8. But Abram said, “Lord GOD, how can I be sure that I will get this land?”
9. God said to Abram, “We will make an agreement. Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old goat, a three-year-old ram, a dove, and a young pigeon.”
10. Abram brought all these to God. Abram killed these animals and cut each of them into two pieces. Then he laid each half across from the other half. He did not cut the birds into two pieces.
11. Later, large birds flew down to eat the animals, but Abram chased them away.
12. The sun began to go down and Abram got very sleepy. While he was asleep, a very terrible darkness came over him.
13. Then the Lord said to Abram, “You should know this: Your descendants will live in a country that is not their own. They will be strangers there. The people there will make them slaves and be cruel to them for 400 years.
14. But then I will punish the nation that made them slaves. Your people will leave that land, and they will take many good things with them.
15. “You yourself will live to be very old. You will die in peace and will be buried with your family.
16. After four generations your people will come to this land again and defeat the Amorites. That will happen in the future because the Amorites are not yet guilty enough to lose their land.”
17. After the sun went down, it got very dark. The dead animals were still on the ground, each animal cut into two pieces. Then a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between the halves of the dead animals.
18. So on that day the Lord made a promise and an agreement with Abram. He said, “I will give this land to your descendants. I will give them the land between the River of Egypt and the great river Euphrates.
19. This is the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,
20. Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,