9:1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

15:4 But look, ⁴  the word of the Lord came to him: “This man ⁵  will not be your heir, ⁶  but instead ⁷  a son ⁸  who comes from your own body will be ⁹  your heir.” ¹⁰  15:5 The Lord ¹¹  took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars – if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”

15:6 Abram believed ¹²  the Lord, and the Lord ¹³  considered his response of faith ¹⁴  as proof of genuine loyalty. ¹⁵ 

15:7 The Lord said ¹⁶  to him, “I am the Lord ¹⁷  who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans ¹⁸  to give you this land to possess.” 15:8 But ¹⁹  Abram ²⁰  said, “O sovereign Lord, ²¹  by what ²²  can I know that I am to possess it?”

15:9 The Lord ²³  said to him, “Take for me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” 15:10 So Abram ²⁴  took all these for him and then cut them in two ²⁵  and placed each half opposite the other, ²⁶  but he did not cut the birds in half. 15:11 When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.