When Abram [was] ninety-nine years old Yahweh appeared to Abram. And he said to him, "I [am] El-Shaddai; walk before me and be blameless

Far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to kill [the] righteous with [the] wicked, that the righteous would be as the wicked! Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do justice?"

And [when] Esau was forty years old he took as wife Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hittite. And {they made life bitter} for Isaac and Rebekah.

Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I loathe my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from Hittite women like these, from the {native women}, {what am I living for}?"

Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him. And he instructed him and said to him, "You must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.

Now, may El-Shaddai bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, so that you become an assembly of peoples.

Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-Aram, to take for himself a wife from there, and he blessed him and instructed him, saying, "You must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan," and [that] Jacob listened to his father and to his mother and went to Paddan-Aram. read more. Then Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan [were] evil in the eyes of Isaac his father, then Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, son of Abraham, sister of Nebaioth, as a wife, in addition to the wives he had.

And the sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard [it]. And the men were distressed and very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by having sexual relations with the daughter of Jacob--{something that} should not be done.

Then the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor speaking deceitfully, because he had defiled Dinah their sister.

But they said, "Shall he treat our sister like a prostitute?"

And God said to him, "I [am] El-Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and an assemblage of nations shall be from you, and kings shall go out from your loins.

And {about three months later} it was told to Judah, "Tamar your daughter-in-law has played the whore, and now, behold, she has conceived by prostitution." And Judah said, "Bring her out and let her be burned."

For just as the days of Noah [were], so the coming of the Son of Man will be. For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered into the ark. read more. And they did not know [anything] until the deluge came and swept [them] all away. So also the coming of the Son of Man will be.

Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot--they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building. But on the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed [them] all. read more. It will be {just the same} on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, whoever is on the housetop and his goods [are] in the house must not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who [is] in the field must not turn back Remember Lot's wife!

"Men [and] brothers, it is possible to speak with confidence to you about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us until this day.

And he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac [did so with] Jacob, and Jacob [did so with] the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs, [because they] were jealous of Joseph, sold [him] into Egypt. And God was with him,

And not only [this], but also [when] Rebecca conceived children by one [man], Isaac our father-- for [although they] had not yet been born, or done anything good or evil, in order that the purpose of God according to election might remain, read more. not by works but by the one who calls--it was said to her, "The older will serve the younger," just as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

Tell me, [you] who are wanting to be under the law, do you not understand the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the female slave and one by the free woman. read more. But the one by the female slave was born according to human descent, and the one by the free woman through the promise, which [things] are spoken allegorically, for these [women] are two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, bearing [children] for slavery, who is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is a slave with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, which is our mother. For it is written, "Rejoice, O barren woman, who does not give birth to [children]; burst out and shout, [you] who do not have birth pains, because many [are] the children of the desolate [woman], even more than [those of] the one who has a husband." But you, brothers, are children of the promise, just as Isaac. But just as at that time the [child] born according to human descent persecuted the [child born] according to the Spirit, so also now. But what does the scripture say? "Drive out the female slave and her son, for the son of the female slave will never inherit with the son" of the free woman. Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the female slave but of the free woman.

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham [as he] was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth of everything--in the first place, [his name] is translated "king of righteousness," and then also "king of Salem," that is, "king of peace"; read more. without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God--he remains a priest for all time. But see how great this man [was], to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth from the spoils!

But see how great this man [was], to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth from the spoils! And indeed those of the sons of Levi who receive the priesthood have a commandment to collect a tenth from the people according to the law, that is, from their brothers, although {they are descended from Abraham}. read more. But the one who did not trace [his] descent from them collected tithes from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises. Now without any dispute the inferior is blessed by the more prominent.