1 God’s Covenant with Abram After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram Gen. 15:4; 46:2;1 Sam. 15:10; Dan. 10:1 in a vision, saying, Gen. 21:17; 26:24; Is. 41:10; Dan. 10:12 “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your Deut. 33:29; Ps. 3:3; 84:11; 91:4 shield, your exceedingly Num. 18:20; Ps. 58:11; Prov. 11:18 great reward.”
2 Gen. 17:18 But Abram said, “Lord God , what will You give me, Acts 7:5 seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
3 Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed Gen. 14:14 one born in my house is my heir!”
4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who 2 Sam. 7:12; Gal. 4:28 will come from your own body shall be your heir.”
5 Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and Gen. 22:17; 26:4; Deut. 1:10; Ps. 147:4 count the Jer. 33:22 stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, Ex. 32:13; Rom. 4:18; Heb. 11:12 “So shall your Gen. 17:19 descendants be.”
6 And he Gen. 21:1; Rom. 4:3, 9, 22; Gal. 3:6; James 2:23 believed in the Lord , and He Ps. 32:2; 106:31 accounted it to him for righteousness.
7 Then He said to him, “I am the Lord , who Gen. 12:1 brought you out of Gen. 11:28, 31 Ur of the Chaldeans, Gen. 13:15, 17; Ps. 105:42, 44 to give you this land to inherit it.”
8 And he said, “Lord God , Gen. 24:13, 14; Judg. 6:36–40;1 Sam. 14:9, 10; Luke 1:18 how shall I know that I will inherit it?”
9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10 Then he brought all these to Him and Gen. 15:17; Jer. 34:18 cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut Lev. 1:17 the birds in two.
11 And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 Now when the sun was going down, Gen. 2:21; 28:11; Job 33:15 a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him.
13 Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly Ex. 1:11; Acts 7:6 that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and Ex. 12:40 they will afflict them four hundred years.
14 And also the nation whom they serve Ex. 6:6 I will judge; afterward Ex. 12:36 they shall come out with great possessions.
15 Now as for you, Job 5:26 you shall go Gen. 25:8; 47:30 to your fathers in peace; Gen. 25:8 you shall be buried at a good old age.
16 But Gen. 15:13; Ex. 12:41 in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity Gen. 48:22; Lev. 18:24–28;1 Kin. 21:26 of the Amorites 1 Kin. 11:12; Matt. 23:32 is not yet complete.”
17 And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that Jer. 34:18, 19 passed between those pieces.
18 On the same day the Lord Gen. 24:7 made a covenant with Abram, saying: Gen. 12:7; 17:8; Ex. 23:31; Num. 34:3; Deut. 11:24; Josh. 1:4; 21:43; Acts 7:5 “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—
19 the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites,
20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”