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Genesis 12:1-25:18

ABRAHAM: God's call to Abram. (Gn.12.1-9)

12¹Yahweh said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your kindred and your father's house for a country which I shall show you; ²and I shall make you a great nation, I shall bless you and make your name famous; you are to be a blessing!

³I shall bless those who bless you,
and shall curse those who curse you,
and all clans on earth will bless themselves by you.'

⁴So Abram went as Yahweh told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. ⁵Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had amassed and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set off for the land of Canaan, and arrived there. ⁶Abram passed through the country as far as the holy place at Shechem, the Oak of Moreh. The Canaanites were in the country at the time. ⁷Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, 'I shall give this country to your progeny.' And there, Abram built an altar to Yahweh who had appeared to him. ⁸From there he moved on to the mountainous district east of Bethel, where he pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh and invoked the name of Yahweh. ⁹Then Abram made his way stage by stage to the Negeb.

Abram in Egypt. (Gn.12.10-20)

¹⁰There was a famine in the country, and Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a time, since the famine in the country was severe. ¹¹When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, 'Look, I know you are a beautiful woman. ¹²When the Egyptians see you they will say, 'That is his wife,' and they will kill me but leave you alive. ¹³Therefore please tell them you are my sister, so that they may treat me well because of you and spare my life out of regard for you.' ¹⁴When Abram arrived in Egypt the Egyptians did indeed see that the woman was very beautiful. ¹⁵When Pharaoh's officials saw her they sang her praises to Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's household. ¹⁶And Abram was very well treated because of her and received flocks, oxen, donkeys, men and women slaves, she-donkeys and camels. ¹⁷But Yahweh inflicted severe plagues on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram's wife Sarai. ¹⁸So Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, 'What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she was your wife? ¹⁹Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and go!' ²⁰And Pharaoh gave his people orders about him; they sent him on his way with his wife and all his possessions.

Abram and Lot separate. (Gn.13.1-13)

13¹From Egypt Abram returned to the Negeb with his wife and all he possessed, and Lot with him. ²Abram was very rich in livestock, silver and gold. ³By stages he went from the Negeb to Bethel, where he had first pitched his tent, between Bethel and Ai, ⁴at the place where he had formerly erected the altar. There Abram invoked the name of Yahweh. ⁵Lot, who was travelling with Abram, had flocks and cattle of his own, and tents too. ⁶The land was not sufficient to accommodate them both at once, for they had too many possessions to be able to live together. ⁷Dispute broke out between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and those of Lot. (The Canaanites and Perizzites were living in the country at the time.) ⁸Accordingly Abram said to Lot, 'We do not want discord between us or between my herdsmen and yours, for we are kinsmen. ⁹Is not the whole land open before you? Go in the opposite direction to me: if you take the left, I shall go right; if you take the right, I shall go left.' ¹⁰Looking round, Lot saw all the Jordan plain, irrigated everywhere—this was before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah-like the garden of Yahweh or the land of Egypt, as far as Zoar. ¹¹So Lot chose all the Jordan plain for himself and moved off eastwards. Thus they parted company: ¹²Abram settled in the land of Canaan; Lot settled among the cities of the plain, pitching his tents on the outskirts of Sodom. ¹³Now the people of Sodom were vicious and great sinners against Yahweh.

Hebron. (Gn.13.14-18)

¹⁴Yahweh said to Abram after Lot had parted company from him, 'Look all round from where you are, to north and south, to east and west, ¹⁵for all the land within sight I shall give to you and your descendants for ever. ¹⁶I shall make your descendants like the dust on the ground; when people succeed in counting the specks of dust on the ground, then they will be able to count your descendants too! ¹⁷On your feet! Travel the length and breadth of the country, for I mean to give it to you.' ¹⁸So Abram moved his tent and went to settle at the Oak of Mamre, at Hebron, and there he built an altar to Yahweh.

Abram rescues Lot. (Gn.14.1-16)

14¹When Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedor-Laomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of the Goiim, ²made war on Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar), ³all the latter joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (now the Salt Sea). ⁴For twelve years they had been under the yoke of Chedor-Laomer, but in the thirteenth year they Revolted. ⁵In the fourteenth year Chedor-Laomer arrived and the kings who had allied themselves with him. They defeated the Rephaim at Ashteroth-Carnaim, the Zuzim at Ham, the Emim in the Plain of Kiriathaim, ⁶the Horites in the mountainous district of Seir near El-Paran, which is on the edge of the desert. ⁷Wheeling round, they came to the Spring of Judgement (that is, Kadesh); they conquered all the territory of the Amalekites and also the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-Tamar. ⁸Then the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Bela (that is, Zoar) marched out and engaged them in the Valley of Siddim: ⁹Chedor-Laomer king of Elam, Tidal king of the Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar: four kings against five. ¹⁰Now there were many bitumen wells in the Valley of Siddim, and in their flight the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fell into them, while the rest fled into the hills. ¹¹The conquerors seized all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and made off. ¹²They also took Lot (the nephew of Abram) and his possessions and made off; he had been living at Sodom. ¹³A survivor came to tell Abram, and Aner the Hebrew, who was living at the Oak of the Amorite Mamre, the brother of Eshcol; these were allies of Abram. ¹⁴When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he mustered his retainers born in his own household, numbering three hundred and eighteen, and gave chase as far as Dan. ¹⁵He and his retainers deployed against them under cover of dark, defeated them and pursued them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. ¹⁶He recaptured all the goods as well as his kinsman Lot and his possessions, together with the women and people.

