⁷ He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out^(A) of Ur of the Chaldeans^(B) to give you this land to take possession of it.”^(C)

⁸ But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord,^(D) how can I know^(E) that I will gain possession of it?”^(F)

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

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

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

¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch^(W) appeared and passed between the pieces.^{(X) 18} On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram^(Y) and said, “To your descendants I give this land,^(Z) from the Wadi^[a] of Egypt^(AA) to the great river, the Euphrates^(AB)—