Genesis 12-17

Genesis 12

¹Now the Lord said to Abram, Go out from your country and from your family and from your father's house, into the land to which I will be your guide:

²And I will make of you a great nation, blessing you and making your name great; and you will be a blessing:

³To them who are good to you will I give blessing, and on him who does you wrong will I put my curse: and you will become a name of blessing to all the families of the earth.

⁴So Abram went as the Lord had said to him, and Lot went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he went away from Haran.

⁵And Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and all their goods and the servants which they had got in Haran, and they went out to go to the land of Canaan.

⁶And Abram went through the land till he came to Shechem, to the holy tree of Moreh. At that time, the Canaanites were still living in the land.

⁷And the Lord came to Abram, and said, I will give all this land to your seed; then Abram made an altar there to the Lord who had let himself be seen by him.

⁸And moving on from there to the mountain on the east of Beth-el, he put up his tent, having Beth-el on the west and Ai on the east: and there he made an altar and gave worship to the name of the Lord.

⁹And he went on, journeying still to the South.

¹⁰And because there was little food to be had in that land, he went down into Egypt.

¹¹Now when he came near to Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, Truly, you are a fair woman and beautiful to the eye;

¹²And I am certain that when the men of Egypt see you, they will say, This is his wife: and they will put me to death and keep you.

¹³Say, then, that you are my sister, and so it will be well with me because of you, and my life will be kept safe on your account.

¹⁴And so it was that when Abram came into Egypt, the men of Egypt, looking on the woman, saw that she was fair.

¹⁵And Pharaoh's great men, having seen her, said words in praise of her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh's house.

¹⁶And because of her, he was good to Abram, and he had sheep and oxen and asses, and men-servants and women-servants, and camels.

¹⁷And the Lord sent great troubles on Pharaoh's house because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

¹⁸Then Pharaoh sent for Abram, and said, What have you done to me? why did you not say that she was your wife?

¹⁹Why did you say that she was your sister? so that I took her for my wife: now, take your wife and go on your way.

²⁰And Pharaoh gave orders to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and all he had.

Genesis 13

¹And Abram went up out of Egypt with his wife and all he had, and Lot with him, and they came in to the South.

²Now Abram had great wealth of cattle and silver and gold.

³And travelling on from the South, he came to Beth-el, to the place where his tent had been before, between Beth-el and Ai;

⁴To the place where he had made his first altar, and there Abram gave worship to the name of the Lord.

⁵And Lot, who went with him, had flocks and herds and tents;

⁶So that the land was not wide enough for the two of them: their property was so great that there was not room for them together.

⁷And there was an argument between the keepers of Abram's cattle and the keepers of Lot's cattle: at that time the Canaanites and Perizzites were still living in the land.

⁸Then Abram said to Lot, Let there be no argument between me and you, and between my herdmen and your herdmen, for we are brothers.

⁹Is not all the land before you? then let us go our separate ways: if you go to the left, I will go to the right; or if you take the right, I will go to the left.

¹⁰And Lot, lifting up his eyes and looking an the valley of Jordan, saw that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord had sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah; it was like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, on the way to Zoar.

¹¹So Lot took for himself all the valley of Jordan, and went to the east, and they were parted from one another.

¹²Abram went on living in the land of Canaan, and Lot went to the lowland towns, moving his tent as far as Sodom.

¹³Now the men of Sodom were evil, and great sinners before the Lord.

¹⁴And the Lord had said to Abram, after Lot was parted from him, From this place where you are take a look to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west:

¹⁵For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your seed for ever.

¹⁶And I will make your children like the dust of the earth, so that if the dust of the earth may be numbered, then will your children be numbered.

¹⁷Come, go through all the land from one end to the other for I will give it to you.

¹⁸And Abram, moving his tent, came and made his living-place by the holy tree of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and made an altar there to the Lord.

Genesis 14

¹Now in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim,

²They made war with Bera, king of Sodom, and with Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, and Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (which is Zoar).

³All these came together in the valley of Siddim (which is the Salt Sea).

⁴For twelve years they were under the rule of Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they put off his control.

⁵And in the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings who were on his side, overcame the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim,

⁶And the Horites in their mountain Seir, driving them as far as El-paran, which is near the waste land.

