Genesis 15
After these things the Lord’s word came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Abram, fear not.
I am a shield to you, your reward shall be very great.” But Abram said, “My Lord God,
What would you give me? For I shall die cursed and childless, and my home’s domestic caretaker
Is Eliezer the Damascan.” And then Abram spoke further to his Lord and maker,
“Look, You gave me no child of my own, now my chief servant must serve as my heir.”
But God’s word came to him, replying, “He will not. For your heir, your own seed you will bear.”
He brought Abram outside and said, “Look at the heavens and count the stars. Can you count them?”
God continued, “So shall be your offspring.” And trust was placed in the Lord God by Abram.
God had deemed this as righteousness on Abram’s part, and He said to him, “I am the Lord
The one who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as hoard.”
Abram asked, “My Lord God, how will I know that I am the one to inherit the land?”
God replied, “Fetch me a calf of three years, a she-goat of three years, a three-year-old ram,
And a turtledove, and a young fledgling.” Abram fetched him all of these, cut them in two,
And placed half of each facing the other, except for the birds which he did not cut through.
And though vultures descended to feast on the carcasses, Abram drove them all away.
As the sun set, a deep slumber fell upon Abram, a great darkness and some dismay.
The Lord said to Abram, “Know this, that your offspring will be strangers in a land not theirs,
And the nation shall put them in servitude, and then oppress them for four hundred years.
But then I shall bring judgment upon that same nation, and they will go free with great wealth.
As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace, buried after a long life of health,
At a ripe old age. But in the fourth generation, they will return here once again,
For the iniquity of the Amorites will not be fully complete until then.”
It was when the sun set, and the dark of night came, that a smoking oven could be seen,
And a fiery torch appeared near the pieces of the oven, and passed straight between.
And on that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give your offspring
All this land, from the River of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates flowing,
The land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites as well,
The Rephaim, the Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and where the Jebusites dwell.”