Bible Strands
Genesis 15:17
When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks to Abram following the timeline of the Amorites' iniquity. The vision occurs at dusk as Abram waits for confirmation of the land promise.
The words — תַנּוּר (ta.Nur) literally means a fire pot, and עָשָׁן ('a.Shan) means smoke. These terms describe the smoking vessel that appears alongside the flaming torch.
The thread — The imagery of fire and smoke recurs in covenant and judgment contexts, such as Jeremiah 34:18’s calf-cutting ritual, Jeremiah 11:4’s iron furnace metaphor, and Judges 6:21’s fire consuming an offering. These passages track how divine presence and judgment move through or consume divided spaces.
Why it lands — The text records God alone passing between the carcass halves, demonstrating that the covenant’s fulfillment depends on divine action rather than human performance. A reader must recognize that the promise rests on God’s unilateral commitment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 34:18 And those who have transgressed My covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before Me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two in order to pass between its pieces.
- Judges 6:21 Then the angel of the LORD extended the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread. And fire flared from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight.
- Jeremiah 11:4 which I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey Me, and do everything I command you, and you will be My people, and I will be your God.’
- Exodus 3:2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw the bush ablaze with fire, but it was not consumed.
- 1 Chronicles 21:26 And there he built an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called upon the LORD, who answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
- Deuteronomy 4:20 Yet the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.
- Judges 13:20 When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown to the ground.
- 2 Samuel 22:9 Smoke rose from His nostrils, and consuming fire came from His mouth; glowing coals blazed forth.
- Isaiah 62:1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep still, until her righteousness shines like a bright light, her salvation like a blazing torch.