Genesis 20–24

CHAPTER 20

Abraham Lies to Abimelech

¹And Abraham journeyed from ^athere toward the land of ^bthe ¹Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he sojourned in ^cGerar.

²And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “^aShe is my sister.” So ^bAbimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

^3aBut God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night and said to him, “Behold, ^byou are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is ¹married.”

⁴(Now Abimelech had not come near her.) Then he said, “Lord, ^awill You kill a nation, even though righteous?

⁵“Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she ^aherself also said, ‘He is my brother.’ In ^bthe integrity of my heart and the innocence of my ¹hands I have done this.”

⁶Then God said to him in the dream, “Indeed, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also ^1aheld you back from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her.

⁷“So now, return the man’s wife, for ^ahe is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”

⁸So Abimelech arose early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their hearing; and the men were greatly afraid.

^9aThen Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And ¹how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom ^ba great sin? You have done to me ²things that ought not to be done.”

¹⁰And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you seen, that you have done this thing?”

¹¹And Abraham said, “Because I said, surely there is no ^afear of God in this place, and ^bthey will kill me because of my wife.

¹²“Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife;

¹³and it happened when ^aGod caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said to her, ‘This is ¹the lovingkindness which you will show to me: ²everywhere we go, ^bsay of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ”

^14aAbimelech then took sheep and oxen and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham and returned his wife Sarah to him.

¹⁵And Abimelech said, “^aBehold, my land is before you; ¹settle wherever it is good in your sight.”

¹⁶To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your ^abrother one thousand pieces of silver; behold, it is ¹your vindication before all who are with you, and before all you are ²cleared.”

^17aAnd Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maidservants, so that they bore children.

^18aFor Yahweh had utterly shut all the wombs of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

CHAPTER 21

Isaac Is Born

^1aNow Yahweh visited Sarah as He had said, and Yahweh did for Sarah as He had ¹promised.

^2aSo Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at ^bthe appointed time of which God had spoken to him.

³And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, ^aIsaac.

⁴Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was ^aeight days old, as God had commanded him.

⁵Now Abraham was ^aone hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

⁶And Sarah said, “God has made ^alaughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh ¹with me.”

⁷And she said, “^aWho would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

Sarah Sends Hagar Away

⁸And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

⁹And Sarah saw ^athe son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, ^1blaughing in jest.

¹⁰Therefore she said to Abraham, “^aDrive out this maidservant and her son! The son of this maidservant shall not be an heir with my son, with Isaac.”

^11aAnd the matter ¹distressed Abraham greatly because of his son.

¹²So God said to Abraham, “¹Do not be distressed because of the boy and your maidservant; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her voice, for ^athrough Isaac your seed shall be named.

¹³“And of ^athe son of the maidservant I will make a nation also, because he is your seed.”

¹⁴So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a ¹skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the child, and sent her away. So she went and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.

¹⁵When the water in the skin was finished, she ¹put the child under one of the bushes.

¹⁶Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, “Do not let me ¹see when the child dies.” And she sat opposite him and ^alifted up her voice and wept.

¹⁷Then God ^aheard the voice of the boy crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? ^bDo not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

¹⁸“Arise, lift up the boy, and hold him by ¹the hand, ^afor I will make a great nation of him.”

¹⁹Then God ^aopened her eyes, and she saw ^ba well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

^20aAnd God was with the boy, and he grew; and he ¹lived in the wilderness and was an archer.

^21aAnd he ¹lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

A Covenant with Abimelech

²²Now it happened at that time, that ^aAbimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, “^bGod is with you in all that you do;

²³so now, ^aswear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but according to the lovingkindness that I have shown you, you shall show me and the land in which you have sojourned.”

²⁴And Abraham said, “I swear it.”

²⁵But Abraham reproved Abimelech about the well of water which the servants of Abimelech ^ahad seized.

²⁶And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, nor did I hear of it ¹until today.”

²⁷So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and ^athe two of them cut a covenant.

²⁸Then Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

²⁹And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs mean, which you have set by themselves?”

³⁰He said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand so that it may be a ^awitness to me, that I dug this well.”

³¹Therefore he called that place ^aBeersheba, because there the two of them swore an oath.

³²So they cut a covenant at Beersheba; and Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, arose and returned to the land of the Philistines.

³³And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there ^ahe called upon the name of Yahweh, the ^bEverlasting God.

³⁴And Abraham sojourned ^ain the land of the Philistines for many days.

CHAPTER 22

The Offering of Isaac

¹Now it happened after these things, that ^aGod tested Abraham and said to him, “^bAbraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

²Then He said, “Take now ^ayour son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac, and ^bgo forth to the land of ^cMoriah, and offer him there as a ^dburnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”

³So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

⁴On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from a distance.

⁵And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there; and we will worship, and we will return to you.”

⁶Then Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and ^aput it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

⁷Then Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the ^alamb for the burnt offering?”

⁸And Abraham said, “God will ¹provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

⁹Then they came to ^athe place of which God had told him; and Abraham built ^bthe altar there and arranged the wood and bound his son Isaac and ^cput him on the altar, on top of the wood.

¹⁰And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

¹¹But ^athe angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

¹²And He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the boy, and do nothing to him; for now ^aI know that you ¹fear God, since you have not withheld ^byour son, your only one, from Me.”

¹³Then Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, there was a ram after it had been caught in the thicket by its horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.

¹⁴And Abraham called the name of that place ¹Yahweh Will Provide, as it is said this day, “In the mount of Yahweh ^ait will ²be provided.”

¹⁵Then the angel of Yahweh called to Abraham a second time from heaven,

¹⁶and said, “^aBy Myself I have sworn, declares Yahweh, because you have done this thing and have not spared your son, your only one,

¹⁷indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly ^amultiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as ^bthe sand which is on the seashore; and ^cyour seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.

¹⁸“^aIn your ¹seed all the nations of the earth shall ²be blessed, because you have ^blistened to My voice.”

^19aSo Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and walked together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived at Beersheba.

²⁰Now it happened after these things, that it was told to Abraham, saying, “Behold, ^aMilcah ¹also has borne children to your brother Nahor:

²¹Uz his firstborn and Buz his brother and Kemuel the father of Aram

²²and Chesed and Hazo and Pildash and Jidlaph and Bethuel.”

²³And Bethuel ¹was the father of ^aRebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.

²⁴And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, ¹also bore Tebah and Gaham and Tahash and Maacah.

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