Genesis 15

¹When these things therefore were done, the word of our Lord was made to Abram by a vision saying: fear not Abram, I am thy Protector, and thy reward exceeding great.

²And Abram said: Lord God, what wilt thou give me? I shall go without children: and the son of the steward of my house is this Damascus Eliezer.

³And Abram added: But to me thou hast not given seed: and Lo my servant born in my house shall be mine heir.

⁴And immediately the word of our Lord came to him saying: He shall not be thine heir: but he that shall come out of thy womb him shalt thou have thine heir.

⁵And he brought him forth abroad, and said to him: Look up to heaven, and number the stars, if thou canst. And he said to him: so shall thy seed be.

⁶Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice.

⁷And he said to him: I am the Lord that brought thee out from Ur of the Chaldees for to give thee this land, and that thou mightest possess it.

⁸But he said: Lord God, how may I know that I shall possess it?

⁹And our Lord answered, and said: Take me a cow of three years old, and a she goat of three years, and a ram of three years, a turtle also, and a pigeon.

¹⁰Who taking all these, divided them by the midst, and laid each two pieces arow one against the other: but the birds he divided not.

¹¹And the fowls lighted upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

¹²And when the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great and darksome horror invaded him.

¹³And it was said unto him: Know and foreknow that a pilgrim shall thy seed be in a land not their own (and they shall bring them under bondage, and afflict them) four hundred years.

¹⁴But the Nation, whom they shall serve, I will judge: and after this they shall go forth with great substance.

¹⁵And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, buried in a good old age.

¹⁶But in the fourth generation they shall return hither: for as yet the iniquities of the Amorrheans are not at the full until this present time.

¹⁷Therefore when the sun was set, there arose a dark mist, and there appeared a furnace smoking, and a flake of fire passing between those divisions.

¹⁸That day God made a covenant with Abram, saying: To thy seed will I give this land from the river of Ægypt even to the great river Euphrates.

¹⁹the Cineans, and Cenezeites, the Cedmonites,

²⁰and the Hethits, and the Pherezits, the Raphaims also,

²¹and the Amorreans and the Chananites, and Gargasites, and the Jebusites.