¹ Now when these things were done, the word of the Lord came to Abram by a vision, saying: Fear not, Abram, I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great.

² And Abram said: Lord God, what wilt thou give me? I shall go without children: and the son of the steward of my house is this Damascus Eliezer.

³ And Abram added: But to me thou hast not given seed: and lo my servant, born in my house, shall be my heir.

⁴ And immediately the word of the Lord came to him, saying: He shall not be thy heir: but he that shall come out of thy bowels, him shalt thou have for thy heir.

⁵ And he thought him forth abroad, and said to him: Look up to heaven and number the stars, if thou canst. And he said to him: So shall thy seed be.

⁶ Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice.

⁷ And he said to him: I am the Lord who brought thee out from Ur of the Chaldees, to gibe thee this land, and that thou mightest possess it.

⁸ But he said: Lord God, whereby may I know that I shall possess it?

⁹ And the Lord answered, and said: Take me a cow of three years old, and a she goat of three years, and a ram of three years, a turtle also, and a pigeon.

¹⁰ And he took all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid the two pieces of each one against the other; but the birds he divided not.

¹¹ And the fowls came down upon carcasses, and Abram drove them away.

¹² And when the sun was setting, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great and darksome horror seized upon him.

¹³ And it was said unto him: Know thou beforehand that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not their own, and they shall bring them under bondage, and afflict them four hundred years.

¹⁴ But I will judge the nation which they shall serve, and after this they shall come out with great substance.

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

¹⁶ But in the fourth generation they shall return hither: for as yet the iniquities of the Amorrhites are not at the full until this present time.

¹⁷ And when the sun was set, there arose a dark mist, and there appeared a smoking furnace and a lamp of fire passing between those divisions.

¹⁸ That day God made a covenant with Abram, saying: To thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates.

¹⁹ The Cineans and Cenezites, the Cedmonites,

²⁰ And the Hethites, and the Pherezites, the Raphaim also,

²¹ And the Amorrhites, and the Chanaanits, and the Gergesites, and the Jebusites.

¹ These are the names of the children of Israel, that went into Egypt with Jacob: they went in, every man with his household:

² Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Juda,

³ Issachar, Zabulon, and Benjamin,

⁴ Dan, and Nephtali, Gad and Aser.

⁵ And all the souls that came out of Jacob's thigh, were seventy: but Joseph was in Egypt.

⁶ After he was dead, and all his brethren, and all that generation,

⁷ The children of Israel increased, and sprung up into multitudes, and growing exceedingly strong they filled the land.

⁸ In the mean time there arose a new king over Egypt, that knew not Joseph:

⁹ And he said to his people: Behold the people of the children of Israel are numerous and stronger than we.

¹⁰ Come, let us wisely oppress them, lest they multiply: and if any war shall rise against us, join with our enemies, and having overcome us, depart out of the land.

¹¹ Therefore he set over them masters of the works, to afflict them with burdens, and they built for Pharao cities of tabernacles, Phithom and Ramesses.

¹² But the more they oppressed them, the more they were multiplied, and increased:

¹³ And the Egyptians hated the children of Israel, and afflicted them and mocked them:

¹⁴ And they made their life bitter with hard works in clay, and brick, and with all manner of service, wherewith they were overcharged in the works of the earth.

¹⁵ And the king of Egypt spoke to the midwives of the Hebrews: of whom one was called Sephora, the other Phua,

¹⁶ Commanding them: When you shall do the office of midwives to the Hebrew women, and the time of delivery is come: if it be a man child, kill it: if a woman, keep it alive.

¹⁷ But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded, but saved the men children.

¹⁸ And the king called for them and said: What is that you meant to do, that you would save the men children ?

¹⁹ They answered: The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women: for they themselves are skillful in the office of a midwife; and they are delivered before we come to them.

²⁰ Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied and grew exceedingly strong.

²¹ And because the midwives feared God, he built them houses.

²² Pharao therefore charged all his people, saying: Whatsoever shall be born of the male sex, ye shall cast into the river: whatsoever of the female, ye shall save alive.