Genesis 15:9–18

⁹He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other, but he did not cut the birds in two.^{* 11}And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹²As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.^{* 13}Then the Lord^u said to Abram, “Know this for certain, that your offspring shall be aliens in a land that is not theirs and shall be slaves there, and they shall be oppressed for four hundred years,^{* 14}but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.^{* 15}As for yourself, you shall go to your ancestors in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.^{* 16}And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”^*

¹⁷When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.^{* 18}On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates,^*