⁵ He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars^(A)—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring^[a] be.”^(B)

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch^(Z) appeared and passed between the pieces.^(AA)