Abram Promised a Son

¹After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying,

² Abram said, “Lord ^[a]God, what reward will You give me, since I am [leaving this world] childless, and he who will be the owner and heir of my house is this [servant] Eliezer from Damascus?” ³ And Abram continued, “Since You have given no child to me, one (a servant) born in my house is my heir.” ⁴ Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man [Eliezer] will not be your heir but he who shall come from your own body shall be your heir.” ⁵ And the Lord brought Abram outside [his tent into the night] and said, “Look now toward the heavens and count the stars—if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “So [numerous] shall your descendants be.” ⁶ Then Abram believed in (affirmed, trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord; and He counted (credited) it to him ^[b]as righteousness (doing right in regard to God and man). ⁷ And He said to him, “I am the [same] Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land as an inheritance.” ⁸ But Abram said, “Lord ^[c]God, by what [proof] will I know that I will inherit it?” ⁹ So God 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.” ¹⁰ So Abram brought all these to Him and ^[d]cut them down the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. ¹¹ The birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

¹² When the sun was setting, a deep sleep overcame Abram; and a horror (terror, shuddering fear, nightmare) of great darkness overcame him. ¹³ God said to Abram, “Know for sure that your descendants will be strangers [living temporarily] in a land (Egypt) that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. ¹⁴ But on that nation whom your descendants will serve I will bring judgment, and afterward they will come out [of that land] with great possessions. ¹⁵ As for you, you shall [die and] go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶ Then in the ^[e]fourth generation your descendants shall return here [to Canaan, the land of promise], for the wickedness and guilt of the ^[f]Amorites is not yet complete (finished).”

¹⁷ When the sun had gone down and a [deep] darkness had come, there appeared a smoking ^[g]brazier and a flaming torch which passed between the [divided] pieces [of the animals]. ¹⁸ On the same day the Lord made a covenant (promise, pledge) with Abram, saying,

¹⁹ [the land of] the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites ²⁰ and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Rephaim, ²¹ the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”