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But Abram asked, "Sovereign Lord, how can I know that it will be mine?"
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He answered, "Bring me a cow, a goat, and a ram, each of them three years old, and a dove and a pigeon."
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Abram brought the animals to God, cut them in half, and placed the halves opposite each other in two rows; but he did not cut up the birds.
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Vultures came down on the bodies, but Abram drove them off.
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When the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and fear and terror came over him.
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The Lord said to him, "Your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land; they will be slaves there and will be treated cruelly for four hundred years.
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But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and when they leave that foreign land, they will take great wealth with them.
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You yourself will live to a ripe old age, die in peace, and be buried.
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It will be four generations before your descendants come back here, because I will not drive out the Amorites until they become so wicked that they must be punished."
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When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch suddenly appeared and passed between the pieces of the animals.
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Then and there the Lord made a covenant with Abram. He said, "I promise to give your descendants all this land from the border of Egypt to the Euphrates River,
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