⁵ While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.^(A) Listen to him!”^(B)

⁹ So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer,^(A) a goat and a ram, each three years old,^(B) along with a dove and a young pigeon.^(C)”

¹⁰ Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other;^(D) the birds, however, he did not cut in half.^{(E) 11} Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses,^(F) but Abram drove them away.

¹² As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep,^(G) and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. ¹³ Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years^(H) your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved^(I) and mistreated there. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out^(J) with great possessions.^{(K) 15} You, however, will go to your ancestors^(L) in peace and be buried at a good old age.^{(M) 16} In the fourth generation^(N) your descendants will come back here,^(O) for the sin of the Amorites^(P) has not yet reached its full measure.”

¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch^(Q) appeared and passed between the pieces.^{(R) 18} On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram^(S) and said, “To your descendants I give this land,^(T) from the Wadi^[a] of Egypt^(U) to the great river, the Euphrates^(V)— ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites,^(W) Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites,^(X) Perizzites,^(Y) Rephaites,^{(Z) 21} Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”^(AA)

¹³ She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,^(A)” for she said, “I have now seen^[a] the One who sees me.”^{(B) 14} That is why the well^(C) was called Beer Lahai Roi^[b];^(D) it is still there, between Kadesh^(E) and Bered.

⁷ I will establish my covenant^(A) as an everlasting covenant^(B) between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God^(C) and the God of your descendants after you.^{(D) 8} The whole land of Canaan,^(E) where you now reside as a foreigner,^(F) I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you;^(G) and I will be their God.^(H)”

⁷ The Lord said, “I have indeed seen^(A) the misery^(B) of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned^(C) about their suffering.^{(D) 8} So I have come down^(E) to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land,^(F) a land flowing with milk and honey^(G)—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites^(H) and Jebusites.^(I)

¹⁷ When Moses sent them to explore Canaan,^(A) he said, “Go up through the Negev^(B) and on into the hill country.^{(C) 18} See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. ¹⁹ What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? ²⁰ How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.^(D)” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)^(E)

The Magi Visit the Messiah

2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea,^(A) during the time of King Herod,^(B) Magi^[a] from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?^(C) We saw his star^(D) when it rose and have come to worship him.”