Terah’s Descendants
27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was jbarren; kshe had no child.
31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together lfrom Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
The Call of Abram
1 mNow the Lord said1 to Abram, n“Go ofrom your country2 and your kindred and your father’s house to pthe land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a qgreat nation, and I will rbless you and smake your name great, so that tyou will be a blessing. 3 uI will bless those who bless you, and vhim who dishonors you I will curse, and win you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”3
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was xseventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the yoak4 of Moreh. zAt that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord aappeared to Abram and said, b“To your offspring I will give this land.” So he cbuilt there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and dcalled upon the name of the Lord. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
Abram and Sarai in Egypt
10 eNow there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to fsojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman gbeautiful in appearance, 12 and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will hkill me, but they will let you live. 13 Say iyou are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they jpraised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. 16 kAnd for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
17 But the Lord lafflicted Pharaoh and his house with great mplagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; ntake her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
A Lamp Under a Basket
21 tAnd he said to them, u“Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 22 For vnothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: wwith the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. 25 For xto the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
The Parable of the Seed Growing
26 And he said, y“The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he zputs in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
30 aAnd he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, bso that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
33 cWith many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34 He did not speak to them without a parable, but dprivately to his own disciples he explained everything.
Jesus Calms a Storm
35 eOn that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great fwindstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, gasleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are hperishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” iAnd the wind jceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? kHave you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, l“Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”