1 His itaque transactis, factus est sermo Domini ad Abram per visionem dicens: “Noli timere, Abram! Ego protector tuus sum, et merces tua magna erit nimis”. | 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." |
2 Dixitque Abram: “Domine Deus, quid dabis mihi? Ego vadam absque liberis, et heres domus meae erit Damascenus Eliezer ”. | 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?" |
3 Addiditque Abram: “En mihi non dedisti semen, et ecce vernaculus meus heres meus erit”. | 3 Abram continued, "See, you have given me no offspring, and so one of my servants will be my heir." |
4 Sed ecce sermo Domini factus est ad eum: “Non erit hic heres tuus, sed qui egredietur de visceribus tuis, ipsum habebis heredem ”. | 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." |
5 Eduxitque eum foras et ait illi: “Suspice caelum et numera stellas, si potes”. Et dixit ei: “Sic erit semen tuum”. | 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." |
6 Credidit Domino, et reputatum est ei ad iustitiam.
| 6 Abram put his faith in the LORD, who credited it to him as an act of righteousness. |
7 Dixitque ad eum: “Ego Dominus, qui eduxi te de Ur Chaldaeorum, ut darem tibi terram istam, et possideres eam”. | 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." |
8 Et ille ait: “Domine Deus, unde scire possum quod possessurus sim eam?”.
| 8 "O Lord GOD," he asked, "How am I to know that I shall possess it?" |
9 Respondens Dominus: “Sume, inquit, mihi vitulam triennem et capram trimam et arietem annorum trium, turturem quoque et columbam”. | 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." |
10 Qui tollens universa haec divisit ea per medium et utrasque partes contra se altrinsecus posuit; aves autem non divisit. | 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. |
11 Descenderuntque volucres super cadavera, et abigebat eas Abram.
| 11 Birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram stayed with them. |
12 Cumque sol occumberet, sopor irruit super Abram, et ecce horror magnus et tenebrosus invasit eum. | 12 As the sun was about to set, a trance fell upon Abram, and a deep, terrifying darkness enveloped him. |
13 Dictumque est ad eum: “Scito praenoscens quod peregrinum futurum sit semen tuum in terra non sua, et subicient eos servituti et affligent quadringentis annis. | 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. |
14 Verumtamen et gentem, cui servituri sunt, ego iudicabo, et post haec egredientur cum magna substantia. | 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation they must serve, and in the end they will depart with great wealth. |
15 Tu autem ibis ad patres tuos in pace, sepultus in senectute bona. | 15 You, however, shall join your forefathers in peace; you shall be buried at a contented old age. |
16 Generatione autem quarta revertentur huc; necdum enim completae sunt iniquitates Amorraeorum usque ad praesens tempus”.
| 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." |
17 Cum ergo occubuisset sol, facta est caligo tenebrosa, et apparuit clibanus fumans et lampas ignis transiens inter divisiones illas.
| 17 When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking brazier and a flaming torch, which passed between those pieces. |
18 In illo die pepigit Dominus cum Abram foedus dicens: “Semini tuo dabo terram hanc a fluvio Aegypti usque ad magnum fluvium Euphraten, | 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), |
19 Cinaeos et Cenezaeos, Cedmonaeos | 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, |
20 et Hetthaeos et Pherezaeos, Raphaim quoque | 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, |
21 et Amorraeos et Chananaeos et Gergesaeos et Iebusaeos”.
| 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." |