Genesis 15:15-17
Contemporary English Version
13-15 (A) 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 400 years. But I will terribly punish the nation that enslaves them, and they will leave with many possessions.
16 Four generations later,[a] your descendants will return here and take this land, because only then will the people who live here[b] be so sinful that they deserve to be punished.
17 Sometime after sunset, when it was very dark, a smoking cooking pot[c] and a flaming fire passed between the two halves of each animal.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 15.16 Four generations later: This may refer to the “400 years” of verses 13-15.
- 15.16 people who live here: The Hebrew text has “Amorites,” a name sometimes used of the people who lived in Palestine before the Israelites.
- 15.17 smoking cooking pot: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. The smoke and fire represent the presence of the Lord.
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