God’s Covenant with Abram
1. After these things the word of Jehovah came to Abram in a vision, saying,
“Do not fear, Abram, I am your shield;
your reward shall be very great.”
2. And Abram said, “Lord Jehovah, what will You give me,
seeing I go childless,
and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
3. And Abram said, “Behold, You have given me no offspring;
and behold, one born in my house is my heir.”
4. And behold, the word of Jehovah came to him, saying,
“This one shall not be your heir,
but one who shall come from your own body, he shall be your heir.”
5. And He brought him outside and said,
“Look now toward heaven, and count the stars,
if you are able to count them.”
And He said to him, “So shall your seed be.”
6. And he believed in Jehovah, and He counted it to him for righteousness.
Abram Questions About the Land
7. And He said to him,
“I am Jehovah who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans,
to give you this land to possess it.”
8. And he said, “Lord Jehovah, how shall I know that I will possess it?”
9. And He said to him,
“Bring Me a three-year-old heifer,
and a three-year-old female goat,
and a three-year-old ram,
and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10. And he brought all these to Him, and cut them in the middle,
and laid each half opposite the other;
but the birds he did not cut in two.
11. And the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses,
and Abram drove them away.
The Covenant Ceremony
12. And when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a deep sleep fell upon Abram;
and, lo, a horror and great darkness fell upon him.
13. And He said to Abram,
“Know of a surety that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs,
and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years.
14. And also that nation whom they shall serve I will judge;
and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
15. And you shall go to your fathers in peace;
you shall be buried in a good old age.
16. But in the fourth generation they shall return here,
for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
17. And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark,
that behold, there appeared a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
18. In that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying,
“To your seed I have given this land,
from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
19. the Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
20. and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaim,
21. and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
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