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, ¹  the word of the Lord came to him: “This man ²  will not be your heir, ³  but instead ⁴  a son ⁵  who comes from your own body will be ⁶  your heir.” ⁷  15:5 The Lord ⁸  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 ⁹  the Lord, and the Lord ¹⁰  considered his response of faith ¹¹  as proof of genuine loyalty. ¹² 

15:7 The Lord said ¹³  to him, “I am the Lord ¹⁴  who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans ¹⁵  to give you this land to possess.” 15:8 But ¹⁶  Abram ¹⁷  said, “O sovereign Lord, ¹⁸  by what ¹⁹  can I know that I am to possess it?”

15:9 The Lord ²⁰  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 ²¹  took all these for him and then cut them in two ²²  and placed each half opposite the other, ²³  but he did not cut the birds in half. 15:11 When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.