⁹ So the Lord said to him, “Bring me a heifer,^(A) a goat and a ram, each three years old,^(B) along with a dove and a young pigeon.^(C)”

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

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

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

⁵ Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings^(A) and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings^(B) to the Lord. ⁶ Moses^(C) took half of the blood^(D) and put it in bowls, and the other half he splashed^(E) against the altar. ⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant^(F) and read it to the people. They responded, “We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.”^(G)

⁸ Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people^(H) and said, “This is the blood of the covenant^(I) that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

¹⁹ When Moses had proclaimed^(A) every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves,^(B) together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people.^(C)

²⁰ He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”^[a](A)