Genesis Chapter 15

The LORD’s Covenant with Abraham

            ¹ After that, a message from Yahveh came to Abram in a vision, “Don’t worry, Abram; I’m your shield. You’ll have a great reward.”

            ² Abram asked,

“Yahveh God, what will you give me? I don’t have any children; Eliezer of Damascus is my heir. ³ Since you haven’t given me any offspring, a man born in my household will inherit.”

                  ⁴A message from Yahveh came to him,

“He won’t inherit. Your heir will come from your body.” ⁵ He took him outside, “Look at the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you’ll have,”

⁶ Abram trusted him, and Yahveh considered him good because of it.

            ⁷ God said, “I’m Yahveh who brought you out of Ur in Chaldea to give you this land.”      ⁸ “What guarantee do I have of that?”

            ⁹ “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, goat, and ram, and a turtledove and young pigeon.”

¹⁰ He brought them, cut them in half—except for the birds—and laid the halves across from each other. ¹¹ Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but he shooed them away.     

Gen 15:1-11

            ¹² As the sun was going down, he fell into a deep sleep, and an eerie darkness came over him. ¹³ God told him,

“Your descendants will be foreigners in a country that enslaves them and oppresses them for 400 years. ¹⁴ I’ll judge that nation, and your descendants will come out with lots of possessions. ¹⁵ You will pass on to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶ In the fourth generation, they’ll come back here. The sinfulness of the Amorites hasn’t climaxed yet.”

¹⁷ After sundown, it was pitch dark. A fire pot and flaming torch passed between the halves of the carcasses. ¹⁸ That day Yahveh made a covenant with Abram,

“I’ll give your descendants this land from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates River, along with ¹⁹ the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, ²¹ Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

Gen 15:12-21