¹¹ being strengthened with all power^(A) according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,^{(B) 12} and giving joyful thanks to the Father,^(C) who has qualified you^[a] to share in the inheritance^(D) of his holy people in the kingdom of light.^(E)

The Lord’s Covenant With Abram

15 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram^(A) in a vision:^(B)

² But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord,^(F) what can you give me since I remain childless^(G) and the one who will inherit^[c] my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?^(H)” ³ And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant^(I) in my household^(J) will be my heir.”

⁴ Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.^(K)” ⁵ He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars^(L)—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring^[d] be.”^(M)

⁶ Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.^(N)

⁷ He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out^(O) of Ur of the Chaldeans^(P) to give you this land to take possession of it.”^(Q)

⁸ But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord,^(R) how can I know^(S) that I will gain possession of it?”^(T)

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

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

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

¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch^(AK) appeared and passed between the pieces.^{(AL) 18} On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram^(AM) and said, “To your descendants I give this land,^(AN) from the Wadi^[e] of Egypt^(AO) to the great river, the Euphrates^(AP)— ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites,^(AQ) Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites,^(AR) Perizzites,^(AS) Rephaites,^{(AT) 21} Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”^(AU)

More Than Conquerors

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things?^(A) If God is for us,^(B) who can be against us?^{(C) 32} He who did not spare his own Son,^(D) but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge^(E) against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns?^(F) No one. Christ Jesus who died^(G)—more than that, who was raised to life^(H)—is at the right hand of God^(I) and is also interceding for us.^{(J) 35} Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?^(K) Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?^{(L) 36} As it is written:

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors^(N) through him who loved us.^{(O) 38} For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[b] neither the present nor the future,^(P) nor any powers,^{(Q) 39} neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God^(R) that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.^(S)