Bible Time

¹AFTER these things the word of Yahvah came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram; I am your shield, and your reward is exceedingly great. ²And Abram said, Oh Yahvah God, what will you give me, for I will die childless, and Eliezer of Damascus, one of my household, will be my heir? ³And Abram said, Look, you have given me no son; and look, one of the members of my household will be my heir. ⁴Then Yahvah said to him, This man will not be your heir; but your own son who will come out of your own loins will be your heir. ⁵And he brought him outside, and said to him, Look now toward heaven and number the stars, if you are able to number them; and he said to him, So your descendants will be. ⁶And Abram believed in Yahvah; and it was counted to him for righteousness.

⁷And he said to him, I am Yahvah, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it. ⁸And Abram said, Oh Yahvah God, how will I know that I will inherit it? ⁹And he said to him, Take for yourself a heifer, 3 years old, a 3 year old ram, a 3 year old she-goat, a pigeon, and a young dove. ¹⁰And he took to himself all these, and cut them in 2, and laid each piece against another; but the birds he did not divide. ¹¹And when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹²And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram; and look, fear and a great darkness fell on him. ¹³And Yahvah said to Abram, Know for sure that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will be in servitude: and will be afflicted for 400 years; ¹⁴But I will judge the nation which they will serve; and afterward they will come out with great wealth. ¹⁵And you will depart from this life and go to your fathers in peace; and you will be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶And after 4 centuries, they will return here; for the iniquities of the Amorites are not yet full.

¹⁷And it came to pass that when the sun had set and it was dark, look, there appeared a smoking furnace and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. ¹⁸On that day Yahvah made a contract with Abram, saying, To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates: ¹⁹The land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, ²⁰The Hittites, the Perizzites, the Giants, ²¹The Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.