After these things the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your exceedingly great reward.”
Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?”
Abram said, “Behold, to me you have given no seed, and behold, one born in my house is my heir.”
Behold, the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but he who will come out of your own body will be your heir.”
Yahweh brought him outside and said, “Look now toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” He said to Abram, “So your seed will be.”
He believed in Yahweh, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
He said to him, “I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land to possess it.”
He said, “Lord Yahweh, how will I know that I will possess it?”
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.”
So he brought him all of these and cut them down the middle and laid each half opposite the other, but he did not divide the birds.
The birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell on him.
And he said to Abram, “You must know, yes, know that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs (and will serve them and they will afflict them) 400 years.
I will also judge that nation whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth;
but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried in a good old age.
In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.”
And when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between the pieces.
On that day Yahweh cut a covenant with Abram, saying, “I have given this land to your offspring, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:
the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”