Berean Standard Bible
- 1 After these events, the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."
- 2 But Abram replied, "O Lord Yahweh, what can You give me, since I remain childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
- 3 Abram continued, "Behold, You have given me no offspring, so a servant in my household will be my heir."
- 4 Then the word of Yahweh came to Abram, saying, "This one will not be your heir, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir."
- 5 And Yahweh took him outside and said, "Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able." Then He told him, "So shall your offspring be."
- 6 Abram believed Yahweh, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
- 7 Yahweh also told him, "I am Yahweh, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess."
- 8 But Abram replied, "Lord Yahweh, how can I know that I will possess it?"
- 9 And Yahweh said to him, "Bring Me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a turtledove and a young pigeon."
- 10 So Abram brought all these to Him, split each of them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half.
- 11 And the birds of prey descended on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
- 12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and suddenly great terror and darkness overwhelmed him.
- 13 Then Yahweh said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
- 14 But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions.
- 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.
- 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."
- 17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses.
- 18 On that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given this land-from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates-
- 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
- 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,
- 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites."
