Genesis 15–17

God’s Covenant with Abram

15After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram ^ain a vision, saying, ^b“Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your ^cshield, ¹your exceedingly ^dgreat reward.”

^2eBut Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, ^fseeing I ²go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed ^gone ³born in my house is my heir!”

⁴And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who ^hwill come from your own body shall be your heir.” ⁵Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and ⁱcount the ^jstars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, ^k“So shall your ^ldescendants be.”

⁶And he ^mbelieved in the Lord, and He ⁿaccounted it to him for righteousness.

⁷Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who ^obrought you out of ^pUr of the Chaldeans, ^qto give you this land to inherit it.”

⁸And he said, “Lord God, ^rhow shall I know that I will inherit it?”

⁹So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰Then he brought all these to Him and ^scut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut ^tthe birds in two. ¹¹And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹²Now when the sun was going down, ^ua deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. ¹³Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly ^vthat your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and ^wthey will afflict them four hundred years. ¹⁴And also the nation whom they serve ^xI will judge; afterward ^ythey shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵Now as for you, ^zyou shall ⁴go ^ato your fathers in peace; ^byou shall be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶But ^cin the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity ^dof the Amorites ^eis not yet complete.”

¹⁷And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that ^fpassed between those pieces. ¹⁸On the same day the Lord ^gmade a covenant with Abram, saying:

^h“To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—¹⁹the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Hagar and Ishmael

16Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, ^ahad borne him no children. And she had ^ban Egyptian maidservant whose name was ^cHagar. ^2dSo Sarai said to Abram, “See now, the Lord ^ehas restrained me from bearing children. Please, ^fgo in to my maid; perhaps I shall ¹obtain children by her.” And Abram ^gheeded the voice of Sarai. ³Then Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram ^hhad dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. ⁴So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became ⁱdespised in her ²eyes.

⁵Then Sarai said to Abram, ³“My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. ^jThe Lord judge between you and me.”

^6kSo Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.” And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, ^lshe fled from her presence.

⁷Now the ^mAngel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, ⁿby the spring on the way to ^oShur. ⁸And He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”

⁹The Angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and ^psubmit yourself under her hand.” ¹⁰Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, ^q“I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.” ¹¹And the Angel of the Lord said to her:

“Behold, you are with child,

^rAnd you shall bear a son.

You shall call his name ⁴Ishmael,

Because the Lord has heard your affliction.

^12sHe shall be a wild man;

His hand shall be against every man,

And every man’s hand against him.

^tAnd he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”

¹³Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-⁵the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here ⁶seen Him ^uwho sees me?” ¹⁴Therefore the well was called ^vBeer Lahai Roi; ⁷observe, it is ^wbetween Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵So ^xHagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. ¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

The Sign of the Covenant

17When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord ^aappeared to Abram and said to him, ^b“I am ¹Almighty God; ^cwalk before Me and be ^dblameless. ²And I will make My ^ecovenant between Me and you, and ^fwill multiply you exceedingly.” ³Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: ⁴“As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be ^ga father of ²many nations. ⁵No longer shall ^hyour name be called ³Abram, but your name shall be ⁴Abraham; ⁱfor I have made you a father of ⁵many nations. ⁶I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make ^jnations of you, and ^kkings shall come from you. ⁷And I will ^lestablish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, ^mto be God to you and ⁿyour descendants after you. ⁸Also ^oI give to you and your descendants after you the land ^pin ⁶which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and ^qI will be their God.”

⁹And God said to Abraham: “As for you, ^ryou shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. ¹⁰This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: ^sEvery male child among you shall be circumcised; ¹¹and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be ^ta sign of the covenant between Me and you. ¹²He who is eight days old among you ^ushall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. ¹³He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. ¹⁴And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person ^vshall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

¹⁵Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but ⁷Sarah shall be her name. ¹⁶And I will bless her ^wand also give you a son by her; then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother ^xof nations; ^ykings of peoples shall be from her.”

¹⁷Then Abraham fell on his face ^zand laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” ¹⁸And Abraham ^asaid to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”

¹⁹Then God said: “No, ^bSarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My ^ccovenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him. ²⁰And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and ^dwill multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget ^etwelve princes, ^fand I will make him a great nation. ²¹But My ^gcovenant I will establish with Isaac, ^hwhom Sarah shall bear to you at this ⁱset time next year.” ²²Then He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

²³So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same 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 same day Abraham was circumcised, and his son Ishmael; ²⁷and ^jall the men of his house, born in the house or bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.