God’s Covenant with Abram
1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a svision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your tshield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I ucontinue1 childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; vyour very own son2 shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the wstars, xif you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, y“So shall your offspring be.” 6 zAnd he believed the Lord, and he acounted it to him as righteousness.
7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out bfrom Ur of the Chaldeans cto give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, dhow am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, ecut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. fBut he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 gAs the sun was going down, a hdeep sleep fell on Abram. iAnd behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that jyour offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be kafflicted for lfour hundred years. 14 But mI will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward nthey shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; oyou shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And pthey shall come back here in the fourth generation, for qthe iniquity of the Amorites is rnot yet complete.”
17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 sOn that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give3 this land, tfrom the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”
Sarai and Hagar
1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had uborne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has vprevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children1 wby her.” And Abram xlistened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after yAbram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and zgave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, ashe looked with contempt on her bmistress.2 5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
7 cThe dangel of the Lord found her by a espring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” 9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, f“I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 11 And the angel of the Lord said to her,
“Behold, you are pregnant
and shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael,3
gbecause the Lord has listened to your affliction.
12 He shall be a hwild donkey of a man,
his hand against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him,
and ihe shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”
13 So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,”4 for she said, “Truly here I have jseen him who looks after me.”5 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi;6 it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
15 And kHagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
