The Lord's covenant with Abram

15 After this, the Lord spoke to Abram in a dream. God said, ‘Do not be afraid Abram. I will keep you safe. I myself will give you many good gifts.’

² But Abram said, ‘Almighty Lord, there is one gift that I want. I still have no children. When I die, Eliezer of Damascus will receive everything that I have. ³ Because you have not given me any children, understand this: Everything that I have will one day belong to a servant in my house.’^[a]

⁴ The Lord gave Abram this message: ‘No! Eliezer will not be the one who receives your things. You will have your own son. He will be the one who receives everything that you have.’

⁵ The Lord took Abram outside. He said to Abram, ‘Look up at the sky. Count the stars. They are too many for you to count!’ Then God said, ‘That is how many descendants you will have.’

⁶ Abram believed the Lord. As a result, the Lord accepted Abram as right with him.

⁷ The Lord also said to Abram, ‘I am the Lord. I brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to bring you to this land. I am giving it to you. It will belong to you.’ ⁸ But Abram said, ‘Almighty Lord, how can I be sure that this land will belong to me?’

⁹ The Lord said to Abram, ‘Bring a young cow, a goat and a male sheep to offer them to me. Each animal must be three years old. Also bring a dove and a young pigeon.’

¹⁰ Abram brought the three animals and the two birds to offer to God. Abram cut each animal in two pieces. He put the halves opposite each other. But he did not cut the birds in two pieces. ¹¹ Some birds flew down to eat the animals' dead bodies. But Abram sent them away.

¹² When the sun was going down, Abram started to sleep. Suddenly he became very afraid because it was dark all around him. ¹³ Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘Be sure of this: Your descendants will live in a foreign country. They will be strangers there. People will do bad things to them and they will become slaves. This will continue for 400 years. ¹⁴ But I will punish the people of that country who give them trouble. After this, your descendants will leave that country. They will take many valuable things with them. ¹⁵ But as for you, Abram, you will have a long life. When you die, you will have peace in your mind. ¹⁶ After four generations, your descendants will come back here to Canaan. At that time, I will punish the Amorites because they do very bad things. But the time has not yet arrived that I will punish them.’^[b]

¹⁷ Then the sun went down and it became dark. Abram saw a pot that had coals in it. The coals were burning and making smoke. There was also a branch that burned with bright fire. These passed between the halves of the animals that Abram had cut in two pieces.^[c]

¹⁸ On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram. The Lord promised, ‘I give this land to your descendants. The land starts from the river of Egypt and continues as far as the River Euphrates. ¹⁹ These people live in the land: Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, ²¹ Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.’^[d]