5. And He brought him outside [his tent into the starlight] and said, Look now toward the heavens and count the stars–if you are able to number them. Then He said to him, So shall your descendants be. [Heb. 11:12.]
6. And he [Abram] believed in (trusted in, relied on, remained steadfast to) the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness (right standing with God). [Rom. 4:3, 18-22; Gal. 3:6; James 2:23.]
7. And He said to him, I am the [same] Lord, Who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land as an inheritance.
8. But he [Abram] said, Lord God, by what shall I know that I shall inherit it?
9. And He said to him, Bring to Me a heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
10. And he brought Him all these and cut them down the middle [into halves] and laid each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not divide.
11. And when the birds of prey swooped down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12. When the sun was setting, a deep sleep overcame Abram, and a horror (a terror, a shuddering fear) of great darkness assailed and oppressed him.
13. And [God] said to Abram, Know positively that your descendants will be strangers dwelling as temporary residents in a land that is not theirs [Egypt], and they will be slaves there and will be afflicted and oppressed for 400 years. [Fulfilled in Exod. 12:40.]
14. But I will bring judgment on that nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. [Acts 7:6, 7.]
15. And you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old (hoary) age.
16. And in the fourth generation they [your descendants] shall come back here [to Canaan] again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full and complete. [Josh. 24:15.]
17. When the sun had gone down and a [thick] darkness had come on, behold, a smoking oven and a flaming torch passed between those pieces.
18. On the same day the Lord made a covenant (promise, pledge) with Abram, saying, To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates–the land of