And it came to pass that, when Abram was ninety and nine years old, Yahweh appeared unto Abram, and said unto him, I, am GOD Almighty, - Walk, thou before me and become thou blameless:

That I may set my covenant betwixt me and thee, And may multiply thee, exceedingly.

"I am. Behold, my covenant is with thee, that thou shalt be a father of many nations.

I will make you very fertile, so that nations will come from you and kings will be your offspring.

Moreover, I will make my covenant between me, and thee, and thy seed after thee; in their times to be an everlasting testament, so that I will be God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

God continued to speak to Abraham, "You and your descendants who are born in the future are to keep my covenant that is, you and your descendants, generation after generation.

This is my covenant which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee that every male among you be circumcised.

And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and that shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

And he that is eight days old, shall be circumcised to you every male to your generations, - he that is born of the house, and he that is bought with silver of any son of a stranger, who is, not of thy seed,

He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

If any male is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that man will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

I will bless her. Furthermore, I will give you a son from her. I will bless her, so that nations, kings, and people will come from her."

And Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born to him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear?

And Abraham said to God, Oh that Ishmael might live before thee!

Then said God, "Nay. Sara thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac. And I will make my covenant with him, that it shall be an everlasting covenant unto his seed after him.

With that, God finished talking to Abraham, and ascended, leaving him.

Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the slaves born in his house or purchased with his money—every male among the members of Abraham’s household—and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on that very day, just as God had said to him.

On that same day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised.

And all the men of his house, that were born in the house, and bought with silver of the stranger, were circumcised with him.

He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth,

Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree.

I will bring a bit of bread so that you may strengthen yourselves. This is why you have passed your servant’s way. Later, you can continue on.”

“Yes,” they replied, “do as you have said.”

And Abraham ran unto his beasts and fetched a calf that was tender and good, and gave it unto a young man, which made it ready at once.

Then Abraham took curds and milk, and the calf that he had prepared, and set them before the men. He served them as they ate under the tree.

And he said, "I will come again unto thee as soon as the fruit can live. And lo, Sara thy wife shall have a son." That heard Sara, out of the tent door which was behind his back.

That's why Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, "After I'm so old and my husband is old, too, am I going to have sex?"

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

And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;

Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

For I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. This is how the Lord will fulfill to Abraham what He promised him.”

I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to Me. If not, I will find out.”

And the men, turning from that place, went on to Sodom: but Abraham was still waiting before the Lord.

There are perhaps fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not forgive the place for the sake of the fifty righteous that are therein?

You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”

And he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry that I speak! Perhaps there may be thirty found there. And he said, I will not do it if I find thirty there.

And he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry, that I speak yet but this time! Perhaps there may be ten found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for the ten's sake.

And Jehovah went forth after that he finished to speak to Abraham: and Abraham returned to his place.

But he urged them so strongly that they followed him and went into his house. He prepared a feast and baked unleavened bread for them, and they ate.

And they called to Lot, and said to him, Where are the men that have come in to thee to-night? bring them out to us that we may know them.

Behold now, I have two daughters that have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing, forasmuch as they are come under the shadow of my roof.

But they replied, "Get out of the way! This man came here as a foreigner, and now he's acting like a judge! So we're going to deal more harshly with you than with them." Then they pushed hard against the man (that is, against Lot), intending to break down the door.

They struck the men who were at the entrance of the house, both young and old, with a blinding light so that they were unable to find the entrance.

And the men said unto Lot, Whom besides hast thou here? Son-in-law and thy sons and thy daughters, and all that thou hast in the city, bring thou forth out of the place;

For we are about to destroy this place, - for, great, is the outcry of them unto the face of Yahweh, so that Yahweh hath sent us to destroy it.

And Lot went forth and spake unto his sons-in - law who were about to take his two daughters and said Arise come forth out of this place, for Yahweh is about to destroy the city. And it came to pass, that he was as one that laughed, in the eyes of his sons-in-law.

But as soon as, the dawn had sprung up, the messengers hastened Lot saying, - Arise! take thy wife and thy two daughters that are at hand, lest thou be swept away in the punishment of the city.

