So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Knead three measures of fine flour and make bread.”

And they said to him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent.

The Lord said, “I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.

And Sarah, laughing to herself, said, Now that I am used up am I still to have pleasure, my husband himself being old?

And Jehovah said to Abraham, Why is this, that Sarah laughs, saying, Shall I indeed bear, when I am become old?

Is there any wonder which the Lord is not able to do? At the time I said, in the spring, I will come back to you, and Sarah will have a child.

Sarah denied it. “I did not laugh,” she said, because she was afraid.

But He replied, “No, you did laugh.”

Then the Lord said, “Should I hide what I am about to do from Abraham?

For I have chosen him, that he will command his children and his household after him that they will keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice, so that Yahweh may bring upon Abraham that which he said to him."

Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious.

Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

The Lord said, “If I find 50 righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have ventured to speak unto the Lord; I, who am dust and ashes.

Perhaps there may want five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city on account of the five? And he said, If I shall find forty-five there, I will not destroy it.

And he continued yet to speak with him, and said, Perhaps there may be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for the forty's sake.

Then he said, “Let the Lord not be angry, and I will speak further. Suppose 30 are found there?”

He answered, “I will not do it if I find 30 there.”

Then he said, “Since I have ventured to speak to the Lord, suppose 20 are found there?”

He replied, “I will not destroy it on account of 20.”

Then he said, “Let the Lord not be angry, and I will speak one more time. Suppose 10 are found there?”

He answered, “I will not destroy it on account of 10.”

and said, “My lords, turn aside to your servant’s house, wash your feet, and spend the night. Then you can get up early and go on your way.”

“No,” they said. “We would rather spend the night in the square.”

They called out to Lot and said, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have sex with them!”

He said, “Don’t do this evil, my brothers.

“Get out of the way!” they said, adding, “This one came here as a foreigner, but he’s acting like a judge! Now we’ll do more harm to you than to them.” They put pressure on Lot and came up to break down the door.

Then the angels said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here: a son-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of this place,

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

As soon as the angels got them outside, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop anywhere on the plain! Run to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”

But Lot said to them, “No, my lords—please.

And he said to him, “All right, I’ll grant your request about this matter too and will not demolish the town you mentioned.

Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us as is the custom of all the land.

The next day the firstborn said to the younger, “Look, I slept with my father last night. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight so you can go sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.”

Abraham said about his wife Sarah, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “You are about to die because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”

Now Abimelech had not approached her, so he said, “Lord, would You destroy a nation even though it is innocent?

Didn’t he himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ I did this with a clear conscience and clean hands.”

Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience. I have also kept you from sinning against Me. Therefore I have not let you touch her.

Then Abimelech called Abraham in and said to him, “What have you done to us? How did I sin against you that you have brought such enormous guilt on me and on my kingdom? You have done things to me that should never be done.”

Abimelech also said to Abraham, “What did you intend when you did this thing?”

And Abraham will say, For I said, Surely there is not the fear of God in this place; and they will kill me because of my wife.

So when God had me wander from my father’s house, I said to her: Show your loyalty to me wherever we go and say about me: ‘He’s my brother.’”

Abimelech said, “Look, my land is before you. Settle wherever you want.”

And he said to Sarah, “Look, I am giving your brother 1,000 pieces of silver. It is a verification of your honor to all who are with you. You are fully vindicated.”

The Lord came to Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what He had promised.

And when his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham made him undergo circumcision, as God had said to him.

Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me.”

She also said, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne a son for him in his old age.”

So she said to Abraham, “Drive out this slave with her son, for the son of this slave will not be a coheir with my son Isaac!”

Abraham was very troubled about what was being said about his son,

But God said to Abraham, “Do not be concerned about the boy and your slave. Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her, because your offspring will be traced through Isaac.

Then she went and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she said, “I can’t bear to watch the boy die!” So as she sat nearby, she wept loudly.

God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy from the place where he is.

At that time Abimelech, accompanied by Phicol the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do.

And Abraham said, “I swear it.”

