God's Covenant With Abram

1After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am your shield, and your exceeding great reward.

2And Abram said, Lord GOD, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

3And Abram said, Behold, to me you have given no descendants: and, lo, one born in my house is my heir.

4And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be your heir; but he that shall come forth out of your own body shall be your heir.

5And he brought him forth outside, and said, Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if you be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall your descendants be.

6And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

7And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to inherit it.

8And he said, Lord GOD, how shall I know that I shall inherit it?

9And he said unto him, Take me a heifer three years old, and a female goat three years old, and a ram three years old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.

10And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.

11And when the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him.

13And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that your descendants shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

14And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great possessions.

15And you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.

16But in the fourth generation they shall come here again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

17And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

18In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto your descendants have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

19The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,

20And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaim,

21And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.