15:1 Yahweh then appeared
to Abram and spoke:
Don’t worry Abram.
I am your protector
your great mighty benefactor.
15:2 Yet Abram replied:
Almighty Yahweh
what will I receive?
Since I am childless
and the steward of my house
is Eliezer of Damascus?
15:3 Abram then said:
You know I have no offspring
indeed a servant born in my house
will be my heir.
15:4 Then Yahweh spoke to him:
He shall not be your heir
but someone coming forth
from your own heart
shall be your heir.
15:5 He took him outside saying:
Look up to heaven and count the stars
if you can count them.
Then He said to him:
So shall be your followers.
15:6 And he believed in Yahweh
and credited Him for his righteousness.
15:7 Then He spoke to him:
I am Yahweh who delivered you
from the
to entrust to you this land
for you to succeed.
15:8 Then he replied:
Almighty Yahweh how do I know
that I will inherit it?
15:9 Then He replied to him:
Bring some animals and birds.
15:10 When he brought them to Him
He divided them into two equal sections
but didn’t divide the birds.
He put them next to each other.
15:11 When vultures flew over the animals
Abram drove them away.
15:12 When the sun went down
Abram fell into a deep sleep
and a dreadful darkness came over him.
15:13 Then He spoke to Abram:
Understand that your followers
will be strangers in foreign land
and will serve them
and they will oppress them
for four hundred years.
15:14 But the people they serve
will be condemned.
And they will escape
with the most important things.
15:15 But you shall return
to your ancestors in peace
and be buried at a ripe old age.
15:16 But in the fourth generation
will they come back
for the wickedness of the Amorites
has no bounds.
15:17 Then it came to pass
when the sun went down
and darkness prevailed
a smoking oven and burning torch
passed between those pieces.
15:18 On that same day
Yahweh promised Abram:
Your followers will inherit a world
beyond the
and the great river
15:19 with the Kenites and Kenezzites
and Kadmonites
15:20 the Hittites, Perizzites and Rephaim
15:21 and the Amorites and Canaanites
the Girgashites and Jebusites.
