[1] Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”
[2] But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth.
[3] You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”
[4] Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.”
[5] Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
[6] And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.
[7] Then the Lord told him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.”
[8] But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?”
[9] The Lord told 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] So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half.
[11] Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.
[12] As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him.
[13] Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.
[14] But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth.
[15] (As for you, you will die in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.)
[16] After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”
[17] After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses.
[18] So the Lord made a covenant with Abram that day and said, “I have given this land to your descendants, all the way from the border of Egypt to the great Euphrates River—
[19] the land now occupied by the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
[20] Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,
[21] Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”