Old Testament · Law

Genesis chapter 15

After all this, the of Yahweh came to Abram in a : “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your , and your will be very great.”But Abram said, “Yahweh, , what can you give me? I’m still childless, and the one who will inherit my estate is .”Abram continued, “Look, you haven’t given me any children, so a will be my heir.”Then the word of Yahweh came to him: “This man will not be your heir. Instead, a son will be your heir.”He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars — if you can even count them.” Then he told him, “That’s how many your will be.”Abram Yahweh, and Yahweh with him.Then he said to him, “I am Yahweh, who brought you out of to give you this land as your own.”Abram said, “Yahweh, my master, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?”Yahweh told him, “Bring me a three-year-old , a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”Abram brought all of these, , and arranged the halves opposite each other. But he did not cut the birds. swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.As the sun was going down, a fell on Abram, and a closed in on him.Then Yahweh said to Abram, “Know this for certain: your descendants will be in a land that isn’t theirs. They will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.”“But I will also the nation they serve, and afterward they will come out with .”“As for you, you will in peace and be buried at a good old age.”“In the fourth generation, they will return here, because the of the has not yet reached its full measure.”When the sun had set and it was fully dark, a and a .On that day, Yahweh with Abram, saying, “I am giving this land to your descendants — from to the great river, the Euphrates —““the land of the , the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,”“the Hittites, the Perizzites, the ,”“the Amorites, the , the Girgashites, and the .”