Count the stars
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. “Don't be afraid, Abram. I'm your shield. Your reward will be very great.” But Abram said, “Lord God, what can You give me? I'm going out childless, and the one who'll get my estate is Eliezer of Damascus.” And Abram said, “You've given me no children, so a servant born in my house will be my heir.” Then the word of the Lord came to him. “That man won't be your heir. A son of your own body will be your heir.” And He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can count them.” And He said, “That's how many your descendants will be.” And Abram believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. “Don't be afraid, Abram. I'm your shield. Your reward will be very great.”
But Abram said, “Lord God, what can You give me? I'm going out childless, and the one who'll get my estate is Eliezer of Damascus.”
And Abram said, “You've given me no children, so a servant born in my house will be my heir.”
Then the word of the Lord came to him. “That man won't be your heir. A son of your own body will be your heir.”
And He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can count them.” And He said, “That's how many your descendants will be.”
And Abram believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness.
How will I know
And He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take hold of.” But Abram said, “Lord God, how am I to know I'll take hold of it?” And He said to him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old goat and a three-year-old ram, and a dove and a young pigeon.” Abram brought all of them, cut them in half and laid the halves opposite each other. But he didn't cut the birds in half. And the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them off.
And He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take hold of.”
But Abram said, “Lord God, how am I to know I'll take hold of it?”
And He said to him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old goat and a three-year-old ram, and a dove and a young pigeon.”
Abram brought all of them, cut them in half and laid the halves opposite each other. But he didn't cut the birds in half.
And the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, and Abram drove them off.
Deep sleep
As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. And the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: your descendants will be strangers in a country that isn't theirs, and they'll be enslaved and badly treated there for four hundred years. But I'll bring judgement on the nation they serve, and afterwards they'll come out with a great deal. As for you, you'll go to your fathers in peace, and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, because the sin of the Amorites hasn't reached its full measure yet.”
As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
And the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: your descendants will be strangers in a country that isn't theirs, and they'll be enslaved and badly treated there for four hundred years.
But I'll bring judgement on the nation they serve, and afterwards they'll come out with a great deal.
As for you, you'll go to your fathers in peace, and be buried at a good old age.
In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, because the sin of the Amorites hasn't reached its full measure yet.”
The covenant
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram. “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates — the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch passed between the pieces.
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram. “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates —
the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaites,
the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”