Chapter 15
[15:1] After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great."
[15:2] But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
[15:3] And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir."
[15:4] But the word of the LORD came to him, "This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir."
[15:5] He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be."
[15:6] And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness.
[15:7] Then he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess."
[15:8] But he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?"
[15:9] He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."
[15:10] He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two.
[15:11] And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
[15:12] As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.
[15:13] Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years;
[15:14] but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
[15:15] As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.
[15:16] And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."
[15:17] When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
[15:18] On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
[15:19] the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
[15:20] the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
[15:21] the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.".
Chapter 16
[16:1] Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar,
[16:2] and Sarai said to Abram, "You see that the LORD has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
[16:3] So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife.
[16:4] He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress.
[16:5] Then Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!"
[16:6] But Abram said to Sarai, "Your slave-girl is in your power; do to her as you please." Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her.
[16:7] The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.
[16:8] And he said, "Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?" She said, "I am running away from my mistress Sarai."
[16:9] The angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit to her."
[16:10] The angel of the LORD also said to her, "I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude."
[16:11] And the angel of the LORD said to her, "Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael, for the LORD has given heed to your affliction.
[16:12] He shall be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him; and he shall live at odds with all his kin."
[16:13] So she named the LORD who spoke to her, "You are El-roi"; for she said, "Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?"
[16:14] Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
[16:15] Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
[16:16] Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael