Yahweh made a solemn promise to Abram

1Some time later, Abram had a vision in which Yahweh spoke to him and said, “Do not be afraid of ◄anything/your enemies►. I will protect you [MTY], and I will give a great reward.”

2But Abram replied, “Yahweh God, how can you give me what I truly want, because I have no children, and the one who will be like a son and inherit all my possessions is my servant Eliezer from Damascus!”

3Abram added, “You have not given me any children, so think about this: A servant in my household will inherit all I own!”

4Yahweh replied, “No! He will not be the one who will inherit it. Instead, you yourself will be the father of the one who will inherit everything you own.”

5Then Yahweh took Abram outside of his tent and said, “Look up at the sky! Can you count the stars? No, you cannot count them because there are so many of them, and your descendants will be as numerous as the stars.”

6Abram believed that what Yahweh said would happen. And because of that, Yahweh considered that Abram was righteous.

7Yahweh also said to him, “I am Yahweh. I am the one who brought you from Ur in Chaldea land. I brought you here to give you this land to possess.”

8But Abram replied, “Yahweh God, how can I know for sure that this land will belong to me?”

9God said to him, “Bring a three-year-old heifer and a three-year-old goat to me, and a dove and a pigeon.”

10So Abram brought all of them and killed them and cut each of the animals in half. He arranged the halves of each one, side by side. But he did not cut the pigeon and dove in half.

11Birds that eat dead flesh came down to eat the carcasses, but Abram shooed them away.

12As the sun was going down, Abram fell sound asleep, and suddenly everything around him became dark and frightening.

13Then God said to Abram, “I want you to know that your descendants will become foreigners living in a land that does not belong to them. They will become slaves of the owners of that land. The owners of the land will mistreat them for 400 years.

14But then I will punish the people of that country that made them become slaves, and then your descendants will leave that country, taking many possessions with them.

15But as for you, you will die [EUP] peacefully when you are very old.

16After your descendants have been slaves for 400 years, they will return here, and take control of this land and defeat the Amor people-group. Those people will, because those people have not yet sinned enough to deserve to be punished now.”

17When the sun had set and it had become dark, unexpectedly a blazing torch and a clay pot containing burning coals from which smoke was rising appeared and went between the halves of the animals.

18And on that day Yahweh made an agreement with Abram. Yahweh told him, “I will give to your descendants all the land between the river that is on the eastern border of Egypt to the south, and north to the huge Euphrates River.

19That is the land where the Ken, the Keniz, the Kidmon,

20the Heth, the Periz, the Repha,

21the Amor, the Canaan, the Girgash, and the Tebus people-groups live.”