Genesis 15:9-18 ▼

9 So God said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

10 So Abram brought all these to Him and cut them down the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds.

11 The birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.

12 When the sun was setting, a deep sleep overcame Abram; and a horror (terror, shuddering fear, nightmare) of great darkness overcame him.

13 God said to Abram, “Know for sure that your descendants will be strangers [living temporarily] in a land (Egypt) that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.

14 But on that nation whom your descendants will serve I will bring judgment, and afterward they will come out [of that land] with great possessions.

15 As for you, you shall [die and] go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age.

16 Then in the fourth generation your descendants shall return here [to Canaan, the land of promise], for the wickedness and guilt of the Amorites is not yet complete (finished).”

17 When the sun had gone down and a [deep] darkness had come, there appeared a smoking brazier and a flaming torch which passed between the [divided] pieces [of the animals].

18 On the same day the LORD made a covenant (promise, pledge) with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates—