BOOK OF GENESIS
CHAPTER 15
God promiseth seed to Abram.
His faith, sacrifice and vision.
[1]
Now when these things were done, the word of the Lord came to Abram by a
vision, saying: Fear not, Abram, I am thy protector, and thy reward
exceeding great.
[2]
And Abram said: Lord God, what wilt thou give me? I shall go without
children: and the son of the steward of my house is this Damascus
Eliezer.
[3] And Abram added: But to me thou hast not given seed: and lo my servant, born in my house, shall be my heir.
[4]
And immediately the word of the Lord came to him, saying: He shall not
be thy heir: but he that shall come out of thy bowels, him shalt thou
have for thy heir.
[5]
And he brought him forth abroad, and said to him: Look up to heaven and
number the stars, if thou canst. And he said to him: So shall thy seed
be.
[6] Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice.
[7]
And he said to him: I am the Lord who brought thee out from Ur of the
Chaldees, to give thee this land, and that thou mightest possess it.
[8] But he said: Lord God, whereby may I know that I shall possess it?
[9]
And the Lord answered, and said: Take me a cow of three years old, and a
she goat of three years, and a ram of three years, a turtle also, and a
pigeon.
[10]
And he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid the two
pieces of each one against the other; but the birds he divided not.
[11] And the fowls came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
[12] And when the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great and darksome horror seized upon him.
[13]
And it was said unto him: Know thou beforehand that thy seed shall be a
stranger in a land not their own, and they shall bring them under
bondage, and afflict them four hundred years.
[14] But I will judge the nation which they shall serve, and after this they shall come out with great substance.
[15] And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and be buried in a good old age.
[16]
But in the fourth generation they shall return hither: for as yet the
iniquities of the Amorrhites are not at the full until this present
time.
[17]
And when the sun was set, there arose a dark mist, and there appeared a
smoking furnace and a lamp of fire passing between those divisions.
[18]
That day God made a covenant with Abram, saying: To thy seed will I
give this land, from the river of Egypt even to the great river
Euphrates.
[19] The Cineans and Cenezites, the Cedmonites,
[20] And the Hethites, and the Pherezites, the Raphaim also,
[21] And the Amorrhites, and the Chanaanites, and the Gergesites, and the Jebusites.