Genesis 15:9--What About That Bird?

ESV: "He said to him, 'Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.'"

NWT 2013: "He replied to him: 'Take for me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.'"

Brenton LXX: "And he said to him, Take for me an heifer in her third year, and a she-goat in her third year, and a ram in his third year, and a dove and a pigeon."

Robert Alter translates Gen. 15:9: "a young pigeon"

Also see http://classic.net.bible.org/verse.php?book=Gen&chapter=15&verse=9

Those translations decidely indicate that a pigeon is being brought/taken for sacrifice, not divided from its young.

Furthermore, a dove/pigeon is mentioned within sacrificial contexts many times (Lev. 1:3, 14; 5:7, 11; 9:3).

Therefore, E.A. Speiser (Genesis, page 113) writes concerning Gen. 15:9:

"Lastly, turtledoves and pigeons are cited repeatedly among the ritual provisions of Leviticus; see especially xiv 22; hence the above 'young pigeons' to render a Heb. noun that normally means 'young bird(s).'"

Nahum Sarna: "a young bird Hebrew gozal appears again only in Deuteronomy 32:11 as the young of an eagle. Here it probably is a pigeon since this bird is usually paired with the turtledove.15"

Footnote 15 above from Sarna: "Cf. Gen. R. 44:17, Targ. Onk., LXX: 'a pigeon.' For parallel tor, cf. Lev. 1:14; 5:7, 11; etc.

You might also find something worth reading here: https://www.academia.edu/25960731/COVENANT_MAKING_IN_GENESIS_15_9-18_IN_THE_CONTEXT_OF_ARCHEOLOGY_AND_YORUBA_WORLD_VIEW_-_Olugbenga_Olagunju

See also Christopher Begg, “The Birds in Genesis 15, 9-10,” BN 36 (1987): 7-11.

BN stands for Biblischen Notizen.