God's Covenant with Abram

(Romans 4:1-12; Galatians 3:1-9; Hebrews 11:8-19; James 2:14-26)

1Now 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.

2And 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. 3And Abram added: But to me thou hast not given seed: and lo my servant born in my house, shall be my heir. 4And 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. 5And he brought 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. 6Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice. 7And he said to him: I am the Lord who brought thee out from Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land, and that thou mightest possess it.

God Confirms His Promise

(Numbers 34:1-15; Romans 4:13-25)

8But he said: Lord God, whereby may I know that I shall possess it? 9And 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. 10And 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. 11And the fowls came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

12And when the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great and darksome horror seized upon him. 13And 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. 14But I will judge the nation which they shall serve, and after this they shall come out with great substance. 15And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and be buried in a good old age. 16But 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.

17And 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.

18That day God made a covenant with Abram, saying: To thy seed will I give this land, from the river to Egypt even to the great river Euphrates.

19The Cineans, and Cenezites, the Cedmonites, 20And the Hethites, and the Pherezites, the Raphaim also, 21And the Amorrhites, and the Chanaanites, and the Gergesites, and the Jebusites.