Abraham and Abimelech
1 aFrom bthere Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, c“She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a ddream by night and said to him, e“Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, f“Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and git was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a hprophet, so that he will ipray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. 9 Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that jyou have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that kought not to be done.” 10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” 11 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no lfear of God at all in this place, and they will mkill me because of my wife.’ 12 Besides, she is indeed my sister, nthe daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. 13 And owhen God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”
14 pThen Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him. 15 And Abimelech said, q“Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” 16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all1 who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.” 17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. 18 For the Lord had rclosed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
The Birth of Isaac
1 The Lord svisited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah tas he had promised. 2 uAnd vSarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age wat the time of which God had spoken to him. 3 Abraham xcalled the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.2 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, yas God had commanded him. 5 zAbraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, “God has made alaughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” 7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
God Protects Hagar and Ishmael
8 And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 But Sarah saw bthe son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, claughing.3 10 So she said to Abraham, d“Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” 11 And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, edo as she tells you, for fthrough Isaac shall your offspring be named. 13 gAnd I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” 14 So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. 16 Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. 17 And God heard the voice of the boy, and hthe angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18 Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for iI will make him into a great nation.” 19 Then God jopened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. 20 And God was kwith the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. 21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him lfrom the land of Egypt.
A Treaty with Abimelech
22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, m“God is with you in all that you do. 23 Now therefore nswear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but oas I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned.” 24 And Abraham said, “I will swear.”
25 When Abraham reproved Abimelech pabout a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized, 26 Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.” 27 qSo Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant. 28 Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart. 29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?” 30 He said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this4 may be a rwitness for me that I dug this well.” 31 sTherefore that place was called Beersheba,5 because there both of them swore an oath. 32 So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and tcalled there on the name of the Lord, the uEverlasting God. 34 And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.
The Sacrifice of Isaac
1 After these things vGod wtested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, x“Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your yonly son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy6 will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and zlaid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the alamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham bbuilt the altar there and laid the wood in order and cbound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the dangel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, e“Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you fhave not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”;7 as it is said to this day, “On gthe mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”8
15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, h“By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely ibless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring jas the stars of heaven and as the ksand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his9 enemies, 18 land in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.
20 Now after these things it was told to Abraham, “Behold, Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 21 Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 23 m(Bethuel fathered Rebekah.) These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 24 Moreover, his concubine, whose name was Reumah, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
Lay Up Treasures in Heaven
19 q“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where rmoth and rust1 destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves streasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
22 t“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
24 u“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.2
Do Not Be Anxious
25 v“Therefore I tell you, do not be wanxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the xbirds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of ymore value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can zadd a single hour to his span of life?3 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even aSolomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the bgrass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, cO you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and dyour heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 eBut seek first the kingdom of God and his frighteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about gtomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