Melchizedek blesses Abram. (Gn.14.17-24)

¹⁷When Abram returned from defeating Chedor-Laomer and the kings who had been on his side, the king of Sodom came to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the Valley of the King). ¹⁸Melchizedek king of Salem brought bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High. ¹⁹He pronounced this blessing:

Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
Creator of heaven and earth.
And blessed be God Most High
for putting your enemies into your clutches.

²⁰And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. ²¹The king of Sodom said to Abram, 'Give me the people and take the possessions for yourself.' ²²But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, 'I swear by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth: ²³not one thread, not one sandal strap, will I take of what is yours, for you to be able to say, 'I made Abram rich.' ²⁴For myself, nothing—except what the troops have used up, and the share due to the men who came with me, Eshcol, Aner and Mamre; let them take their share.'

God's covenant with Abraham. (Gn.15.1-21)

15¹Some time later, the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision:

Do not be afraid, Abram!
I am your shield
and shall give you a very great reward.

²'Lord Yahweh,' Abram replied, 'what use are your gifts, as I am going on my way childless? . . . ³Since you have given me no offspring,' Abram continued, 'a member of my household will be my heir.' ⁴Then Yahweh's word came to him in reply, 'Such a one will not be your heir; no, your heir will be the issue of your own body.' ⁵Then taking him outside, he said, 'Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can. Just so will your descendants be,' he told him. ⁶Abram put his faith in Yahweh and this was reckoned to him as uprightness. ⁷He then said to him, 'I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldaeans to give you this country as your possession.' ⁸'Lord Yahweh,' Abram replied, 'how can I know that I shall possess it?' ⁹He said to him, 'Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon.' ¹⁰He brought him all these, split the animals down the middle and placed each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not divide. ¹¹And whenever birds of prey swooped down on the carcases, Abram drove them off. ¹²Now, as the sun was on the point of setting, a trance fell on Abram, and a deep dark dread descended on him. ¹³Then Yahweh said to Abram, 'Know this for certain, that your descendants will be exiles in a land not their own, and be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. ¹⁴But I shall bring judgement on the nation that enslaves them and after this they will leave, with many possessions. ¹⁵For your part, you will join your ancestors in peace; you will be buried at a happy old age. ¹⁶In the fourth generation they will come back here, for until then the iniquity of the Amorites will not have reached its full extent.' ¹⁷When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passing between the animals' pieces. ¹⁸That day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram in these terms:

'To your descendants I give this country,
from the River of Egypt to the Great River,

the River Euphrates, ¹⁹the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.'

Hagar and Ishmael. (Gn.16.1-16)

16¹Abram's wife Sarai had borne him no child, but she had an Egyptian slave-girl called Hagar. ²So Sarai said to Abram, 'Listen, now! Since Yahweh has kept me from having children, go to my slave-girl. Perhaps I shall get children through her.' And Abram took Sarai's advice. ³Thus, after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan for ten years, Sarai took Hagar her Egyptian slave-girl and gave her to Abram as his wife. ⁴He went to Hagar and she conceived. And once she knew she had conceived, her mistress counted for nothing in her eyes. ⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, 'This outrage done to me is your fault! It was I who put my slave-girl into your arms but, now she knows that she has conceived, I count for nothing in her eyes. Yahweh judge between me and you!' ⁶'Very well,' Abram said to Sarai, 'your slave-girl is at your disposal. Treat her as you think fit.' Sarai accordingly treated her so badly that she ran away from her. ⁷The angel of Yahweh found her by a spring in the desert, the spring on the road to Shur. ⁸He said, 'Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?' 'I am running away from my mistress Sarai,' she replied. ⁹The angel of Yahweh said to her, 'Go back to your mistress and submit to her.' ¹⁰The angel of Yahweh further said to her, 'I shall make your descendants too numerous to be counted.' ¹¹Then the angel of Yahweh said to her:

Now, you have conceived and will bear a son,
and you shall name him Ishmael,
for Yahweh has heard your cries of distress.
¹²A wild donkey of a man he will be,
his hand against every man,
and every man's hand against him,
living his life in defiance of all his kinsmen.

