Genesis 15:8-21

New International Version

⁸ But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord,^(A) how can I know^(B) that I will gain possession of it?”^(C)

⁹ So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer,^(D) a goat and a ram, each three years old,^(E) along with a dove and a young pigeon.^(F)”

¹⁰ Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other;^(G) the birds, however, he did not cut in half.^{(H) 11} Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses,^(I) but Abram drove them away.

¹² As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep,^(J) and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. ¹³ Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years^(K) your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved^(L) and mistreated there. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out^(M) with great possessions.^{(N) 15} You, however, will go to your ancestors^(O) in peace and be buried at a good old age.^{(P) 16} In the fourth generation^(Q) your descendants will come back here,^(R) for the sin of the Amorites^(S) has not yet reached its full measure.”

¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch^(T) appeared and passed between the pieces.^{(U) 18} On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram^(V) and said, “To your descendants I give this land,^(W) from the Wadi^[a] of Egypt^(X) to the great river, the Euphrates^(Y)— ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites,^(Z) Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites,^(AA) Perizzites,^(AB) Rephaites,^{(AC) 21} Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”^(AD)