Genesis 15:8-10
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
8 “Lord God,” he asked, “how will I know that I will possess it?” 9 [a]He answered 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.(A) 10 He brought him all these, split them in two, and placed each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not cut up.
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- 15:9–17 Cutting up animals was a well-attested way of making a treaty in antiquity. Jer 34:17–20 shows the rite is a form of self-imprecation in which violators invoke the fate of the animals upon themselves. The eighth-century B.C. Sefire treaty from Syria reads, “As this calf is cut up, thus Matti’el shall be cut up.” The smoking fire pot and the flaming torch (v. 17), which represent God, pass between the pieces, making God a signatory to the covenant.
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