Genesis - Chapter 15 | Good News Translation

  • 1. After this, Abram had a vision and heard the LORD say to him, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I will shield you from danger and give you a great reward."
  • 2. But Abram answered, "Sovereign LORD, what good will your reward do me, since I have no children? My only heir is Eliezer of Damascus.
  • 3. You have given me no children, and one of my slaves will inherit my property."
  • 4. Then he heard the LORD speaking to him again: "This slave Eliezer will not inherit your property; your own son will be your heir."
  • 5. The LORD took him outside and said, "Look at the sky and try to count the stars; you will have as many descendants as that."
  • 6. Abram put his trust in the LORD, and because of this the LORD was pleased with him and accepted him.
  • 7. Then the LORD said to him, "I am the LORD, who led you out of Ur in Babylonia, to give you this land as your own."
  • 8. But Abram asked, "Sovereign LORD, how can I know that it will be mine?"
  • 9. He answered, "Bring me a cow, a goat, and a ram, each of them three years old, and a dove and a pigeon."
  • 10. Abram brought the animals to God, cut them in half, and placed the halves opposite each other in two rows; but he did not cut up the birds.
  • 11. Vultures came down on the bodies, but Abram drove them off.
  • 12. When the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and fear and terror came over him.
  • 13. The LORD said to him, "Your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land; they will be slaves there and will be treated cruelly for four hundred years.
  • 14. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and when they leave that foreign land, they will take great wealth with them.
  • 15. You yourself will live to a ripe old age, die in peace, and be buried.
  • 16. It will be four generations before your descendants come back here, because I will not drive out the Amorites until they become so wicked that they must be punished."
  • 17. When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch suddenly appeared and passed between the pieces of the animals.
  • 18. Then and there the LORD made a covenant with Abram. He said, "I promise to give your descendants all this land from the border of Egypt to the Euphrates River,
  • 19. including the lands of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
  • 20. the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
  • 21. the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."
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