¹³Hagar gave a name to Yahweh who had spoken to her, 'You are El Roi,' by which she meant, 'Did I not go on seeing here, after him who sees me?' ¹⁴This is why the well is called the well of Lahai Roi; it is between Kadesh and Bered. ¹⁵Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave his son borne by Hagar the name Ishmael. ¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

The covenant - Abraham and his household are circumcised. (Gn.17.1-27)

17¹When Abram was ninety-nine years old Yahweh appeared to him and said, 'I am El Shaddai. Live in my presence, be perfect, ²and I shall grant a covenant between myself and you, and make you very numerous.' ³And Abram bowed to the ground. God spoke to him as follows, ⁴'For my part, this is my covenant with you: you will become the father of many nations. ⁵And you are no longer to be called Abram; your name is to be Abraham, for I am making you father of many nations. ⁶I shall make you exceedingly fertile. I shall make you into nations, and your issue will be kings. ⁷And I shall maintain my covenant between myself and you, and your descendants after you, Generation after generation, as a covenant in perpetuity, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. ⁸And to you and to your descendants after you, I shall give the country where you are now immigrants, the entire land of Canaan, to own in perpetuity. And I shall be their God.' ⁹God further said to Abraham, 'You for your part must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, generation after generation. ¹⁰This is my covenant which you must keep between myself and you, and your descendants after you: every one of your males must be circumcised. ¹¹You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that will be the sign of the covenant between myself and you. ¹²As soon as he is eight days old, every one of your males, generation after generation, must be circumcised, including slaves born within the household or bought from a foreigner not of your descent. ¹³Whether born within the household or bought, they must be circumcised. My covenant must be Marked in your flesh as a covenant in perpetuity. ¹⁴The uncircumcised male, whose foreskin has not been circumcised—that person must be cut off from his people: he has broken my covenant.' ¹⁵Furthermore God said to Abraham, 'As regards your wife Sarai, you must not call her Sarai, but Sarah. ¹⁶I shall bless her and moreover give you a son by her. I shall bless her and she will become nations: kings of peoples will issue from her.' ¹⁷Abraham bowed to the ground, and he laughed, thinking to himself, 'Is a child to be born to a man one hundred years old, and will Sarah have a child at the age of ninety?' ¹⁸Abraham said to God, 'May Ishmael live in your presence! That will be enough!' ¹⁹But God replied, 'Yes, your wife Sarah will bear you a son whom you must name Isaac. And I shall maintain my covenant with him, a covenant in perpetuity, to be his God and the God of his descendants after him. ²⁰For Ishmael too I grant you your request. I hereby bless him and will make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I shall make him into a great nation. ²¹But my covenant I shall maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear you at this time next year.' ²²When he had finished speaking to Abraham, God went up from him. ²³Then Abraham took his son Ishmael, all the slaves born in his household or whom he had bought, in short all the males among the people of Abraham's household, and circumcised their foreskins that same day, as God had said to him. ²⁴Abraham was ninety-nine years old when his foreskin was circumcised. ²⁵Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when his foreskin was circumcised. ²⁶Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on the very same day, ²⁷and all the men of his household, those born in the household and those bought from foreigners, were circumcised with him.

God promises him a son. (Gn.18.1-15)

18¹Yahweh appeared to him at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting by the entrance of the tent during the hottest part of the day. ²He looked up, and there he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them, and bowed to the ground. ³'My lord,' he said, 'if I find favour with you, please do not pass your servant by. ⁴Let me have a little water brought, and you can wash your feet and have a rest under the tree. ⁵Let me fetch a little bread and you can refresh yourselves before going further, now that you have come in your servant's direction.' They replied, 'Do as you say.' ⁶Abraham hurried to the tent and said to Sarah, 'Quick, knead three measures of best flour and make loaves.' ⁷Then, running to the herd, Abraham took a fine and tender calf and gave it to the servant, who hurried to prepare it. ⁸Then taking curds, milk and the calf which had been prepared, he laid all before them, and they ate while he remained standing near them under the tree. ⁹'Where is your wife Sarah?' they asked him. 'She is in the tent,' he replied. ¹⁰Then his guest said, 'I shall come back to you next year, and then your wife Sarah will have a son.' Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him. ¹¹Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well on in years, and Sarah had ceased to have her monthly periods. ¹²So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, 'Now that I am past the age of childbearing, and my husband is an old man, is pleasure to come my way again?' ¹³But Yahweh asked Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Am I really going to have a child now that I am old?' ¹⁴Nothing is impossible for Yahweh. I shall come back to you at the same time next year and Sarah will have a son.' ¹⁵Sarah said, 'I did not laugh,' lying because she was afraid. But he replied, 'Oh yes, you did laugh.'