And Abimelech said, I do not know who has done this, neither hast thou told me of it, neither have I heard of it but to-day.

And Abimelech said to Abraham, “Why have you separated these seven ewe lambs?”

And he said, That thou take the seven ewe-lambs of my hand, that they may be a witness to me that I have dug this well.

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he answered.

“Take your son,” He said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.”

Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.”

And he replied, “Here I am, my son.”

Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself with the sheep for a burnt-offering. And they went both of them together.

And they will come to the place which God said to him; and Abraham will build an altar there, and put in order the wood: and he will find Isaak his son, and put him upon the altar, upon the wood.

But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”

He replied, “Here I am.”

Then He said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from Me.”

And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said: “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.”

and said, “By Myself I have sworn,” this is the Lord’s declaration: “Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son,

Then Abraham stood up before his dead [wife’s body], and spoke to the sons of Heth (Hittites), saying,

And the Hittites answered Abraham [and] said to him,

He said to them, “If you are willing for me to bury my dead, listen to me and ask Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf

Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites. And Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites with respect to all [who were] entering the gate of his city, [and] said,

and said to Ephron in the presence of the people of the land, “Please listen to me. Let me pay the price of the field. Accept it from me, and let me bury my dead there.”

Ephron answered Abraham and said to him,

So Abraham listened to Ephron [and agreed to his terms]; and he weighed out for Ephron the [amount of] silver which he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants.

Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his household who managed all he owned, “Place your hand under my thigh,

The servant said to him, “Suppose the woman is unwilling to follow me to this land? Should I have your son go back to the land you came from?”

And Abraham said to him, Beware that thou bring not my son thither again.

And he said, Jehovah, God of my master Abraham, meet me, I pray thee, with thy blessing this day, and deal kindly with my master Abraham.

And it shall be the girl to whom saying to her, incline now thy bucket, and I will drink; and she said, Drink, and I will also give thy camels to drink; thou didst appoint for thy servant Isaak; and by it I shall know that thou didst kindness with my lord.

Then the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me have a little water from your jug.”

And she said, Drink, my lord! And she hasted and let down her pitcher on her hand, and gave him to drink.

When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I’ll also draw water for your camels until they have had enough to drink.”

And the man, looking at her, said nothing, waiting to see if the Lord had given his journey a good outcome.

and said, Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee. Is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge?

And she said to him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor.

She also said to him, “We have plenty of straw and feed and a place to spend the night.”

and said, “Praise the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not withheld His kindness and faithfulness from my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.”

As soon as he had seen the ring and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and when he had heard his sister Rebekah’s words—“The man said this to me!”—he went to the man. He was standing there by the camels at the spring.

Laban said, “Come, you who are blessed by the Lord. Why are you standing out here? I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.”

A meal was set before him, but he said, “I will not eat until I have said what I have to say.”

So Laban said, “Please speak.”

“I am Abraham’s servant,” he said.

My master made me swear an oath. He said, 'You must not acquire a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living,

But I said to my master, ‘Suppose the woman will not come back with me?’

He said to me, ‘The Lord before whom I have walked will send His angel with you and make your journey a success, and you will take a wife for my son from my family and from my father’s household.

And I came this day to the well, and said, Jehovah, God of my master Abraham, if now thou wilt prosper my way on which I go,

Behold, I stand by the fountain of waters, and the virgin coming forth to draw, and I said to her, Now give me to drink a little water from thy bucket

and she hath said unto me, Both drink thou, and also for thy camels I draw -- she is the woman whom Jehovah hath decided for my lord's son.

“Before I had finished praying silently, there was Rebekah coming with her jug on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her: Please let me have a drink.

She quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels also.’ So I drank, and she also watered the camels.

And I asked her, and said, Whose daughter art thou? And she said, The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bore to him. And I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her hands.

And Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceeds from Jehovah: we cannot speak to thee bad or good.

Behold, Rebecca is before thee: take her, and go away; and let her be wife of thy master's son, as Jehovah has said.

When Abraham's servant heard what they had said, he bowed down to the ground before the LORD.