Genesis 15:7–17

⁷God continued, “I’m the same God who brought you from Ur of the Chaldees and gave you this land to own.”

⁸Abram said, “Master God, how am I to know this, that it will all be mine?”

⁹God said, “Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon.”

^10–12He brought all these animals to him, split them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. But he didn’t split the birds. Vultures swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram scared them off. As the sun went down a deep sleep overcame Abram and then a sense of dread, dark and heavy.

^13–16God said to Abram, “Know this: your descendants will live as outsiders in a land not theirs; they’ll be enslaved and beaten down for 400 years. Then I’ll punish their slave masters; your offspring will march out of there loaded with plunder. But not you; you’ll have a long and full life and die a good and peaceful death. Not until the fourth generation will your descendants return here; sin is still a thriving business among the Amorites.”

^17–21When the sun was down and it was dark, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch moved between the split carcasses.