ABRAHAM pleads for Sodom. (Gn.18.16-33)

¹⁶From there the men set out and arrived within sight of Sodom, with Abraham accompanying them to speed them on their way. ¹⁷Now Yahweh had wondered, 'Shall I conceal from Abraham what I am going to do, ¹⁸as Abraham will become a great and powerful nation and all nations on earth will bless themselves by him? ¹⁹For I have singled him out to command his sons and his family after him to keep the way of Yahweh by doing what is upright and just, so that Yahweh can carry out for Abraham what he has promised him.' ²⁰Then Yahweh said, 'The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin is so grave, ²¹that I shall go down and see whether or not their actions are at all as the outcry reaching me would suggest. Then I shall know.' ²²While the men left there and went to Sodom, Yahweh remained in Abraham's presence. ²³Abraham stepped forward and said, 'Will you really destroy the upright with the guilty? ²⁴Suppose there are fifty upright people in the city. Will you really destroy it? Will you not spare the place for the sake of the fifty upright in it? ²⁵Do not think of doing such a thing: to put the upright to death with the guilty, so that upright and guilty fare alike! Is the judge of the whole world not to act justly?' ²⁶Yahweh replied, 'If I find fifty upright people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place because of them.' ²⁷Abraham spoke up and said, 'It is presumptuous of me to speak to the Lord, I who am dust and ashes: ²⁸Suppose the fifty upright were five short? Would you destroy the whole city because of five?' 'No,' he replied, 'I shall not destroy it if I find forty-five there.' ²⁹Abraham persisted and said, 'Suppose there are forty to be found there?' 'I shall not do it,' he replied, 'for the sake of the forty.' ³⁰Abraham said, 'I hope the Lord will not be angry if I go on: Suppose there are only thirty to be found there?' 'I shall not do it,' he replied, 'if I find thirty there.' ³¹He said, 'It is presumptuous of me to speak to the Lord: Suppose there are only twenty there?' 'I shall not destroy it,' he replied, 'for the sake of the twenty.' ³²He said, 'I trust my Lord will not be angry if I speak once more: perhaps there will only be ten.' 'I shall not destroy it,' he replied, 'for the sake of the ten.' ³³When he had finished talking to Abraham Yahweh went away, and Abraham returned home.

The sinfulness of Sodom. (Gn.19.1-11)

19¹When the two angels reached Sodom in the evening, Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. As soon as Lot saw them, he stood up to greet them, and bowed to the ground. ²'My lords,' he said, 'please come down to your servant's house to stay the night and wash your feet. Then you can make an early start on your journey.' 'No,' they said, 'we shall spend the night in the square.' ³But he pressed them so much that they went home with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking unleavened bread, and they had supper. ⁴They had not gone to bed when the house was surrounded by the townspeople, the men of Sodom both young and old, all the people without exception. ⁵Calling out to Lot they said, 'Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so that we can have intercourse with them.' ⁶Lot came out to them at the door and, having shut the door behind him, ⁷said, 'Please, brothers, do not be wicked. ⁸Look, I have two daughters who are virgins. I am ready to send them out to you, for you to treat as you please, but do nothing to these men since they are now under the protection of my roof.' ⁹But they retorted, 'Stand back! This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the Judge. Now we shall treat you worse than them.' Then they forced Lot back and moved forward to break down the door. ¹⁰But the men reached out, pulled Lot back into the house with them, and shut the door. ¹¹And they dazzled those who were at the door of the house, one and all, with a blinding light, so that they could not find the doorway.

Lot leaves Sodom. (Gn.19.12-21)

¹²The men said to Lot, 'Have you anyone else here? Your sons, your daughters and all your people in the city, take them away, ¹³for we are about to destroy this place, since the outcry to Yahweh against those in it has grown so loud that Yahweh has sent us to destroy it.' ¹⁴So Lot went off and spoke to his future sons-in-law who were to marry his daughters. 'On your feet!' he said, 'Leave this place, for Yahweh is about to destroy the city.' But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. ¹⁵When dawn broke the angels urged Lot on, 'To your feet! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.' ¹⁶And as he hesitated, the men seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters—Yahweh being merciful to him—and led him out and left him outside the city. ¹⁷When they had brought him outside, he was told, 'Flee for your life. Do not look behind you or stop anywhere on the plain. Flee to the hills or you will be swept away.' ¹⁸'Oh no, my lord!' Lot said to them, ¹⁹'You have already been very good to your servant and shown me even greater love by saving my life, but I cannot flee to the hills, or disaster will overtake me and I shall die. ²⁰That town over there is near enough to flee to, and is small. Let me flee there-after all it is only a small place—and so survive.' ²¹He replied, 'I grant you this favour too, and will not overthrow the town you speak of. ²²Hurry, flee to that one, for I cannot do anything until you reach it.' That is why the town is named Zoar. ²³The sun rose over the horizon just as Lot was entering Zoar.

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Gn.19.24-29)

²⁴Then Yahweh rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire of his own sending. ²⁵He overthrew those cities and the whole plain, with all the people living in the cities and everything that grew there. ²⁶But Lot's wife looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt. ²⁷Next morning, Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before Yahweh, ²⁸and looking towards Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole area of the plain, he saw the smoke rising from the ground like smoke from a furnace. ²⁹Thus it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he did not forget Abraham and he rescued Lot from the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities where Lot was living.

