God promiseth seed to Abram. His faith, sacrifice and vision.
15:1. 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.
15:2. 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.
15:3. And Abram added: But to me thou hast not given seed: and lo my
servant born in my house, shall be my heir.
15:4. 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.
15:5. 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.
15:6. Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice.
15:7. 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.
15:8. But he said: Lord God, whereby may I know that I shall possess it?
15:9. 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.
15:10. 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.
15:11. And the fowls came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them
away.
15:12. And when the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a
great and darksome horror seized upon him.
15:13. 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.
15:14. But I will judge the nation which they shall serve, and after
this they shall come out with great substance.
15:15. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and be buried in a
good old age.
15:16. 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.
15:17. 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.
15:18. That day God made a covenant with Abram, saying: To thy seed will
I give this land, from the river to Egypt even to the great river
Euphrates.
15:19. The Cineans, and Cenezites, the Cedmonites,
15:20. And the Hethites, and the Pherezites, the Raphaim also,
15:21. And the Amorrhites, and the Chanaanites, and the Gergesites, and
the Jebusites.