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.
|