God promises Abram descendants as many as the stars, and Abram believes him; God counts it to him for righteousness. God confirms the promise in a covenant ceremony and foretells his descendants' years of slavery.
1 After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision , saying , Fear not, Abram : I am thy shield , and thy exceeding great reward .
2 And Abram said , Lord GOD , what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless , and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus ?
3 And Abram said , Behold, to me thou hast given no seed : and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir .
4 And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying , This shall not be thine heir ; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir .
5 And he brought him forth abroad , and said , Look now toward heaven , and tell the stars , if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
6 And he believed in the LORD ; and he counted it to him for righteousness .
7 And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees , to give thee this land to inherit it.
8 And he said , Lord GOD , whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it ?
9 And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old , and a she goat of three years old , and a ram of three years old , and a turtledove , and a young pigeon .
10 And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst , and laid each piece one against another : but the birds divided he not.
11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcases , Abram drove them away .
12 And when the sun was going down , a deep sleep fell upon Abram ; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
13 And he said unto Abram , Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years ;
14 And also that nation , whom they shall serve , will I judge : and afterward shall they come out with great substance .
15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace ; thou shalt be buried in a good old age .
16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again : for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full .
17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down , and it was dark , behold a smoking furnace , and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces .
18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram , saying , Unto thy seed have I given this land , from the river of Egypt unto the great river , the river Euphrates :
19 The Kenites , and the Kenizzites , and the Kadmonites ,
20 And the Hittites , and the Perizzites , and the Rephaims ,
21 And the Amorites , and the Canaanites , and the Girgashites , and the Jebusites .