1 After these things the word of YHWH came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you, your reward is exceedingly great.” 2 And Abram said, “Lord YHWH, what do You give to me? For I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.”
3 And Abram said, “Look, You have not given seed to me, and look, a servant will be my heir.”
4 And look, the word of YHWH came to him, saying, “This one will not be your heir; but he who comes out from your bowels, he will be your heir.” 5 And He brought him out outside and said, “Now look attentively toward the heavens and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “Your seed will be like this.” 6 And he believed in YHWH, and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
7 And He said to him, “I am YHWH who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give to you this land to possess it.” 8 And he said, “Lord YHWH, whereby do I know that I will possess it?” 9 And He said to him, “Take for Me a heifer of three years, and a female goat of three years, and a ram of three years, and a turtle-dove, and a young bird.” 10 And he took all these for Him, and separated them in the middle, and puts each piece opposite its counterpart, but the bird he did not divide. 11 And the ravenous birds come down on the carcasses, and Abram chased them away. 12 And the sun was about to go down, and a deep sleep fell on Abram, and look, a terror of great darkness fell on him. 13 And He says to Abram, “knowing—know that your seed will be a sojourner in a land not theirs, and they will serve them, and they will afflict them 400 years. 14 And the nation also whom they serve I will judge. And after this they will go out with great substance. 15 And you—you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried in a good old age, 16 and the fourth generation, they will return here—for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
17 And it came to pass—the sun had gone down, and there was thick darkness, and look, a furnace of smoke and a lamp of fire which passed over between those pieces. 18 In that day YHWH made with Abram a covenant, saying, “To your seed I have given this land, from the River of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River, 19 with the Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, 20 and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, 21 and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.”