Genesis 15:6-21

New International Version

⁶ Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.^(A)

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

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

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

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

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

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