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.
When the sun went down, and it was dark. This season was chosen for rendering more visible and distinct the impressive ceremony in the scene about to be described.
A smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In explanation of this transaction, it is necessary to observe that, on occasions of great importance, when two or more parties joined in a compact, the ancient custom was to ratify the covenant or treaty by sacrifice, which was offered in the following manner:-The carcasses of the animals to be used in the sacrificial rite were divided into halves, which were arranged on two separate altars erected opposite to each other; then the parties between whom the covenant was made passed in the intermediate space, with the severed parts of the victim lying on either side of them-a symbolical act by which they obliged themselves to the covenant by all their hopes of peace and prosperity, or imprecated the divine vengeance on their own heads in the event of their altering or violating the terms of the treaty. The scene terminated by the consumption of the sacrifice by fire.
It is an interesting fact that the burning lamp or fire is still used in the East in confirmation of a covenant; and it is still customary to invoke and appeal to the lamp of the temple as a witness (Robert's 'Oriental Customs'). That fire was a symbol of the divine presence, everyone acquainted with the Language of the Scriptures will admit. Now, in the pledge which God gave to Abram, that the promise respecting the possession of Canaan should, at the stipulated time, be accomplished, these are the solemnities described that were usually observed in the confirmation of permanent covenants. There is the sacrifice-the parts first divided and then laid, one half opposite the other-the smoking furnace, and the burning lamp, which symbolized the Divine Being passing between the parts of the sacrifice. According to these ideas, which from time immemorial have been engraven on the minds of Eastern people, the Lord Himself condescended to enter into covenant with Abram. The patriarch did not pass between the sacrifice, and the reason was, that in the transaction he was bound to nothing. He asked a sign, and God was pleased to give him a sign, by which, according to Eastern ideas, He bound Himself. The usual termination of such a solemnity was by consuming the sacrificial victim with fire.
Many writers, however, are of opinion that the whole scene described in this chapter is to be regarded in unbroken continuity, as an internal visionary one. Not only is every mark wanting which would warrant us in assuming a transition from the purely inward and spiritual sphere to the outward sphere of the senses, but the entire revelation culminates in a prophetic sleep, which also bears the character of vision. Since it was in a deep sleep that Abram saw the passing of the divine appearance through the carefully arranged portions of the sacrifice, and no reference is made either to the burning of them, as in Judges 6:21, or to any other removal, the arrangement of the sacrificial animals must also have been a purely internal one. To regard this as an outward act, we must break up the continuity of the narrative in a most arbitrary way, and not only transfer the commencement of the vision into the night, and suppose it to have lasted from 12 to 18 hours, but we must interpolate the burning of the sacrifices, etc., in a still more abitrary manner, merely for the sake of supporting the erroneous assumption that visionary procedures had no objective reality, or, at all events, less evidence of reality, than outward acts and things perceived by the senses' (Deitzsch).