“No longer shall your name be Abram (exalted father),
But your name shall be Abraham (father of a multitude);
For I will make you the father of many nations.

Further, God said to Abraham, “As for you [your part of the agreement], you shall keep and faithfully obey [the terms of] My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations.

Then God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai (my princess), but her name will be Sarah (Princess).

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

And God finished speaking with him and went up from Abraham.

Then Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all the servants who were born in his house and all who were purchased with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s household, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin the very same day, as God had said to him.

So Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised.

On the very same day Abraham was circumcised, as well as Ishmael his son.

Now the Lord appeared to Abraham by the terebinth trees of Mamre [in Hebron], while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.

So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly, get ready three measures of fine meal, knead it and bake cakes.”

Abraham also ran to the herd and brought a calf, tender and choice, and he gave it to the servant [to butcher], and he hurried to prepare it.

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in years; she was past [the age of] childbearing.

And the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh [to herself], saying, ‘Shall I really give birth [to a child] when I am so old?’

Then the men got up from there, and looked toward Sodom; and Abraham walked with them to send them on the way.

The Lord said, “Shall I keep secret from Abraham [My friend and servant] what I am going to do,

since Abraham is destined to become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him?

For I have known (chosen, acknowledged) him [as My own], so that he may teach and command his children and [the sons of] his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is righteous and just, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has promised him.”

Now the [two] men (angelic beings) turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.

Abraham approached [the Lord] and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous (those who do right) with the wicked (those who do evil)?

Abraham answered, “Now behold, I who am but dust [in origin] and ashes have decided to speak to the Lord.

Abraham spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose [only] forty are found there.” And He said, “I will not do it for the sake of the forty [who are righteous].”

Then Abraham said [to Him], “Oh, may the Lord not be angry, and I will speak; suppose thirty [righteous people] are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

And he said, “Now behold, I have decided to speak to the Lord [again]. Suppose [only] twenty [righteous people] are found there?” And the Lord said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”

As soon as He had finished speaking with Abraham the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his own place.

Abraham started out early the next morning to the place where he [only the day before] had stood before the Lord;

Now when God ravaged and destroyed the cities of the plain [of Siddim], He remembered Abraham [and for that reason], and He sent [Abraham’s nephew] Lot out of the midst of the destruction, when He destroyed the cities in which Lot had lived.

Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the Negev (the South country), and settled between Kadesh and Shur; then he lived temporarily in Gerar.

Abraham said [again] of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah [into his harem].

Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I offended you that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me what ought not to be done [to anyone].”

And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you encountered or seen [in us or our customs], that you have done this [unjust] thing?”

Abraham said, “Because I thought, ‘Surely there is no fear or reverence of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’

Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and male and female slaves, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him [as God commanded].

So Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, and they again gave birth to children,

for the Lord had securely closed the wombs of all [the women] in Abimelech’s household because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

So Sarah conceived and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.

Abraham named his son Isaac (laughter), the son to whom Sarah gave birth.

So Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, just as God had commanded him.

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born.

And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? For I have given birth to a son by him in his old age.”

The child [Isaac] grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

Now [as time went on] Sarah saw [Ishmael] the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking [Isaac].

Therefore she said to Abraham, “Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.”

The situation distressed Abraham greatly because of his son [Ishmael].

God said to Abraham, “Do not let it distress you because of Ishmael and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her and do what she asks, for your descendants will be named through Isaac.

So Abraham got up early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she left [but lost her way] and wandered [aimlessly] in the Wilderness of Beersheba.

Now at that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do;

And Abraham said, “I will swear.”

Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water which the servants of Abimelech had [violently] seized [from him],

So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant (binding agreement).

Then Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock,

and Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs which you have set apart?”

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord [in prayer], the Eternal God.

And Abraham lived [as a resident alien] in the land of the Philistines for many days.

Now after these things, God tested [the faith and commitment of] Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he answered, “Here I am.”

So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and then he got up and went to the place of which God had told him.

On the third day [of travel] Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

Abraham said to his servants, “Settle down and stay here with the donkey; the young man and I will go over there and worship [God], and we will come back to you.”

Then Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on [the shoulders of] Isaac his son, and he took the fire (firepot) in his own hand and the [sacrificial] knife; and the two of them walked on together.

And Isaac said to Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Isaac said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself a lamb for the burnt offering.” So the two walked on together.

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood, and bound Isaac his son and placed him on the altar, on top of the wood.

Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.

But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He answered, “Here I am.”

Then Abraham looked up and glanced around, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering (ascending sacrifice) instead of his son.

So Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide. And it is said to this day, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be seen and provided.”

The Angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time

So Abraham returned to his servants, and they got up and went with him to Beersheba; and Abraham settled in Beersheba.

Now after these things Abraham was told, “Milcah has borne children to your brother Nahor:

Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight [children] Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.

Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

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

The Hittites replied to Abraham,

So Abraham stood up and bowed to the people of the land, the Hittites.

Now Ephron was present there among the sons of Heth; so within the hearing of all the sons of Heth and all who were entering the gate of his city, Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham, saying,

Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land.

Ephron replied to Abraham,

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.

to Abraham as his possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who were entering at the gate of his city.

After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah to the east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.

The field and the cave in it were deeded over to Abraham by the Hittites as a [permanent] possession and burial place.

Now Abraham was old, [well] advanced in age; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.

Abraham said to his servant [Eliezer of Damascus], the oldest of his household, who had charge over all that Abraham owned, “Please, put your hand under my thigh [as is customary for affirming a solemn oath],

Abraham said to him, “See to it that you do not take my son back there!

So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him concerning this matter.

Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels, and set out, taking some of his master’s good things with him; so he got up and journeyed to Mesopotamia [between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers], to the city of Nahor [the home of Abraham’s brother].

And he said, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today, and show lovingkindness (faithfulness) to my master Abraham.

Before Eliezer had finished speaking (praying), Rebekah came out with her [water] jar on her shoulder. Rebekah was the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, who was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor.

He said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not denied His lovingkindness and His truth to my master. As for me, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brothers.”

So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant.

“I came today to the spring, and said, ‘O Lord, God of my master Abraham, if now You will make my journey on which I go successful;

And I bowed down my head and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the right way to take the daughter of my master’s brother to his son [as a wife].

When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the ground [in worship] before the Lord.

So they sent off their sister Rebekah and her nurse [Deborah, as her attendant] and Abraham’s servant [Eliezer] and his men.

Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah.

Now Abraham gave everything that he had to Isaac;

but to the sons of his concubines [Hagar and Keturah], Abraham gave gifts while he was still living and he sent them to the east country, away from Isaac his son [of promise].

The days of Abraham’s life were a hundred and seventy-five years.

Then Abraham breathed his last and he died at a good old age, an old man who was satisfied [with life]; and he was gathered to his people [who had preceded him in death].

the field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth; there Abraham was buried with Sarah his wife.

Now after the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac lived at Beer-lahai-roi.