According to the Old Testament

Old Testament

The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...

, The covenant of the pieces or covenant between the parts (Hebrew: ברית בין הבתרים) was a seminal event in the lives of the Patriarchs

Patriarchs (Bible)

The Patriarchs of the Bible, when narrowly defined, are Abraham, the ancestor of all the Abrahamic nations; his son Isaac, the ancestor of the nations surrounding Israel/Judah; and Isaac's son Jacob, also named Israel, the ancestor of the Israelites...

 of the Israelites. In this seminal event God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

 revealed himself to Abraham

Abraham

Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...

 and made a covenant

Covenant (biblical)

A biblical covenant is an agreement found in the Bible between God and His people in which God makes specific promises and demands. It is the customary word used to translate the Hebrew word berith. It it is used in the Tanakh 286 times . All Abrahamic religions consider the Biblical covenant...

 with him (in the site known nowadays as Mount Betarim

Mount Betarim

Mount Betarim is one of the peaks of Mount Dov . According to one Jewish tradition this is the site of The covenant of the pieces between Abraham and God. According to Muslim tradition, this is the site in which an event occurred, which is described in the Qur'an, where God commanded Abraham to...

), in which God announced to Abraham that his decendents would eventually inherit the Land of Israel

Land of Israel

The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...

.

This was the first of a series of covenants made between God and the Patriarchs

Patriarchs (Bible)

The Patriarchs of the Bible, when narrowly defined, are Abraham, the ancestor of all the Abrahamic nations; his son Isaac, the ancestor of the nations surrounding Israel/Judah; and Isaac's son Jacob, also named Israel, the ancestor of the Israelites...

.

Biblical narrative

According to the biblical story, in Abram’s most important encounter is recorded when the made a covenant with him. The day started with a vision where Abram expressed his concerns about being childless. God then reminds him of his original promise to make him a father of a “great nation” and then revealed that he would have a son born to him.

Later that day, at the drawing of the evening, Abram fell into a deep sleep where he encountered God again. God then prophesied to Abram that the nation born to him would be removed to another land where they must be trialed for four hundred years and afterward, they would be greatly blessed with many possessions and occupy their own land. This prophecy was that of the Israelites in subjection to Egypt, for four hundred years, before returning back to Canaan to claim it as their own. It was at this drawing of the night hour that Abram entered into a covenant with Yahweh who declared all of the regions of land that his offspring would claim:


The covenant was formalized as God commanded Abraham to divide livestock and poultry into two pieces.