And it came to pass when they had brought them outside, that he said, Escape for thy life: look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain: escape to the mountain, lest thou perish.

But Lot said to them, “Oh no, [not that place] my lords!

behold now, thy servant has found favour in thine eyes, and thou hast magnified thy goodness, which thou hast shewn to me in preserving my soul alive; but I cannot escape to the mountain, lest calamity lay hold on me, that I die.

Look, this town is close enough for me to run to. It is a small place. Please let me go there—it’s only a small place, isn’t it?—so that I can survive.”

And he said to him, Behold, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which thou hast spoken.

Hurry up and flee there, because I cannot do anything until you get to that town." Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar.

And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw that smoke was going up from the land like the smoke of a furnace.

And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.

Come, let’s get our father to drink wine so that we can sleep with him and preserve our father’s line.”

So they got their father to drink wine that night, and the firstborn came and slept with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

And it came to pass on the next day that the first-born said to the younger, Lo, I lay last night with my father: let us give him wine to drink to-night also, and go thou in, lie with him, that we may preserve seed alive of our father.

That night they again got their father to drink wine, and the younger went and slept with him; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

That's how both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father.

And Abraham said of Sara his wife, that she was his sister. Then Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and fetched Sara away.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, because of the woman that thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.

Said not he unto me, that she was his sister? Yea, and said not she herself that he was her brother? With a pure heart and innocent hands have I done this!"

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.

Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will certainly die, you and all who are yours.”

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.”

And Abimelech will say to Abraham, What sawest thou that thou didst this thing?

"I thought that there's no fear of God in this place," Abraham replied, "and that they would kill me because of my wife.

And it came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to her, Let this be thy kindness which thou shalt shew to me: at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.

And to Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, let that be to thee a covering of the eyes, in respect of all that are with thee, and with all; and she was reproved.

Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female slaves so that they could bear children,

So Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him.

And Abraham called the name of his son that was born to him, whom, Sarah, bare to him, Isaac.

And Sarah said, God has made me laugh: all that hear 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.”

And the child grew, and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

So she said to Abraham, "Banish that slave woman and her son, for the son of that slave woman will not be an heir along with my son Isaac!"

And God said to Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad and because of thy handmaid: in all that Sarah hath said to thee hearken to her voice, for in Isaac shall a seed be called to thee.

When the water was spent that was in the bottle, she cast the lad under a bush

Then she went and sat by herself about a distance of a bowshot away, because she kept saying to herself, "I can't bear to watch the child die!" That's why she sat a short distance away, crying aloud and weeping.

And it came to pass that God was with the boy, and he grew, - and dwelt in the desert, and he became as he grew up, an archer,

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

Swear to me by God here and now, that you will not break an agreement with me or with my children and descendants. As I have been loyal to you, so you will be loyal to me and to the country where you are a foreign resident.”

But Abraham complained to Abimelech because of the water well that Abimelech’s servants had seized.

Abimelech asked Abraham, "What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?"

He replied, “You are to accept the seven ewe lambs from my hand so that this act will serve as my witness that I dug this well.”

Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba because it was there that the two of them swore an oath.

And it came to pass after these things, that God tried Abraham, and said to him, Abraham! and he said, Here am I.

God said, "Please take your son, your unique son whom you love Isaac and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him as a burnt offering there on one of the mountains that I will point out to you."

And Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he clave the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up and went to the place that God had told him of.

It was, on the third day, that Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

And Abraham said unto his young men - Tarry by yourselves here with the ass, but I and the young man must go yonder, - that we may bow ourselves down and return unto you.

When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

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.”

Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and saw that behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.

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

And he will say, By myself did I swear, says Jehovah, for because that thou didst this word, and didst not spare thy son, thine only.

That praising, I will praise thee, and multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand upon the lip of the sea; and thy seed shall inherit the gate of his enemies.

And in thy seed all the nations of the earth shall be praised; because that thou didst listen to my voice.

And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she also has borne sons to thy brother Nahor: