Abraham and the Covenant of Circumcision
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord lappeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God mAlmighty;1 nwalk before me, and be oblameless, 2 that I may pmake my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the qfather of a multitude of nations. 5 rNo longer shall your name be called Abram,2 sbut your name shall be Abraham,3 for tI have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly ufruitful, and I will make you into nations, and vkings shall come from you. 7 And I will westablish my covenant between me and you and xyour offspring after you throughout their generations for an yeverlasting covenant, zto be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And aI will give to you band to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, call the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and dI will be their God.”
9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 eThis is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: fEvery male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a gsign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is height days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house ior bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an jeverlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be kcut off from his people; he has lbroken my covenant.”
Isaac’s Birth Promised
15 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, myou shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah4 shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give5 you a son nby her. I will bless her, and oshe shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and plaughed and said to himself, q“Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? rShall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” 18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19 God said, s“No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall tcall his name Isaac.6 I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20 uAs for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and vI will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”
22 When he had finished talking with him, wGod went up from Abraham. 23 Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. 24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 26 That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. 27 And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
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.
Sarah’s Death and Burial
1 Sarah lived 127 years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. 3 And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites,1 4 “I am a nsojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” 5 The Hittites answered Abraham, 6 “Hear us, my lord; you are a prince of God2 among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from burying your dead.” 7 Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. 8 And he said to them, “If you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and entreat for me Ephron the son of Zohar, 9 that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he owns; it is at the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in your presence as property for a burying place.”
10 Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of his city, 11 “No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the sight of the sons of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.” 12 Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. 13 And he said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, “But if you will, hear me: I give the price of the field. Accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there.” 14 Ephron answered Abraham, 15 “My lord, listen to me: a piece of land worth four hundred shekels3 of silver, what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.” 16 Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants.
17 So othe field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area, was made over 18 to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 19 After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying place by the Hittites.
19 For I have pchosen1 him, that he may command his children and his household after him to qkeep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”
17 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers, ‘Do this: load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan, 18 and take your father and your households, and come to me, and tI will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.’ 19 And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, ‘Do this: take uwagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.
6 They also took htheir livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him,
7 his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’ daughters. All his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.
