Genesis 15:1-10 ▼

1 Some time afterward, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: Do not fear, Abram! I am your shield; I will make your reward very great.

2 But Abram said, “Lord GOD, what can you give me, if I die childless and have only a servant of my household, Eliezer of Damascus?”

3 Abram continued, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a servant of my household will be my heir.”

4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: No, that one will not be your heir; your own offspring will be your heir.

5 He took him outside and said: Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so, he added, will your descendants be.

6 Abram put his faith in the LORD, who attributed it to him as an act of righteousness.

7 He then said to him: I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession.

8 “Lord GOD,” he asked, “how will I know that I will possess it?”

9 He answered 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 He brought him all these, split them in two, and placed each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not cut up.