Scrutatio

Giovedi, 28 marzo 2024 - San Castore di Tarso ( Letture di oggi)

Genesis 15


font

1Some time later, the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram! I am yourshield and shal give you a very great reward.2'Lord Yahweh,' Abram replied, 'what use are your gifts, as I am going on my way childless? . . .3Since you have given me no offspring,' Abram continued, 'a member of my household will be my heir.'4Then Yahweh's word came to him in reply, 'Such a one wil not be your heir; no, your heir will be theissue of your own body.'5Then taking him outside, he said, 'Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can. Just so wil yourdescendants be,' he told him.6Abram put his faith in Yahweh and this was reckoned to him as uprightness.7He then said to him, 'I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldaeans to give you thiscountry as your possession.'8'Lord Yahweh,' Abram replied, 'how can I know that I shal possess it?'9He said to him, 'Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, aturtledove and a young pigeon.'10He brought him all these, split the animals down the middle and placed each half opposite the other;but the birds he did not divide.11And whenever birds of prey swooped down on the carcases, Abram drove them off.12Now, as the sun was on the point of setting, a trance fel on Abram, and a deep dark dreaddescended on him.13Then Yahweh said to Abram, 'Know this for certain, that your descendants will be exiles in a land nottheir own, and be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.14But I shal bring judgement on the nation that enslaves them and after this they wil leave, with manypossessions.15For your part, you wil join your ancestors in peace; you wil be buried at a happy old age.16In the fourth generation they wil come back here, for until then the iniquity of the Amorites wil nothave reached its ful extent.'17When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passingbetween the animals' pieces.18That day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram in these terms: 'To your descendants I give thiscountry, from the River of Egypt to the Great River, the River Euphrates,19the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.'