Generations - Lot. (Gn.19.30-38)

³⁰After leaving Zoar Lot settled in the hill country with his two daughters, for he dared not stay at Zoar. He lived in a cave, he and his two daughters. ³¹The elder said to the younger, 'Our father is an old man, and there is no one here to marry us in the normal way of the world. ³²Come on, let us ply our father with wine and sleep with him. In this way we can preserve the race by our father.' ³³That night they made their father drunk, and the elder slept with her father though he was unaware of her coming to bed or of her leaving. ³⁴The next day the elder said to the younger, 'Last night, I was the one who slept with our father. Let us make him drunk again tonight, and you go and sleep with him. In this way we can preserve the race by our father.' ³⁵They made their father drunk that night too, and the younger went and slept with him, though he was unaware of her coming to bed or of her leaving. ³⁶Both Lot's daughters thus became pregnant by their father. ³⁷The elder gave birth to a son whom she named Moab; and he is the ancestor of the Moabites of our own times. ³⁸The younger also gave birth to a son whom she named Ben-Ammi; and he is the ancestor of the Bene-Ammon of our own times.

Gerar - Abraham and Abimelech. (Gn.20.1-18)

20¹Abraham left there for the region of the Negeb, and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While staying in Gerar, ²Abraham said of his wife Sarah, 'She is my sister,' and Abimelech the king of Gerar had Sarah brought to him. ³But God visited Abimelech in a dream one night. 'You are to die,' he told him, 'because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.' ⁴Abimelech, however, had not gone near her; so he said, 'Lord, would you kill someone even if he is upright? ⁵Did he not tell me himself, 'She is my sister'? And she herself said, 'He is my brother.' I did this with a clear conscience and clean hands.' ⁶'Yes, I know,' God replied in the dream, 'that you did this with a clear conscience and I myself prevented you from sinning against me. That was why I did not let you touch her. ⁷Now send the man's wife back; for he is a prophet and can intercede on your behalf for your life. But understand that if you do not send her back, this means death for you and all yours.' ⁸Early next morning, Abimelech summoned his full court and told them the whole story, at which the people were very much afraid. ⁹Then summoning Abraham, Abimelech said to him, 'What have you done to us? What wrong have I done you, for you to bring such guilt on me and on my kingdom? You had no right to treat me like this.' ¹⁰Abimelech then said to Abraham, 'What possessed you to do such a thing?' ¹¹'Because', Abraham replied, 'I thought there would be no fear of God here and that I should be killed for the sake of my wife. ¹²Anyway, she really is my sister, my father's daughter though not my mother's, besides being my wife. ¹³So when God made me wander far from my father's home I said to her, 'There is an act of love you can do me: everywhere we go, say of me that I am your brother.' ' ¹⁴Abimelech took sheep, cattle, men and women slaves, and presented them to Abraham, and gave him back his wife Sarah. ¹⁵And Abimelech said, 'Look, my land is open to you. Settle wherever you please.' ¹⁶To Sarah he said, 'Look, I am giving your brother a thousand pieces of silver. This will allay suspicions about you, as far as all the people round you are concerned; you have been completely vindicated.' ¹⁷Abraham then interceded with God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his slave-girls, so that they could have children, ¹⁸for Yahweh had made all the women of Abimelech's household barren on account of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

The birth of Isaac. (Gn.21.1-8)

21¹Yahweh treated Sarah as he had said, and did what he had promised her. ²Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time God had promised. ³Abraham named the son born to him Isaac, the son to whom Sarah had given birth. ⁴Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. ⁵Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. ⁶Sarah said:

God has given me cause to laugh!
All who hear about this will laugh with me!

⁷She added:

Whoever would have told Abraham
that Sarah would nurse children!
Yet I have borne a son in his old age.

Hagar and Ishmael are sent away. (Gn.21.8-21)

⁸The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham gave a great banquet on the day Isaac was weaned. ⁹Now Sarah watched the son that Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. ¹⁰'Drive away that slave-girl and her son,' she said to Abraham, 'this slave-girl's son is not to share the inheritance with my son Isaac.' ¹¹This greatly distressed Abraham, because the slave-girl's child too was his son, ¹²but God said to him, 'Do not distress yourself on account of the boy and your slave-girl. Do whatever Sarah says, for Isaac is the one through whom your name will be carried on. ¹³But the slave-girl's son I shall also make into a great nation, for he too is your child.' ¹⁴Early next morning, Abraham took some bread and a skin of water and, giving them to Hagar, put the child on her shoulder and sent her away. She wandered off into the desert of Beersheba. ¹⁵When the skin of water was finished she abandoned the child under a bush. ¹⁶Then she went and sat down at a distance, about a bowshot away, thinking, 'I cannot bear to see the child die.' Sitting at a distance, she began to sob. ¹⁷God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven. 'What is wrong, Hagar?' he asked. 'Do not be afraid, for God has heard the boy's cry in his plight. ¹⁸Go and pick the boy up and hold him safe, for I shall make him into a great nation.' ¹⁹Then God opened Hagar's eyes and she saw a well, so she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. ²⁰God was with the boy. He grew up and made his home in the desert, and he became an archer. ²¹He made his home in the desert of Paran, and his mother got him a wife from Egypt.

