istam, et possideres eam. 8 At ille ait : Domine Deus, unde scire possum quod possessurus sim eam ? 9 Et respondens Dominus : Sume, inquit, mihi vaccam trienem, et capram trimam, et arietem annorum trium, turturem quoque et columbam. 10 Qui tollens universa hc, divisit ea per medium, et utrasque partes contra se altrinsecus posuit ; aves autem non divisit. 11 Descenderuntque volucres super cadavera, et abigebat eas Abram. 12 Cumque sol occumberet, sopor irruit super Abram, et horror magnus et tenebrosus invasit eum. 13 Dictumque est ad eum : Scito prnoscens quod peregrinum futurum sit semen tuum in terra non sua, et subjicient eos servituti, et affligent quadringentis annis. 14 Verumtamen gentem, cui servituri sunt, ego judicabo : et post hc egredientur cum magna substantia. 15 Tu autem ibis ad patres tuos in pace, sepultus in senectute bona. 16 Generatione autem quarta revertentur huc : necdum enim complet sunt iniquitates Amorrhorum usque ad prsens tempus. 17 Cum ergo occubuisset sol, facta est caligo tenebrosa, et apparuit clibanus fumans, et lampas ignis transiens inter divisiones illas. 18 In illo die pepigit Dominus fdus cum Abram, dicens : Semini tuo dabo terram hanc a fluvio gypti usque ad fluvium magnum Euphraten, 19 Cinos, et Cenezos, Cedmonos, 20 et Hethos, et Pherezos, Raphaim quoque, 21 et Amorrhos, et Chananos, et Gergesos, et Jebusos.