Genesis 15–17

God’s Agreement with Abram

15After these things happened, the Lord spoke his word to Abram in a vision: “Abram, don’t be afraid. I will defend you, and I will give you a great reward.”

²But Abram said, “Lord God, what can you give me? I have no son, so my slave Eliezer from Damascus will get everything I own after I die.” ³Abram said, “Look, you have given me no son, so a slave born in my house will inherit everything I have.”

⁴Then the Lord spoke his word to Abram: “He will not be the one to inherit what you have. You will have a son of your own who will inherit what you have.”

⁵Then God led Abram outside and said, “Look at the sky. There are so many stars you cannot count them. Your descendants also will be too many to count.”

⁶Abram believed the Lord. And the Lord accepted Abram’s faith, and that faith made him right with God.

⁷God said to Abram, “I am the Lord who led you out of Ur of Babylonia so that I could give you this land to own.”

⁸But Abram said, “Lord God, how can I be sure that I will own this land?”

⁹The Lord said to Abram, “Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old goat, a three-year-old male sheep, a dove, and a young pigeon.”

¹⁰Abram brought them all to God. Then Abram killed the animals and cut each of them into two pieces, laying each half opposite the other half. But he did not cut the birds in half. ¹¹Later, large birds flew down to eat the animals, but Abram chased them away.

¹²As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep. While he was asleep, a very terrible darkness came. ¹³Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers and travel in a land they don’t own. The people there will make them slaves and be cruel to them for four hundred years. ¹⁴But I will punish the nation where they are slaves. Then your descendants will leave that land, taking great wealth with them. ¹⁵And you, Abram, will die in peace and will be buried at an old age. ¹⁶After your great-great-grandchildren are born, your people will come to this land again. It will take that long, because I am not yet going to punish the Amorites for their evil behavior.”

¹⁷After the sun went down, it was very dark. Suddenly a smoking firepot and a blazing torch passed between the halves of the dead animals. ^{n 18}So on that day the Lord made an agreement with Abram and said, “I will give to your descendants the land between the river of Egypt and the great river Euphrates. ¹⁹This is the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, ²¹Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”

Ishmael Is Born

16Sarai, Abram’s wife, had no children, but she had a slave girl from Egypt named Hagar. ²Sarai said to Abram, “Look, the Lord has not allowed me to have children, so have sexual relations with my slave girl. If she has a child, maybe I can have my own family through her.”

Abram did what Sarai said. ³It was after he had lived ten years in Canaan that Sarai gave Hagar to her husband Abram. (Hagar was her slave girl from Egypt.)

⁴Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar learned she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai badly. ⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is your fault. I gave my slave girl to you, and when she became pregnant, she began to treat me badly. Let the Lord decide who is right—you or me.”

⁶But Abram said to Sarai, “You are Hagar’s mistress. Do anything you want to her.” Then Sarai was hard on Hagar, and Hagar ran away.

⁷The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the desert, by the road to Shur. ⁸The angel said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave girl, where have you come from? Where are you going?”

Hagar answered, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.”

⁹The angel of the Lord said to her, “Go home to your mistress and obey her.” ¹⁰The angel also said, “I will give you so many descendants they cannot be counted.”

¹¹The angel added,

“You are now pregnant,

and you will have a son.

You will name him Ishmael, ⁿ

because the Lord has heard your cries.

¹²Ishmael will be like a wild donkey.

He will be against everyone,

and everyone will be against him.

He will attack all his brothers.”

¹³The slave girl gave a name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are ‘God who sees me,’ ” because she said to herself, “Have I really seen God who sees me?” ¹⁴So the well there, between Kadesh and Bered, was called Beer Lahai Roi. ⁿ

¹⁵Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram, and Abram named him Ishmael. ¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.

Proof of the Agreement

17When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Obey me and do what is right. ²I will make an agreement between us, and I will make you the ancestor of many people.”

³Then Abram bowed facedown on the ground. God said to him, ⁴“I am making my agreement with you: I will make you the father of many nations. ⁵I am changing your name from Abram ⁿ to Abraham ⁿ because I am making you a father of many nations. ⁶I will give you many descendants. New nations will be born from you, and kings will come from you. ⁷And I will make an agreement between me and you and all your descendants from now on: I will be your God and the God of all your descendants. ⁸You live in the land of Canaan now as a stranger, but I will give you and your descendants all this land forever. And I will be the God of your descendants.”

⁹Then God said to Abraham, “You and your descendants must keep this agreement from now on. ¹⁰This is my agreement with you and all your descendants, which you must obey: Every male among you must be circumcised. ¹¹Cut away your foreskin to show that you are prepared to follow the agreement between me and you. ¹²From now on when a baby boy is eight days old, you will circumcise him. This includes any boy born among your people or any who is your slave, who is not one of your descendants. ¹³Circumcise every baby boy whether he is born in your family or bought as a slave. Your bodies will be marked to show that you are part of my agreement that lasts forever. ¹⁴Any male who is not circumcised will be cut off from his people, because he has broken my agreement.”

Isaac—the Promised Son

¹⁵God said to Abraham, “I will change the name of Sarai, ⁿ your wife, to Sarah. ^{n 16}I will bless her and give her a son, and you will be the father. She will be the mother of many nations. Kings of nations will come from her.”

¹⁷Abraham bowed facedown on the ground and laughed. He said to himself, “Can a man have a child when he is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth to a child when she is ninety?” ¹⁸Then Abraham said to God, “Please let Ishmael be the son you promised.”

¹⁹God said, “No, Sarah your wife will have a son, and you will name him Isaac. ⁿ I will make my agreement with him to be an agreement that continues forever with all his descendants.

²⁰“As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will bless him and give him many descendants. And I will cause their numbers to grow greatly. He will be the father of twelve great leaders, and I will make him into a great nation. ²¹But I will make my agreement with Isaac, the son whom Sarah will have at this same time next year.” ²²After God finished talking with Abraham, God rose and left him.

²³Then Abraham gathered Ishmael, all the males born in his camp, and the slaves he had bought. So that day Abraham circumcised every man and boy in his camp as God had told him to do. ²⁴Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised. ²⁵And Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he was circumcised. ²⁶Abraham and his son were circumcised on the same day. ²⁷Also on that day all the men in Abraham’s camp were circumcised, including all those born in his camp and all the slaves he had bought from other nations.