Beersheba - Abraham's agreement with Abimelech. (Gn.21.22-34)

²²About then, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, 'Since God is with you in everything you do, ²³swear to me by God, here and now, that you will not act treacherously towards me or my kith and kin, but behave with the same faithful love to me and the land of which you are a guest as I have behaved to you.' ²⁴'Yes,' Abraham replied, 'I swear it.' ²⁵Abraham then reproached Abimelech about a well that Abimelech's servants had seized. ²⁶'I do not know who has done this,' Abimelech said. 'You yourself have never mentioned it to me and, for myself, I heard nothing of it till today.' ²⁷Abraham then took sheep and cattle and presented them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant. ²⁸Abraham put seven lambs of the flock on one side. ²⁹'Why have you put these seven lambs on one side?' Abimelech asked Abraham. ³⁰He replied, 'You must accept these seven lambs from me as evidence that I have dug this well.' ³¹This was why the place was called Beersheba: because there the two of them swore an oath. ³²After they had made a covenant at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, left and went back to Philistine territory. ³³And Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beersheba and there he invoked the name of Yahweh. ³⁴Abraham stayed for a long while in Philistine territory.

Isaac - God demands a sacrifice. (Gn.22.1-19)

22¹It happened some time later that God put Abraham to the test. 'Abraham, Abraham!' he called. 'Here I am,' he replied. ²God said, 'Take your son, your only son, your beloved Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, where you are to offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall point out to you.' ³Early next morning Abraham saddled his donkey and took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. He chopped wood for the burnt offering and started on his journey to the place which God had indicated to him. ⁴On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵Then Abraham said to his servants, 'Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there; we shall worship and then come back to you.' ⁶Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering, loaded it on Isaac, and carried in his own hands the fire and the knife. Then the two of them set out together. ⁷Isaac spoke to his father Abraham. 'Father?' he said. 'Yes, my son,' he replied. 'Look,' he said, 'here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?' ⁸Abraham replied, 'My son, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.' And the two of them went on together. ⁹When they arrived at the place which God had indicated to him, Abraham built an altar there, and arranged the wood. Then he bound his son and put him on the altar on top of the wood. ¹⁰Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. ¹¹But the angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven. 'Abraham, Abraham!' he said. 'Here I am,' he replied. ¹²'Do not raise your hand against the boy,' the angel said. 'Do not harm him, for now I know you fear God. You have not refused me your own beloved son.' ¹³Then looking up, Abraham saw a ram caught by its horns in a bush. Abraham took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Provides.' ¹⁵The angel of Yahweh called Abraham a second time from heaven. ¹⁶'I swear by my own self, Yahweh declares, that because you have done this, because you have not refused me your own beloved son, ¹⁷I will shower blessings on you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will gain possession of the gates of their enemies. ¹⁸All nations on earth will bless themselves by your descendants, because you have obeyed my command.' ¹⁹Abraham went back to his servants, and together they set out for Beersheba, and Abraham settled in Beersheba.

Generations - Nahor. (Gn.22.20-24)

²⁰It happened some time later that Abraham received word that Milcah, too, had now borne sons to his brother Nahor: ²¹Uz his first-born, Buz his brother, Kemuel father of Aram, ²²Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, Bethuel ²³(and Bethuel was the father of Rebekah). These were the eight children Milcah gave Nahor, Abraham's brother. ²⁴He had a concubine named Reumah, and she too had children: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maacah.

Hebron - Sarah dies. The cave of Machpelah. (Gn.23.1-20)

23¹The length of Sarah's life was a hundred and twenty-seven years. ²She died at Kiriath-Arba—now Hebron—in the land of Canaan, and Abraham proceeded to mourn and bewail her. ³Then rising from beside his dead, Abraham spoke to the Hittites, ⁴'I am a stranger resident here,' he said. 'Let me have a burial site of my own here, so that I can remove my dead for burial.' ⁵The Hittites replied to Abraham, ⁶'Please listen to us, my lord, we regard you as a prince of God; bury your dead in the best of our tombs; not one of us would refuse you his tomb for you to bury your dead.' ⁷At this, Abraham rose and bowed low to the local people, the Hittites, ⁸and pleaded with them as follows, 'If you consent to my removing my dead for burial, you must agree to intercede for me with Ephron son of Zohar, ⁹for him to let me have the cave he owns at Machpelah, which is on the edge of his field. Let him sell it to me in your presence at its full price, for a burial site of my own.' ¹⁰Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all the inhabitants of his town. ¹¹'No, my lord, listen to me,' he said. 'I give you the field and the cave in it; I make this gift in the presence of my kinsmen. Bury your dead.' ¹²Abraham bowed low to the local people ¹³and, in the hearing of the local people, replied to Ephron as follows, 'Be good enough to listen to me. I shall pay the price of the field; accept it from me and I shall bury my dead there.' ¹⁴Ephron replied to Abraham, ¹⁵'Please listen to me, my lord. What is a plot of land for four hundred shekels of silver between me and you? Bury your dead.' ¹⁶Abraham agreed to Ephron's terms, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver he had stipulated in the hearing of the Hittites, namely four hundred shekels of silver, according to the current commercial rate. ¹⁷Thus Ephron's field at Machpelah, facing Mamre—the field and the cave in it and all the trees anywhere within the boundaries of the field—passed ¹⁸into Abraham's possession in the sight of the Hittites, of all the inhabitants of his town. ¹⁹And after this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre—now Hebron—in the land of Canaan. ²⁰And so the field and the cave in it passed from the Hittites into Abraham's possession as a burial site of his own.

