Genesis 15:9–17

⁹So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer,^j a goat and a ram, each three years old,^k along with a dove and a young pigeon.^l”

¹⁰Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other;^m the birds, however, he did not cut in half.^{n 11}Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses,^o but Abram drove them away.

¹²As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep,^p and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. ¹³Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years^q your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved^r and mistreated there. ¹⁴But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out^s with great possessions.^{t 15}You, however, will go to your ancestors^u in peace and be buried at a good old age.^{v 16}In the fourth generation^w your descendants will come back here,^x for the sin of the Amorites^y has not yet reached its full measure.”

¹⁷When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch^z appeared and passed between the pieces.^a