Genesis 15

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 Some time after these events, this word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram! I am your shield; I will make your reward very great."	1 Now when these things were done, the word of the Lord came to Abram by a vision, saying: Fear not, Abram, I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great.
2 But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what good will your gifts be, if I keep on being childless and have as my heir the steward of my house, Eliezer?"	2 And Abram said: Lord God, what wilt thou give me? I shall go without children: and the son of the steward of my house is this Damascus Eliezer.
3 Abram continued, "See, you have given me no offspring, and so one of my servants will be my heir."	3 And Abram added: But to me thou hast not given seed: and lo my servant, born in my house, shall be my heir.
4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "No, that one shall not be your heir; your own issue shall be your heir."	4 And immediately the word of the Lord came to him, saying: He shall not be thy heir: but he that shall come out of thy bowels, him shalt thou have for thy heir.
5 He took him outside and said: "Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so," he added, "shall your descendants be."	5 And he thought him forth abroad, and said to him: Look up to heaven and number the stars, if thou canst. And he said to him: So shall thy seed be.
6 Abram put his faith in the LORD, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.	6 Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice.
7 He then said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession."	7 And he said to him: I am the Lord who brought thee out from Ur of the Chaldees, to gibe thee this land, and that thou mightest possess it.
8 "O Lord GOD," he asked, "How am I to know that I shall possess it?"	8 But he said: Lord God, whereby may I know that I shall possess it?
9 He answered him, "Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon."	9 And the Lord answered, and said: Take me a cow of three years old, and a she goat of three years, and a ram of three years, a turtle also, and a pigeon.
10 He brought him all these, split them in two, and placed each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not cut up.	10 And he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid the two pieces of each one against the other; but the birds he divided not.
11 Birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram stayed with them.	11 And the fowls came down upon carcasses, and Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was about to set, a trance fell upon Abram, and a deep, terrifying darkness enveloped him.	12 And when the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great and darksome horror seized upon him.
13 Then the LORD said to Abram: "Know for certain that your descendants shall be aliens in a land not their own, where they shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.	13 And it was said unto him: Know thou beforehand that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not their own, and they shall bring them under bondage, and afflict them four hundred years.
14 But I will bring judgment on the nation they must serve, and in the end they will depart with great wealth.	14 But I will judge the nation which they shall serve, and after this they shall come out with great substance.
15 You, however, shall join your forefathers in peace; you shall be buried at a contented old age.	15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and be buried in a good old age.
16 In the fourth time-span the others shall come back here; the wickedness of the Amorites will not have reached its full measure until then."	16 But in the fourth generation they shall return hither: for as yet the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not at the full until this present time.
17 When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking brazier and a flaming torch, which passed between those pieces.	17 And when the sun was set, there arose a dark mist, and there appeared a smoking furnace and a lamp of fire passing between those divisions.
18 It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River (the Euphrates),	18 That day God made a covenant with Abram, saying: To thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates.
19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,	19 The Cineans and Cenezites, the Cedmonites,
20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,	20 And the Hethites, and the Pherezites, the Raphaim also,
21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."	21 And the Amorrhites, and the Chanaanits, and the Gergesites, and the Jebusites.