The Promise of an Heir
1After these events, the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great.” 2But Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, since I have no children, and the heir of my household is Eliezer of Damascus? 3You have given me no offspring, so a servant born in my house will be my heir.” 4Then the word of Yahweh came to him: “This man will not be your heir. Your heir will be your own son, one who comes from your own body.” 5He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.” 6Abram believed Yahweh, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
The Covenant of the Smoking Firepot
7Then Yahweh said to him, “I am Yahweh, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.” 8But Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, how can I know that I will possess it?” 9He said to him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10Abram brought all these to him, cut them in half, and laid each half opposite the other — but he did not cut the birds in half. 11Birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them off. 12As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell over Abram, and a great, dark dread came over him. 13Then Yahweh said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not their own. They will be enslaved and oppressed there for four hundred years. 14But I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward your descendants will come out with great wealth. 15As for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. 16In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” 17When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18On that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram: “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates — 19the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaites, 21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
