“Passed between the halves”
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. (Genesis 15:17 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A strange, eerie ritual with fire moving among dead animals.
The cultural key
This is covenant-making in its rawest ancient form. The Hebrew idiom for making a treaty is literally to 'cut' a covenant (karat berit), because animals were cut in half and the parties walked the bloody path between the pieces, calling down the same fate on themselves should they break their word (Jeremiah 34:18 spells this out). The astonishing move here is who walks: Abram sleeps, and only God, appearing as a smoking firepot and torch, passes between the halves. God alone swears the self-cursing oath.
Recovered meaning
God does not ask Abram to guarantee the covenant; He guarantees it Himself, walking the death-path alone. The one party who cannot fail takes on the penalty for both, staking His own life on a promise to a sleeping man.