⁷Then they came back to En-mishpat (which is Kadesh), making waste all the country of the Amalekites and of the Amorites living in Hazazon-tamar.

⁸And the king of Sodom with the king of Gomorrah and the king of Admah and the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is Zoar), went out, and put their forces in position in the valley of Siddim,

⁹Against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim, and Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch, king of Ellasar: four kings against the five.

¹⁰Now the valley of Siddim was full of holes of sticky earth; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah were put to flight and came to their end there, but the rest got away to the mountain.

¹¹And the four kings took all the goods and food from Sodom and Gomorrah and went on their way.

¹²And in addition they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who was living in Sodom, and all his goods.

¹³And one who had got away from the fight came and gave word of it to Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the holy tree of Mamre, the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and Aner, who were friends of Abram.

¹⁴And Abram, hearing that his brother's son had been made a prisoner, took a band of his trained men, three hundred and eighteen of them, sons of his house, and went after them as far as Dan.

¹⁵And separating his forces by night, he overcame them, putting them to flight and going after them as far as Hobah, which is on the north side of Damascus.

¹⁶And he got back all the goods, and Lot, his brother's son, with his goods and the women and the people.

¹⁷And when he was coming back after putting to flight Chedorlaomer and the other kings, he had a meeting with the king of Sodom in the valley of Shaveh, that is, the King's Valley.

¹⁸And Melchizedek, king of Salem, the priest of the Most High God, took bread and wine,

¹⁹And blessing him, said, May the blessing of the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth, be on Abram:

²⁰And let the Most High God be praised, who has given into your hands those who were against you. Then Abram gave him a tenth of all the goods he had taken.

²¹And the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the prisoners and take the goods for yourself.

²²But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have taken an oath to the Lord, the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth,

²³That I will not take so much as a thread or the cord of a shoe of yours; so that you may not say, I have given wealth to Abram:

²⁴Give me nothing but the food which the fighting-men who went with me have had; but let Aner and Eshcol and Mamre have their part of the goods.

Genesis 15

¹After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Have no fear, Abram: I will keep you safe, and great will be your reward.

²And Abram said, What will you give me? for I have no child and this Eliezer of Damascus will have all my wealth after me.

³And Abram said, You have given me no child, and a servant in my house will get the heritage.

⁴Then said the Lord, This man will not get the heritage, but a son of your body will have your property after you.

⁵And he took him out into the open air, and said to him, Let your eyes be lifted to heaven, and see if the stars may be numbered; even so will your seed be.

⁶And he had faith in the Lord, and it was put to his account as righteousness.

⁷And he said to him, I am the Lord, who took you from Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land for your heritage.

⁸And he said, O Lord God, how may I be certain that it will be mine?

⁹And he said, Take a young cow of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a sheep of three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon.

¹⁰All these he took, cutting them in two and putting one half opposite the other, but not cutting the birds in two.

¹¹And evil birds came down on the bodies, but Abram sent them away.

¹²Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep came on Abram, and a dark cloud of fear.

¹³And he said to Abram, Truly, your seed will be living in a land which is not theirs, as servants to a people who will be cruel to them for four hundred years;

¹⁴But I will be the judge of that nation whose servants they are, and they will come out from among them with great wealth.

¹⁵As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace; at the end of a long life you will be put in your last resting-place.

¹⁶And in the fourth generation they will come back here; for at present the sin of the Amorite is not full.

¹⁷Then when the sun went down and it was dark, he saw a smoking fire and a flaming light which went between the parts of the bodies.

¹⁸In that day the Lord made an agreement with Abram, and said, To your seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:

¹⁹The Kenite, the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite,

²⁰And the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim,

²¹And the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.

Genesis 16

¹Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had given him no children; and she had a servant, a woman of Egypt whose name was Hagar.

²And Sarai said to Abram, See, the Lord has not let me have children; go in to my servant, for I may get a family through her. And Abram did as Sarai said.

³So after Abram had been living for ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian servant, and gave her to Abram for his wife.

⁴And he went in to Hagar and she became with child, and when she saw that she was with child, she no longer had any respect for her master's wife.

