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Genesis 15:9-13
New English Translation

9 The Lord[a] said to him, “Take for me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” 10 So Abram[b] took all these for him and then cut them in two[c] and placed each half opposite the other,[d] but he did not cut the birds in half. 11 When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

12 When the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep,[e] and great terror overwhelmed him.[f] 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain[g] that your descendants will be strangers[h] in a foreign country.[i] They will be enslaved and oppressed[j] for 400 years.

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 15:9 tn Heb “He”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  2. Genesis 15:10 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abram) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  3. Genesis 15:10 tn Heb “in the middle.”
  4. Genesis 15:10 tn Heb “to meet its neighbor.”sn For discussion of this ritual see G. F. Hasel, “The Meaning of the Animal Rite in Genesis 15, ” JSOT 19 (1981): 61-78.
  5. Genesis 15:12 tn Heb “a deep sleep fell on Abram.”
  6. Genesis 15:12 tn Heb “and look, terror, a great darkness was falling on him.”
  7. Genesis 15:13 tn The Hebrew construction is emphatic, with the Qal infinitive absolute followed by the imperfect from יָדַע (yadaʿ, “know”). The imperfect here has an obligatory or imperatival force.
  8. Genesis 15:13 tn The Hebrew word גֵּר (ger, “sojourner, stranger”) is related to the verb גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn, to stay for awhile”). Abram’s descendants will stay in a land as resident foreigners without rights of citizenship.
  9. Genesis 15:13 tn Heb “in a land not theirs.”
  10. Genesis 15:13 tn Heb “and they will serve them and they will oppress them.” The verb עִנּוּ, (ʾinnu, a Piel form from עָנָה, ʾanah, “to afflict, to oppress, to treat harshly”), is used in Exod 1:11 to describe the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt.
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