¹ After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

² And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

³ And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and lo, one born in my house is my heir.

⁴ And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, This shall not be thy heir; but he that shall come forth out of thy own bowels shall be thy heir.

⁵ And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now towards heaven, and tell the stars, if thou art able to number them: and he said to him, So shall thy seed be.

⁶ And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

⁷ And he said to him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

⁸ And he said, Lord GOD, by what shall I know that I shall inherit it?

⁹ And he said to him, Take me a heifer of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon.

¹⁰ And he took to him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds he did not divide.

¹¹ And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.

¹² And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him.

¹³ And he said to Abram, Know certainly that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

¹⁴ And also that nation which they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

¹⁵ And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

¹⁶ But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

¹⁷ And it came to pass, that when the sun had gone down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

¹⁸ In that same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, To thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:

¹⁹ The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,

²⁰ And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,

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

¹ Now these are the names of the children of Israel, who came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.

² Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,

³ Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,

⁴ Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

⁵ And all the souls that descended from Jacob, were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.

⁶ And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.

⁷ And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and became exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.

⁸ Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph.

⁹ And he said to his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.

¹⁰ Come, let us deal wisely with them: lest they multiply, and it shall come to pass, that when there falleth out any war, they will join with our enemies, and fight against us, and depart from the land.

¹¹ Therefore they set over them task-masters, to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure-cities, Pithom, and Raamses.

¹² But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.

¹³ And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor.

¹⁴ And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service in which they made them serve, was with rigor.

¹⁵ And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives (of which the name of one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:)

¹⁶ And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it shall be a son, then ye shall kill him; but if it shall be a daughter, then she shall live.

¹⁷ But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male-children alive.

¹⁸ And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said to them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the male-children alive?

¹⁹ And the midwives said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women: for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in to them.

²⁰ Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and became very mighty.

²¹ And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.

²² And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.