ISAAC: Isaac and Rebecca. (Gn.24.1-67)

24¹By now Abraham was an old man, well on in years, and Yahweh had blessed Abraham in every way. ²Abraham said to the senior servant in his household, the steward of all his property, 'Place your hand under my thigh: ³I am going to make you swear by Yahweh, God of heaven and God of earth, that you will not choose a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I live ⁴but will go to my native land and my own kinsfolk to choose a wife for my son Isaac.' ⁵The servant asked him, 'What if the girl does not want to follow me to this country? Should I then take your son back to the country from which you come?' ⁶Abraham replied, 'On no account are you to take my son back there. ⁷Yahweh, God of heaven and God of earth, who took me from my father's home, and from the land of my kinsfolk, and who promised me on oath, 'I shall give this country to your descendants'-he will now send his angel ahead of you, so that you can get a wife for my son from there. ⁸If then the girl refuses to follow you, you will be quit of this oath to me. Only do not take my son back there.' ⁹And the servant placed his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham, and swore to him that he would do it. ¹⁰The servant took ten of his master's camels and, carrying all kinds of gifts from his master, set out for the city of Nahor in Aram Naharaim. ¹¹In the evening, at the time when women come out to draw water, he made the camels kneel outside the town near the well. ¹²And he said, 'Yahweh, God of my master Abraham, give me success today and show faithful love to my master Abraham. ¹³While I stand by the spring as the young women from the town come out to draw water, ¹⁴I shall say to one of the girls, 'Please lower your pitcher and let me drink.' And if she answers, 'Drink, and I shall water your camels too,' let her be the one you have decreed for your servant Isaac; by this I shall know you have shown faithful love to my master.' ¹⁵He had not finished speaking when out came Rebekah—who was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor—with a pitcher on her shoulder. ¹⁶The girl was very beautiful, and a virgin; no man had touched her. She went down to the spring, filled her pitcher and came up again. ¹⁷Running towards her, the servant said, 'Please give me a sip of water from your pitcher.' ¹⁸She replied, 'Drink, my lord,' and quickly lowered her pitcher on her arm and gave him a drink. ¹⁹When she had finished letting him drink, she said, 'I shall draw water for your camels, too, until they have had enough.' ²⁰She quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran to the well again to draw, and drew for all the camels. ²¹All the while, the man stood watching her, not daring to speak, wondering whether Yahweh had made his journey successful or not. ²²When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing half a shekel, and put it through her nose, and put two bracelets weighing ten gold shekels on her arms, ²³and said, 'Whose daughter are you? Please tell me. Is there room at your father's house for us to spend the night?' ²⁴She replied, 'I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son whom Milcah bore to Nahor.' ²⁵And she went on, 'We have plenty of straw and fodder, and room to spend the night.' ²⁶Then the man bowed down and worshipped Yahweh ²⁷saying, 'Blessed be Yahweh, God of my master Abraham, for not withholding his faithful love from my master. Yahweh has led me straight to the house of my master's brother.' ²⁸The girl ran to her mother's house to tell what had happened. ²⁹Now Rebekah had a brother called Laban, and Laban ran out to the man at the spring. ³⁰As soon as he had seen the ring and the bracelets his sister was wearing, and had heard his sister Rebekah saying, 'This is what the man said to me,' he went to the man and found him still standing by his camels at the spring. ³¹He said to him, 'Come in, blessed of Yahweh, why stay out here when I have cleared the house and made room for the camels?' ³²The man went to the house, and Laban unloaded the camels. He provided straw and fodder for the camels and water for him and his companions to wash their feet. ³³They offered him food, but he said, 'I will eat nothing before I have said what I have to say.' Laban said, 'Speak.' ³⁴He said, 'I am Abraham's servant. ³⁵Yahweh has loaded my master with blessings, and Abraham is now very rich. He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, men and women slaves, camels and donkeys. ³⁶Sarah, my master's wife, bore my master a son in his old age, and he has made over all his property to him. ³⁷My master made me take this oath, 'You are not to choose a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose country I live. ³⁸Instead, you are to go to my father's home and to my own kinsfolk to choose a wife for my son.' ³⁹I said to my master, 'Suppose the girl will not agree to come with me?' ⁴⁰and his reply was, 'Yahweh, in whose presence I have walked, will send his angel with you and make your journey successful, for you to choose a wife for my son from my own kinsfolk, from my father's house. ⁴¹Then you will be quit of my curse: if you go to my family and they refuse you, you will be quit of my curse.' ⁴²Arriving today at the spring I said, 'Yahweh, God of my master Abraham, please grant a successful outcome to the course I propose to take. ⁴³While I stand by the spring, if a girl comes out to draw water and I say to her, 'Please give me a little water to drink from your pitcher,' ⁴⁴if she replies, 'Drink by all means, and I shall draw water for your camels too,' let her be the girl whom Yahweh has decreed for my master's son.' ⁴⁵I was still saying this in my mind when Rebekah came out, her pitcher on her shoulder. She came down to the spring and drew water. I said to her, 'Please give me a drink.' ⁴⁶Quickly she lowered her pitcher saying, 'Drink, and I shall water your camels too.' ⁴⁷I asked her, 'Whose daughter are you?' She replied, 'I am the daughter of Bethuel, whom Milcah bore to Nahor.' Then I put this ring through her nose and these bracelets on her arms. ⁴⁸I bowed down and worshipped Yahweh, and I blessed Yahweh, God of my master Abraham, who had led me by a direct path to choose the daughter of my master's brother for his son. ⁴⁹Now tell me whether you are prepared to show constant and faithful love to my master; if not, say so, and I shall know what to do.' ⁵⁰Laban and Bethuel replied, 'This is from Yahweh; it is not for us to say yes or no to you. ⁵¹Rebekah is there before you. Take her and go; and let her become the wife of your master's son, as Yahweh has decreed.' ⁵²On hearing this, Abraham's servant bowed to the ground before Yahweh. ⁵³He brought out silver and gold ornaments and clothes which he gave to Rebekah; he also gave rich presents to her brother and to her mother. ⁵⁴They ate and drank, he and his companions, and spent the night there. Next morning when they were up, he said, 'Let me go back to my master.' ⁵⁵Rebekah's brother and mother replied, 'Let the girl stay with us for ten days or so; then she can go.' ⁵⁶But he replied, 'Do not delay me, since Yahweh has made my journey successful; let me leave and go back to my master.' ⁵⁷They replied, 'Let us call the girl and find out what she has to say.' ⁵⁸They called Rebekah and asked her, 'Will you go with this man?' She replied, 'I will.' ⁵⁹Accordingly they let their sister Rebekah go, with her nurse, and Abraham's servant and his men. ⁶⁰They blessed Rebekah and said to her:

