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Genesis 15:7-17

Genesis 15:7-21 The Message (MSG)

GOD continued, “I’m the same GOD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldees and gave you this land to own.” Abram said, “Master GOD, how am I to know this, that it will all be mine?” GOD said, “Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon.” He 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. GOD 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.” When the sun was down and it was dark, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch moved between the split carcasses. That’s when GOD made a covenant with Abram: “I’m giving this land to your children, from the Nile River in Egypt to the River Euphrates in Assyria—the country of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.” * * *

Genesis 15:7-17 Amplified Bible (AMP)

And He said to him, “I am the [same] LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land as an inheritance.” But Abram said, “Lord GOD, by what [proof] will I know that I will inherit it?” So God said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” So Abram brought all these to Him and cut them down the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. The birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. When the sun was setting, a deep sleep overcame Abram; and a horror (terror, shuddering fear, nightmare) of great darkness overcame him. God said to Abram, “Know for sure that your descendants will be strangers [living temporarily] in a land (Egypt) that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. [Ex 12:40] But on that nation whom your descendants will serve I will bring judgment, and afterward they will come out [of that land] with great possessions. [Ex 12:35, 36; Acts 7:6, 7] As for you, you shall [die and] go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation your descendants shall return here [to Canaan, the land of promise], for the wickedness and guilt of the Amorites is not yet complete (finished).” [Josh 24:15] When the sun had gone down and a [deep] darkness had come, there appeared a smoking brazier and a flaming torch which passed between the [divided] pieces [of the animals]. [Jer 34:18, 19]

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