1. After this the word of Yahweh was spoken to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward will be very great!"

2. Abram said, "My Lord Yahweh, where are your promises? I am still childless and all I have will go to Eliezer of Damascus.

3. You have given me no children, so a slave of mine will be my heir."

4. Then the word of Yahweh was spoken to him again, "Eliezer will not be your heir, but a child born of you (your own flesh and blood) will be your heir."

5. Then Yahweh brought him outside and said to him, "Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that."

6. Abram believed Yahweh who, because of this, held him to be an upright man.

7. And he said, "I am Yahweh who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession."

8. Then Abram asked, "My Lord, how am I to know that it shall be mine?"

9. Yahweh replied, "Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove and a young pigeon."

10. Abram brought all these animals, cut them in two, and laid each half facing its other half, but he did not cut the birds in half.

11. The birds of prey came down upon them, but Abram drove them away.

12. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep came over Abram, and a dreadful darkness took hold of him.

13. Then Yahweh said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be exiles in a land that is not theirs. They will be slaves there, oppressed for four hundred years.

14. But I will judge the nation that oppresses them, and after that, they will not leave empty-handed.

15. As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace, and be buried at a ripe old age.

16. Your descendants of the fourth generation will come back here, for the wickedness of the Amorites has not yet deserved that I take the land from them."

17. When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between the halves of the victims.

18. On that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given this country from the river of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates.

19. The land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,

20. the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephraim,

21. the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites."





“O Senhor sempre orienta e chama; mas não se quer segui-lo e responder-lhe, pois só se vê os próprios interesses. Às vezes, pelo fato de se ouvir sempre a Sua voz, ninguém mais se apercebe dela; mas o Senhor ilumina e chama. São os homens que se colocam na posição de não conseguir mais escutar.” São Padre Pio de Pietrelcina