15:1 After these things Dvar YHWH (יהוה) came to Avram in a vision, saying:
"Fear not, Avram:
I am your shield, [and] your exceeding great reward."
15:2 And Avram said, Adonay (אדני) YHWH (יהוה):
"What will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliyezer of Dammesek (דּמּשׂק)?
15:3 And Avram said, See, to me You have given no seed: and, indeed, one born in my house is my heir.
15:4 And behold, Devar YHWH (יהוה) came to him, saying, "This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir."
15:5 Then He brought him outside and said, "Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be."
15:6 And he believed in YHWH (יהוה), and He accounted it to him for tzedakah (righteousness).
ANI YHWH (יהוה) that brought you out of Ur Kasdim, to give you this land to inherit it.
15:8 And he said, Adonay (אדני) YHWH (יהוה), whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?
15:9 And He said to him:
Take me an heifer(eglah) of three years old, and a she goat (ez) of three years old, and a ram(ayil) of three years old, and a turtledove (tor), and a young pigeon(gozal).
15:10 And he took to him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
15:11 And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Avram drove them away.
15:12 And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Avram; and, behold, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.
15:13 And HE said to Avram:
Know of a surety that your zera (descendants) shall be a stranger in a land [that is] not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
15:14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.
15:15 Now as for you, you shall go to your avot in shalom; you shall be buried at a good old age.
15:16But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Emori is not yet complete."
15:17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, hinnei a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
15:18 In the same day YHWH (יהוה) made a Brit with Avram, saying:
"to your zera (descendants) have I given this land, from the river of Mitzrayim to the great river, the river Perat (Euphrates):
15:19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
15:20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Refa'im,
15:21 And the Emori, and the Kenaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Yevusites.
The Covenant - Brit - is mention 12X in this Chapter it is the rendering of a Hebrew word meaning a "covenant" or agreement (from a verb signifying "to cut or divide," The Greek word Diatheke G1242 - agreement n arrangement - 1 Kefa 3:20 - 2 Kefa 2:5 "spare not" but "save". Beresheet 6:18 first occurance of the word "Brit" "I will establish My Covenant"
Abraham's Children: Race, Identity, and the DNA of the Chosen People (Hardcover)
Khazaria.com - History of Jewish Khazars, Khazar Turk, Khazarian Jews
ּרמשׂק / דּוּמשׂק / דּמּשׂק-Damasek silent is the sackcloth weaver” An ancient trading city, capital of Syria, located in the plain east of Hermon, 130 (205 kilometers) miles northeast of Yerushalayim
According to the ancient Eastern manner of making a covenant, both the contracting parties passed through the divided pieces of the slain animals, thus symbolically attesting that they pledged their very lives to the fulfillment of the engagement they made (see Yerimeyahu 34:18-19). Now in Beresheet 15, Hashem alone, whose presence was symbolized by the smoking furnace and lamp of fire, passed through the midst of the pieces of the slain animals, while Avram was simply a spectator of this wonderful exhibition of Hashem's free grace.
This signified that it was an unconditional covenant, dependent for fulfillment on Hashem alone.
According to another view of this passage, the sacrificial pieces represent the nation of Yisrael.
The vultures speak of the Gentile nations. The land that is not theirs, of course, is Egypt. Yisrael would be delivered from Mitzrites bondage and return to Kenaan in the fourth generation.
The smoking oven and the burning torch describe the national destiny of Israel—suffering and witness-bearing.