15 After those events, Yahweh spoke to Abram in a vision, telling him, “Don’t be afraid, Abram, because I’ll protect you and I’ll generously and richly reward you.”

2 “My master Yahweh,” replied Abram, “what will you give me, since we have no children and it’s Eliezer (my chief slave from Damascus) who’ll inherit all my possessions?” 3 Then he continued, “Yes, you haven’t given me a child so wow, my heir is a slave from my household!”

4 Then listen, Yahweh’s word came to Abram saying, “That man won’t be your heir, but on the contrary, it’ll be your biological son.” 5 Then Yahweh took Abram outside and said, “Look up at the sky and see if you can count the stars.” Then he said to him, “Your descendants will be like that.”[ref]

6 Abram believed in Yahweh, and Yahweh considered that faith of Abram’s as an act of obedience.[ref]

7 Then Yahweh told Abram, “I’m Yahweh who brought you out of Ur (where the Chaldeans lived) so I could give you this land to possess it.”

8 “My master Yahweh,” Abram asked, “how will I know that I will possess it?”

9 “Bring me a three-year-old heifer,” Yahweh replied, “and a three-year-old she-goat and a three-year-old ram and a turtledove and a young pigeon.” 10 So Abram brought all those to Yahweh, and then he cut the animals (but not the birds) in half down the middle and laid the halves opposite to each other. 11 Then some birds of prey flew down to the carcasses, but Abram shooed them away.

12 Later as the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and it suddenly became completely dark and he became terrified,[ref] 13 and Yahweh said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that doesn’t belong to them, and they’ll serve the rulers of that land and those rulers will persecute them for 400 years.[ref] 14 But just as certain, I’ll punish the nation that they serve and after that they’ll come out with many possessions.[ref] 15 And as for you, you’ll go to your ancestors in peace—you’ll be buried at a good old age. 16 Then in the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, because the Amorites’ sins won’t be complete until then.”

17 Then the sun went down and darkness came, and wow, there was a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch that passed between those animal halves. 18 On that day Yahweh made an agreement with Abram, saying, “I’ve given this land to your descendants, from Egypt’s river to the famous Euphrates River.[ref] 19 That includes the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Refaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Yebusites.”