Chapter 15
Genesis
Verse 1After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” Verse 2But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Verse 3And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” Verse 4And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” Verse 5And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Verse 6And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Verse 7And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” Verse 8But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” Verse 9He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Verse 10And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. Verse 11And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
Verse 12As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Verse 13Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. Verse 14But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Verse 15As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. Verse 16And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
Verse 17When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. Verse 18On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, Verse 19the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, Verse 20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, Verse 21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.