| 15 | Genesis | ||
| 1 | AFTER THIS the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision. He said, 'Do not be afraid, Abram, I am giving you a very great reward? ' | God's covenant with Abraham. Gn.15.1-21 | |
| 2 | Abram replied, 'Lord GOD, what canst thou give me? I have no standing among men, for the heir to my household is Eliezer of Damascus.' | ||
| 3 | Abram continued, 'Thou hast given me no children, and so my heir must be a slave born in my house.' | ||
| 4 | Then came the word of the LORD to him: 'This man shall not be your heir; your heir shall be a child of your own body.' | ||
| 5 | He took Abram outside and said, 'Look up into the sky, and count the stars if you can. So many', he said, 'shall your descendants be.' | ||
| 6 | Abram put his faith in the LORD, and the LORD counted that faith to him as righteousness; | ||
| 7 | he said to him, 'I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land to occupy.' | ||
| 8 | Abram said, 'O Lord GOD, how can I be sure that I shall occupy it?' | ||
| 9 | The LORD answered, 'Bring me a heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle-dove, and a fledgling.' | ||
| 10 | He brought him all these, halved the animals down the middle and placed each piece opposite its corresponding piece, but he did not halve the birds. | ||
| 11 | When the birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses, Abram scared them away. | ||
| 12 | Then, as the sun was going down, a trance came over Abram and great fear came upon him. | ||
| 13 | The LORD said to Abram, 'Know this for certain, that your descendants will be aliens living in a land that is not theirs; they will be slaves, and will be held in oppression there for four hundred years. | ||
| 14 | But I will punish that nation whose slaves they are, and after that they shall come out with great possessions. | ||
| 15 | You yourself shall join your fathers in peace and be buried in a good old age; | ||
| 16 | and the fourth generation shall return here, for the Amorites will not be ripe for punishment till then.' | ||
| 17 | The sun went down and it was dusk, and there appeared a smoking brazier and a flaming torch passing between the divided pieces. | ||
| 18 | That very day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, and he said, 'To your descendants I give this land from the River of Egypt to the Great River, the river Euphrates, | ||
| 19 | the territory of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, | ||
| 20 | Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, | ||
| 21 | Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites.' | ||
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