Sister of ours, from you may there spring
thousands and tens of thousands!
May your descendants gain possession
of the gates of their enemies!

⁶¹And forthwith, Rebekah and her maids mounted the camels, and followed the man. The servant took Rebekah and departed. ⁶²Isaac meanwhile had come back from the well of Lahai Roi and was living in the Negeb. ⁶³While Isaac was out walking towards evening in the fields, he looked up and saw camels approaching. ⁶⁴And Rebekah looked up and saw Isaac. She jumped down from her camel, ⁶⁵and asked the servant, 'Who is that man walking through the fields towards us?' The servant replied, 'That is my master.' So she took her veil and covered herself up. ⁶⁶The servant told Isaac the whole story. ⁶⁷Then Isaac took her into his tent. He married Rebekah and made her his wife. And in his love for her, Isaac was consoled for the loss of his mother.

Generations - Abraham. (Gn.25.1-6)

25¹Abraham married another wife whose name was Keturah; ²and she bore him Zimram, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. ³Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan, and the descendants of Dedan were the Asshurites, the Letushim and the Leummim. ⁴The descendants of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida and Eldaah. All these were sons of Keturah. ⁵Abraham left all his possessions to Isaac. ⁶To the sons of his concubines Abraham made grants during his lifetime, sending them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the Land of the East.

The death of Abraham. (Gn.25.7-11)

⁷The number of years Abraham lived was a hundred and seventy-five. ⁸When Abraham had breathed his last, dying at a happy ripe age, old and full of years, he was gathered to his people. ⁹His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah facing Mamre, in the field of Ephron the Hittite son of Zohar. ¹⁰This was the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites, and Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried there. ¹¹After Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac. Isaac settled near the well of Lahai Roi.

Generations - Ishmael. (Gn.25.12-18)

¹²These are the descendants of Ishmael son of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian slave-girl. ¹³These are the names of the sons of Ishmael by name and line: Ishmael's first-born was Nebaioth; then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, ¹⁴Mishma, Dumah, Massa, ¹⁵Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. ¹⁶These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, according to their settlements and encampments, twelve chiefs of as many tribes. ¹⁷The number of years Ishmael lived was one hundred and thirty-seven. When he breathed his last and died, he was gathered to his people. ¹⁸He lived in the territory stretching from Havilah-by-Shur just outside Egypt on the way to Assyria, and he held his own against all his kinsmen.