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 a son of eight days shall be circumcised among you, every male child in your generations; he that is born in the house, or bought with silver of any stranger who is not of your seed.

He that is born in your house, and he that is bought with your silver, must be circumcised. And My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

And the uncircumcised male who hath not been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his peoples: he hath 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.

And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money every male among the people of Abraham's house and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on that same day, as God had said to him.

Both Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on that very day.

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 now a little water be fetched, that ye may wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.

And I will fetch a morsel of bread; and refresh yourselves; after that ye shall pass on; for therefore have ye passed on towards your servant. And they said, So do as thou hast 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.

And he took thick and sweet milk, and the calf that he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood before them under the tree, and they ate.

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 has surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?

For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of Jehovah, to do righteousness and justice, in order that Jehovah may bring upon Abraham what he hath spoken of him.

I'm going down to see whether they've acted according to the protests that have reached me. If not, I wish to know."

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?

Far be it from thee to do so, to slay the righteous with the wicked, that the righteous should be as the wicked far be it from thee! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?

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.

And they smote the men that were at the entrance of the house with blindness, from the smallest to the greatest; and they wearied themselves 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 will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it."

And Lot went out and spoke with his sons-in-law, who married his daughters, and said, Get up and get out of this place, for Jehovah will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked to 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.

Behold, I pray thee, this city, is near for fleeing thither And, it, is a little one, let me I pray thee, escape thither - is it not a, little, one? That my soul may live!

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 toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and looked, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as 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 us give our father wine to drink, and let us lie with him, that we may preserve seed alive of our father.

And they gave their father wine to drink that night. And the first-born went in, and lay with her father, and he did not know of her lying down, nor of her rising.

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.

And they gave their father wine to drink that night also. And the younger arose, and lay with him; and he did not know of her lying down, nor of her rising.

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!"

And God said to him in a dream, I also knew that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart, and I, too, have withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore have I not suffered thee to touch her.

And now, restore the man's wife; for he is a prophet, and will pray for thee, that thou mayest live. And if thou do not restore her, know that thou shalt certainly die, thou and all that is thine.

And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, What hast thou done to us? And in what have I sinned against thee, that thou hast brought on me, and on my kingdom, a great sin? Thou hast done to me deeds that ought not to be done.

And Abimelech said to Abraham, What hast thou seen that thou hast done this?

"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.

And Abraham prayed unto God, - and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maid-servants, so that they bare children,

And she conceived, and Sarah bore to 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 bore to him) Isaac.

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

And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son 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, Send away that woman and her son: for the son of that woman is not to have a part in the heritage 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,

And it came to pass at that time that Abimelech, and Phichol the captain of his host, spoke to Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest.

And now swear to me here by God that thou wilt not deal deceitfully with me, nor with my son, nor with my grandson. According to the kindness that I have done to thee, thou shalt do to me, and to the land in which thou sojournest.

And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water that Abimelech's servants had violently taken away.

And Abimelech said to Abraham, "What [is the meaning of] these seven ewe-lambs that you have set [off] by themselves?"

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.

Therefore he called that place Beer-sheba, because there they had sworn, both of them.

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.

And they came to the place that God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood. Then he bound Isaac his son and placed him on the altar atop the wood.

And he said, Stretch not out thy hand against the lad, neither do anything to him; for now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not withheld thy son, thine 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 called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh; as it is said at the present day, On the mount of Jehovah will be provided.

and said, By myself I swear, saith Jehovah, that, because thou hast done this, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son,

I will richly bless thee, and greatly multiply thy seed, as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

and blessed themselves in thy seed have all nations of the earth, because that thou hast hearkened 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: