| 章 |
| 15:1 |
After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."
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| 15:2 |
But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?"
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| 15:3 |
And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."
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| 15:4 |
Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir."
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| 15:5 |
He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
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| 15:6 |
Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
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| 15:7 |
He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it."
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| 15:8 |
But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?"
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| 15:9 |
So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon."
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| 15:10 |
Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.
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| 15:11 |
Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
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| 15:12 |
As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
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| 15:13 |
Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
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| 15:14 |
But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.
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| 15:15 |
You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.
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| 15:16 |
In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."
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| 15:17 |
When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.
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| 15:18 |
On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates--
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| 15:19 |
the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
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| 15:20 |
Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,
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| 15:21 |
Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites."
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