9. Then the Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a dove, and a young pigeon.”
10. Abram obeyed the Lord. Then he cut the animals in half and laid the two halves of each animal opposite each other on the ground. But he did not cut the doves and pigeons in half.
11. And when birds came down to eat the animals, Abram chased them away.
12. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and everything became dark and frightening.
13-15. Then the Lord said:Abram, you will live to an old age and die in peace.But I solemnly promise that your descendants will live as foreigners in a land that doesn't belong to them. They will be forced into slavery and abused for four hundred years. But I will terribly punish the nation that enslaves them, and they will leave with many possessions.
16. Four generations later, your descendants will return here and take this land, because only then will the people who live here be so sinful that they deserve to be punished.
17. Some time after sunset, when it was very dark, a smoking cooking pot and a flaming fire went between the two halves of each animal.