Genesis 20–24

SARAH RESCUED FROM ABIMELECH

20From there Abraham traveled to the region of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was staying in Gerar,^{c 2}Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.”^d So King Abimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.

³But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”^C

⁴Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, “Lord, would you destroy a nation even though it is innocent? ⁵Didn’t he himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I did this with a clear conscience^D and clean^E hands.”

⁶Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience.^F I have also kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I have not let you touch her. ⁷Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet,^e and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will certainly die, you and all who are yours.”

⁸Early in the morning Abimelech got up, called all his servants together, and personally^G told them all these things, and the men were terrified.

⁹Then Abimelech called Abraham in and said to him, “What have you done to us? How did I sin against you that you have brought such enormous guilt on me and on my kingdom? You have done things to me that should never be done.”^{f 10}Abimelech also asked Abraham, “What made you do this?”

¹¹Abraham replied, “I thought, ‘There is absolutely no fear of God in this place.^g They will kill me because of my wife.’ ¹²Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. ¹³So when God had me wander from my father’s house,^h I said to her: Show your loyalty to me wherever we go and say about me, ‘He’s my brother.’ ”ⁱ

¹⁴Then Abimelech took flocks and herds and male and female slaves, gave them to Abraham, and returned his wife Sarah to him. ¹⁵Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you.^j Settle wherever you want.”^{A 16}And he said to Sarah, “Look, I am giving your brother one thousand pieces of silver. It is a verification of your honor^B to all who are with you. You are fully vindicated.”

¹⁷Then Abraham prayed to God,^k and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female slaves so that they could bear children, ¹⁸for the Lord had completely closed all the wombs in Abimelech’s household on account of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

THE BIRTH OF ISAAC

21The Lord came to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised.^{l 2}Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time God had told him.^{m 3}Abraham named his son who was born to him—the one Sarah bore to him—Isaac.^{n 4}When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him.^{o 5}Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.^p

⁶Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me.”^{q 7}She also said, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne a son for him^D in his old age.”

HAGAR AND ISHMAEL SENT AWAY

⁸The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned. ⁹But Sarah saw the son mocking—the one Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham.^{a 10}So she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be a coheir with my son Isaac!”^b

¹¹This was very distressing to^E Abraham because of his son. ¹²But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed^F about the boy and about your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac,^{c 13}and I will also make a nation of the slave’s son^d because he is your offspring.”

¹⁴Early in the morning Abraham got up, took bread and a waterskin, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her and the boy away. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beer-sheba. ¹⁵When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes ¹⁶and went and sat at a distance, about a bowshot away, for she said, “I can’t bear to watch the boy die!” While she sat at a distance, she^G wept loudly.^e

¹⁷God heard the boy crying, and the^H angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the boy crying from the place where he is. ¹⁸Get up, help the boy up, and grasp his hand, for I will make him a great nation.” ¹⁹Then God opened her eyes,^f and she saw a well. So she went and filled the waterskin and gave the boy a drink. ²⁰God was with the boy, and he grew; he settled in the wilderness and became an archer. ²¹He settled in the Wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

ABRAHAM’S COVENANT WITH ABIMELECH

²²At that time Abimelech, accompanied by Phicol the commander of his army,^g said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do.^{h 23}Swear to me by God here and now, that you will not break an agreement with me or with my children and descendants. As I have been loyal to you, so you will be loyal to me and to the country where you are a resident alien.”

²⁴And Abraham said, “I swear it.” ²⁵But Abraham complained to Abimelech because of the well that Abimelech’s servants had seized.ⁱ

²⁶Abimelech replied, “I don’t know who did this thing. You didn’t report anything to me, so I hadn’t heard about it until today.”

²⁷Abraham took flocks and herds and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.^{j 28}Abraham separated seven ewe lambs from the flock. ²⁹And Abimelech said to Abraham, “Why have you separated these seven ewe lambs?”

³⁰He replied, “You are to accept the seven ewe lambs from me so that this act^A will serve as my witness that I dug this well.” ³¹Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba^Bk because it was there that the two of them swore an oath. ³²After they had made a covenant at Beer-sheba, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, left and returned to the land of the Philistines.

³³Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.^{l 34}And Abraham lived as an alien in the land of the Philistines for many days.

THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC

22After these things God tested Abraham^m and said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he answered.

²“Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love,ⁿ go to the land of Moriah,^o and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

³So Abraham got up early in the morning,^p saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. ⁴On the third day^q Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” ⁶Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac.^r In his hand he took the fire and the knife,^s and the two of them walked on together.

⁷Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.”

And he replied, “Here I am, my son.”

Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

⁸Abraham answered, “God himself will provide^At the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together.

⁹When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac^B and placed him on the altar^a on top of the wood. ¹⁰Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.

¹¹But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”

He replied, “Here I am.”

¹²Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”^{b 13}Abraham looked up and saw a ram^C caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. ¹⁴And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide,^D so today it is said, “It will be provided^E on the Lord’s mountain.”

¹⁵Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven ¹⁶and said, “By myself I have sworn,”^c this is the Lord’s declaration: “Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son, ¹⁷I will indeed bless you^d and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky^e and the sand on the seashore.^f Your offspring will possess the city gates of their^F enemies.^{g 18}And all the nations of the earth will be blessed^G by your offspring^h because you have obeyed my command.”

¹⁹Abraham went back to his young men, and they got up and went together to Beer-sheba. And Abraham settled in Beer-sheba.

REBEKAH’S FAMILY

²⁰Now after these things Abraham was told, “Milcah also has borne sons to your brother Nahor:^{i 21}Uz his firstborn, his brother Buz, Kemuel the father of Aram, ²²Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” ²³And Bethuel fathered Rebekah.^j Milcah bore these eight to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. ²⁴His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

SARAH’S BURIAL

23Now Sarah lived 127 years; these were all the years of her life. ²Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron^k) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

³When Abraham got up from beside his dead wife, he spoke to the Hethites: ⁴“I am an alien residing among you.^l Give me burial property among you so that I can bury my dead.”^Hm

⁵The Hethites replied to Abraham,^{I 6}“Listen to us, my lord. You are a prince of God^J among us. Bury your dead in our finest burial place.^K None of us will withhold from you his burial place for burying your dead.”

⁷Then Abraham rose and bowed down to…