CHAPTER 15
1 And so when these things were done, the word of the Lord was made to Abram by a vision, and said, Abram, do not thou dread, I am thy defender, and thy meed is full great.
2 And Abram said, Lord God, what shalt thou give to me? I shall go without free children, and this Damascus, son of Eliezer, the procurator of mine house, shall be mine heir.
3 And Abram added, Soothly thou hast not given seed to me, and, lo! my born servant shall be mine heir.
4 And anon the word of the Lord was made to him, and said, This shall not be thine heir, but thou shalt have him heir, that shall go out of thy womb.
5 And the Lord led out Abram, and said to him, Behold thou heaven, and number the stars, if thou mayest. And the Lord said to Abram, So thy seed shall be.
6 Abram believed to God, and it was reckoned to him to rightwiseness.
7 And God said to him, I am the Lord, that led thee out of Ur of Chaldees, that I should give this land to thee, and thou shouldest have it in possession.
8 And Abram said, Lord God, where-by shall I know that I shall wield it?
9 And the Lord answered, and said, Take thou to me a cow of three years, and a goat of three years, and a ram of three years, and a turtledove, and a culver.
10 Which took all these things, and parted those [or them] by the midst [or the middle], and setted [or put] ever either part each against other; but he parted not the birds.
11 And fowls came down on the carrions, and Abram drove them away.
12 And when the sun was gone down, dread felled on Abram, and a great hideousness and dark assailed him.
13 And it was said to him, Know thou a before-knowing, that thy seed shall be [a] pilgrim four hundred years in a land not his own, and they shall make them subject to servage, and they shall torment them;
14 nevertheless I shall deem the folk to whom they shall serve; and after these things they shall go out with great chattel [or substance].
15 Forsooth thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and shalt be buried in good [eld] age.
16 Soothly in the fourth generation they shall turn again hither, for the wickedness of [the] Amorites be not yet [full-]filled, till to present time.
17 Therefore when the sun was gone down, a dark mist was made, and a furnace smoking appeared, and a lamp of fire, and passed through those partings.
18 In that day the Lord made a covenant of peace with Abram, and said, I shall give to thy seed this land, from the river of Egypt till to the great river Euphrates;
19 the lands of the Kenites, and Kenizzites, and Kadmonites,
20 and Hittites, and Perizzites, and Rephaims,
21 and Amorites, and Canaanites, and Girgashites, and Jebusites.