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The LORD's Promise to Abram
1Later the LORD spoke to Abram in a vision, "Abram, don't be afraid! I will protect you and reward you greatly."
2But Abram answered, "LORD All-Powerful, you have given me everything I could ask for, except children. And when I die, Eliezer of Damascus will get all I own. [a] 3You have not given me any children, and this servant of mine will inherit everything." 4The LORD replied, "No, he won't! You will have a son of your own, and everything you have will be his." 5Then the LORD took Abram outside and said, "Look at the sky and see if you can count the stars. That's how many descendants you will have." 6Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD was pleased with him.
The LORD Makes Another Promise to Abram
7The LORD said to Abram, "I brought you here from Ur in Chaldea, and I gave you this land."
8Abram asked, "LORD God, how can I know the land will be mine?"

9Then the LORD told him, "Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a dove, and a young pigeon." 10Abram obeyed the LORD.The11th one was skiped for reasons it might be to dermatic for the young please look it up here to read 11:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2015;&version=46;
12As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and everything became dark and frightening. 13-15Then the LORD said:

Abram, you will live to an old age and die in peace.

But I solemnly promise that your descendants will live as foreigners in a land that doesn't belong to them. They will be forced into slavery and abused for four hundred years. But I will terribly punish the nation that enslaves them, and they will leave with many possessions.
16Four generations later, [c] your descendants will return here and take this land, because only then will the people who live here [d] be so sinful that they deserve to be punished. 17Sometime after sunset, when it was very dark, a smoking cooking pot [e] and a flaming fire went between the two halves of each animal. 18At that time the LORD made an agreement with Abram and told him: I will give your descendants the land east of the Shihor River [f] on the border of Egypt as far as the Euphrates River. 19They will possess the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaites, 21the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Footnotes:

A:Genesis 15:2 And. . . own: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
B:Genesis 15:10 cut: In Hebrew "cut" sounds something like "agreement." What follows shows that the LORD is making an agreement with Abram.
C;Genesis 15:16 Four generations later: This may refer to the "four hundred years" of verses 13-15.
D:Genesis 15:16 people who live here: The Hebrew text has "Amorites," a name sometimes used of the people who lived in Palestine before the Israelites.
E:Genesis 15:17 smoking cooking pot: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. The smoke and fire represent the presence of the LORD.
F:Genesis 15:18 Shihor River: See Joshua 13.2-7.