⁵And Sarai said to Abram, May my wrong be on you: I gave you my servant for your wife and when she saw that she was with child, she no longer had any respect for me: may the Lord be judge between you and me.

⁶And Abram said, The woman is in your power; do with her whatever seems good to you. And Sarai was cruel to her, so that she went running away from her.

⁷And an angel of the Lord came to her by a fountain of water in the waste land, by the fountain on the way to Shur.

⁸And he said, Hagar, Sarai's servant, where have you come from and where are you going? And she said, I am running away from Sarai, my master's wife.

⁹And the angel said to her, Go back, and put yourself under her authority.

¹⁰And the angel of the Lord said, Your seed will be greatly increased so that it may not be numbered.

¹¹And the angel of the Lord said, See, you are with child and will give birth to a son, to whom you will give the name Ishmael, because the ears of the Lord were open to your sorrow.

¹²And he will be like a mountain ass among men; his hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him, and he will keep his place against all his brothers.

¹³And to the Lord who was talking with her she gave this name, You are a God who is seen; for she said, Have I not even here in the waste land had a vision of God and am still living?

¹⁴So that fountain was named, Fountain of Life and Vision: it is between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵And Hagar gave birth to a child, the son of Abram, to whom Abram gave the name of Ishmael.

¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.

Genesis 17

¹When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord came to him, and said, I am God, Ruler of all; go in my ways and be upright in all things,

²And I will make an agreement between you and me, and your offspring will be greatly increased.

³And Abram went down on his face on the earth, and the Lord God went on talking with him, and said,

⁴As for me, my agreement is made with you, and you will be the father of nations without end.

⁵No longer will your name be Abram, but Abraham, for I have made you the father of a number of nations.

⁶I will make you very fertile, so that nations will come from you and kings will be your offspring.

⁷And I will make between me and you and your seed after you through all generations, an eternal agreement to be a God to you and to your seed after you.

⁸And to you and to your seed after you, I will give the land in which you are living, all the land of Canaan for an eternal heritage; and I will be their God.

⁹And God said to Abraham, On your side, you are to keep the agreement, you and your seed after you through all generations.

¹⁰And this is the agreement which you are to keep with me, you and your seed after you: every male among you is to undergo circumcision.

¹¹In the flesh of your private parts you are to undergo it, as a mark of the agreement between me and you.

¹²Every male among you, from one generation to another, is to undergo circumcision when he is eight days old, with every servant whose birth takes place in your house, or for whom you gave money to someone of another country, and not of your seed.

¹³He who comes to birth in your house and he who is made yours for a price, all are to undergo circumcision; so that my agreement may be marked in your flesh, an agreement for all time.

¹⁴And any male who does not undergo circumcision will be cut off from his people: my agreement has been broken by him.

¹⁵And God said, As for Sarai, your wife, from now her name will be not Sarai, but Sarah.

¹⁶And I will give her a blessing so that you will have a son by her: truly my blessing will be on her, and she will be the mother of nations: kings of peoples will be her offspring.

¹⁷Then Abraham went down on his face, and laughing, said in his heart, May a man a hundred years old have a child? will Sarah, at ninety years old, give birth?

¹⁸And Abraham said to God, If only Ishmael's life might be your care!

¹⁹And God said, Not so; but Sarah, your wife, will have a son, and you will give him the name Isaac, and I will make my agreement with him for ever and with his seed after him.

²⁰As for Ishmael, I have given ear to your prayer: truly I have given him my blessing and I will make him fertile and give him great increase; he will be the father of twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation.

²¹But my agreement will be with Isaac, to whom Sarah will give birth a year from this time.

²²And having said these words, God went up from Abraham.

²³And Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all whose birth had taken place in his house, and all his servants whom he had made his for a price, every male of his house, and on that very day he gave them circumcision in the flesh of their private parts as God had said to him.

²⁴Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he underwent circumcision.

²⁵And Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he underwent circumcision.

²⁶Abraham and Ishmael, his son, underwent circumcision on that very day.

²⁷And all the men of his house, those whose birth had taken place in the house and those whom he had got for money from men of other lands, underwent circumcision with him.