Plate 10. The Covenant Between the Parts

The left panel depicts God’s promise to make Avram’s descendants as numerous as the stars. The second panel is split between two images. On the top, Avram smashes the idols belonging to his father Terah (a midrash), marking the first stage in his journey toward monotheism. The lower part showcases the produce of the Land of Canaan in full bloom, promising abundance and fertility. The third panel depicts the brit bein ha-betarim, Covenant Between the Parts: God instructs Avram, “Take a heifer, goat, ram, turtle dove and pigeon and divide them.” Darkness descends and God declares, “Know well that your descendants will be strangers in a land not theirs and they will serve them and afflict them for four hundred years. But I will judge that nation, and they will come out with great wealth” (Genesis 15:13-14). The fourth panel depicts the inevitable slavery predicted in the Covenant Between the Parts. At the top the Israelites cry out to God, eliciting God’s empathy and precipitating the deliverance (Exodus 2:23-25).