1. Some time afterward, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: Do not fear, Abram! I am your shield; I will make your reward very great.
2. But Abram said, “Lord God, what can you give me, if I die childless and have only a servant of my household, Eliezer of Damascus?”
3. Abram continued, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a servant of my household will be my heir.”
4. Then the word of the Lord came to him: No, that one will not be your heir; your own offspring will be your heir.
5. He took him outside and said: Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so, he added, will your descendants be.
6. Abram put his faith in the Lord, who attributed it to him as an act of righteousness.
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. “Lord God,” he asked, “how will I know that I will possess it?”
9. He answered him: Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
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.