Genesis 15–17

God’s Covenant with Abram

15After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ^c“Fear not, Abram, I am ^dyour shield; your reward shall be very great.” ²But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue¹ childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and ^ea member of my household will be my heir.” ⁴And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; ^fyour very own son² shall be your heir.” ⁵And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and ^gnumber the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, ^h“So shall your offspring be.” ⁶And ⁱhe believed the Lord, and ^jhe counted it to him as righteousness.

⁷And he said to him, “I am the Lord who ^kbrought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans ^lto give you this land to possess.” ⁸But he said, “O Lord God, ^mhow am I to know that I shall possess it?” ⁹He 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.” ¹⁰And he brought him all these, ⁿcut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But ^ohe did not cut the birds in half. ¹¹And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹²As the sun was going down, a ^pdeep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. ¹³Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain ^qthat your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and ^rthey will be afflicted for ^sfour hundred years. ¹⁴But ^tI will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward ^uthey shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; ^vyou shall be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for ^wthe iniquity of the Amorites ^xis not yet complete.”

¹⁷When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. ¹⁸On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ^y“To your offspring I give³ this land, from ^zthe river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, ¹⁹the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Sarai and Hagar

16^aNow Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was ^bHagar. ²And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children¹ by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. ³So, after Abram ^chad lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. ⁴And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, ^dshe looked with contempt on her mistress.^{2 5}And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May ^ethe Lord judge between you and me!” ⁶But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.

⁷The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to ^fShur. ⁸And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” ⁹The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” ¹⁰The angel of the Lord also said to her, ^g“I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” ¹¹And the angel of the Lord said to her,

“Behold, you are pregnant

and shall bear a son.

You shall call his name Ishmael,³

^hbecause the Lord has listened to your affliction.

¹²He shall be ⁱa wild donkey of a man,

his hand against everyone

and everyone’s hand against him,

and he shall dwell ^jover against all his kinsmen.”

¹³So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,”⁴ for she said, ^k“Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”^{5 14}Therefore the well was called ^lBeer-lahai-roi;⁶ it lies between ^mKadesh and Bered.

¹⁵And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. ¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

Abraham and the Covenant of Circumcision

17When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty;¹ walk before me, and be ⁿblameless, ²that I may make my covenant between me and you, and ^omay multiply you greatly.” ³Then Abram ^pfell on his face. And God said to him, ⁴“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be ^qthe father of a multitude of nations. ⁵No longer shall your name be called Abram,² but ^ryour name shall be Abraham,^{3 s}for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. ⁶I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make ^tyou into nations, and ^ukings shall come from you. ⁷And I will ^vestablish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, ^wto be God to you and to your offspring after you. ⁸And ^xI will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and ^yI will be their God.”

⁹And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. ¹⁰This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. ¹¹You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a ^zsign of the covenant between me and you. ¹²He who is ^aeight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or ^bbought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, ¹³both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. ¹⁴Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

Isaac’s Birth Promised

¹⁵And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah⁴ shall be her name. ¹⁶I will bless her, and moreover, I will ^cgive⁵ you a son by her. I will bless her, and ^dshe shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” ¹⁷Then Abraham ^efell on his face ^fand laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” ¹⁸And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” ¹⁹God said, “No, but ^gSarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name ^hIsaac.⁶ I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. ²⁰As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and ⁱmultiply him greatly. He ^jshall father twelve princes, and ^kI will make him into a great nation. ²¹But ^lI will establish my covenant with Isaac, ^mwhom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

²²When he had finished talking with him, ⁿGod went up from Abraham. ²³Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. ²⁴Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. ²⁵And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. ²⁶That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. ²⁷And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.