Genesis 15:16-18

Contemporary English Version

¹⁶Four 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.

¹⁷Sometime after sunset, when it was very dark, a smoking cooking pot^[c] and a flaming fire passed between the two halves of each animal. ¹⁸^(A) At that time the Lord made an agreement with Abram and told him:

I will give your descendants the land east of the Shihor River^[d] on the border of Egypt as far as the Euphrates River.

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Footnotes

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.
15.18 Shihor River: See Joshua 13.2-7.

Genesis 15:16-18

New International Version

¹⁶In the fourth generation^(A) your descendants will come back here,^(B) for the sin of the Amorites^(C) has not yet reached its full measure.”

¹⁷When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch^(D) appeared and passed between the pieces.^(E) ¹⁸On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram^(F) and said, “To your descendants I give this land,^(G) from the Wadi^[a] of Egypt^(H) to the great river, the Euphrates^(I)—