Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary - Genesis 15:7-21
CRITICAL NOTES.—Genesis 15:9. Take me.] Heb. Take for me, i.e., Take and offer for me. Three years old. Denoting, say Kalisch, “the perfection of their species.” Genesis 15:10. Divided them.] In this manner animals were prepared for the ratification of a covenant. Hence the Heb. for to make a covenant is, to cut a covenant. The custom was to cut the animals intended for sacrifice in two, and then to pass between the parts (Jeremiah 34:18-19, Psalms 50:5). “It consisted in cutting the throat of... read more
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Genesis 15:11
The fowls came to devour them; whereby is signified, either, 1. The disturbance and distraction which good men are exposed to in the service of God from evil spirits and men; or rather, 2. The great peril of Abram’s posterity, who were not only torn in pieces like these sacrifices, but even the remainder of them were likely to be devoured by the Egyptians, whose king is compared to an eagle, the chief of the birds of prey, Ezekiel 17:1-24. Abram drove them away by the blast of his mouth, as the... read more