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15:1  Some time later the word of Adonai came to Avram in a vision: “Don’t be afraid, Avram. I am your protector; your reward will be very great.”
15:2  Avram replied, “Adonai, God, what good will your gifts be to me if I continue childless; and Eli‘ezer from Dammesek inherits my possessions?
15:3  You haven’t given me a child,” Avram continued, “so someone born in my house will be my heir.”
15:4  But the word of Adonai came to him: “This man will not be your heir. No, your heir will be a child from your own body.”
15:5  Then he brought him outside and said, “Look up at the sky, and count the stars — if you can count them! Your descendants will be that many!”
15:6  He believed in Adonai, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
15:7  (vi) Then he said to him, “I am Adonai, who brought you out from Ur-Kasdim to give you this land as your possession.”
15:8  He replied, “Adonai, God, how am I to know that I will possess it?”
15:9  He answered him, “Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a dove and a young pigeon.”
15:10  He brought him all these, cut the animals in two and placed the pieces opposite each other; but he didn’t cut the birds in half.
15:11  Birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses, but Avram drove them away.
15:12  As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell on Avram; horror and great darkness came over him.
15:13  Adonai said to Avram, “Know this for certain: your descendants will be foreigners in a land that is not theirs. They will be slaves and held in oppression there four hundred years.
15:14  But I will also judge that nation, the one that makes them slaves. Afterwards, they will leave with many possessions.
15:15  As for you, you will join your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age.
15:16  Only in the fourth generation will your descendants come back here, because only then will the Emori be ripe for punishment.”
15:17  After the sun had set and there was thick darkness, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared, which passed between these animal parts.
15:18  That day Adonai made a covenant with Avram: “I have given this land to your descendants — from the Vadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River —
15:19  the territory of the Keni, the K’nizi, the Kadmoni,
15:20  the Hitti, the P’rizi, the Refa’im,
15:21  the Emori, the Kena‘ani, the Girgashi and the Y’vusi.”