⁸And he said, “O Yahweh God, how shall I know that I will possess it?” ⁹And he said to him, “Take for me a three-year-old heifer, and a three-year-old female goat, and a three-year-old ram, and a turtledove and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰And he took for him all these and cut them in pieces down the middle. And he put each piece opposite the other,ⁱ but the birds he did not cut. ¹¹And the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. ¹²And it happened, as the sun went down,^j then a deep sleep fell upon Abram and, behold, a great terrifying darkness fell upon him. ¹³And he said to Abram, “You must surely know^k that your descendants shall be as aliens in a land not their own.^l And they shall serve them^m and theyⁿ shall oppress them four hundred years. ¹⁴And also the nation that they^o serve I will judge. Then^p afterward they shall go out with great possessions. ¹⁵And as for you, you shall go to your ancestors^q in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶And the fourth generation shall return here, for the guilt of the Amorites is not yet complete.”^r

Read in Logos

Footnotes

iLiterally “its companion”
jLiterally “to go”
kLiterally “knowing you must know”
lLiterally “not to them”
mSome nation hostile to Abram’s descendants (Egypt in later history)
nSome nation hostile to Abram’s descendants (Egypt in later history)
oThat is, Abram’s descendants
pOr “And”
qOr “fathers”
rLiterally “is not complete up to now”