So Abram brought him all these animals and cut each of them in half, down the middle, placing the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut the birds in half.

He had sex with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she realized that she was pregnant, she looked with contempt on her mistress.

"Hagar, servant of Sarai," he asked, "Where are you coming from and where are you going?" She answered, "I am running away from my mistress Sarai."

He'll be a wild donkey of a man. He'll be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. He will live in conflict with all of his relatives."

Any uncircumcised male who does not have the foreskin of his flesh circumcised on the eighth day after his birth is to be eliminated from his people because he has broken my covenant."

And as for Ishmael, I've heard you. I'll bless him, and he'll have many descendants. I will multiply him greatly, he'll father twelve tribal leaders, and I'll cause his descendants to become a great nation.

Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised,

and his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised.

he glanced up and saw three men standing there, not far from him. As soon as he noticed them, Abraham ran from the tent entrance to greet them and bowed low to the ground.

"My lords," he told them, "if I have found favor with you, please don't leave your servant.

Then he took curds, milk, and the calf that had been prepared, placed the food in front of them, and stood near them under the tree while they ate.

The men asked him, "Where is your wife Sarah?" "There, in the tent," he replied.

Indeed, I've made myself known to him in order that he may encourage his sons and his household that is born after him to keep the way of the LORD, and to do what is right and just, so that the LORD may bring about for Abraham what he has promised."

The LORD also said, "How great is the disapproval of Sodom and Gomorrah! Their sin is so very serious!

Far be it from you to do such a thing to kill the righteous along with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike! The Judge of all the earth will do what is right, won't he?"

Finally, Abraham inquired, "I hope my LORD will not be angry if I speak only once more. What if ten are found there?" He replied, "For the sake of those ten I won't destroy it."

As soon as he finished talking to Abraham, the LORD left and Abraham returned to where he had been sitting.

The two angels entered Sodom at sunset while Lot was sitting in the gate area of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up, greeted them, bowed low with his face to the ground,

But Lot kept urging them strongly, so they turned aside and entered his house. He prepared a festival and baked unleavened flat bread for them, and they ate.

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.

because we're going to destroy it. Their outcry has come to the attention of the LORD, so he sent us here to destroy it!"

Lot then went out and told his sons-in-law (they had married his daughters), "Get out of here! The LORD is going to destroy this city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

"Your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me your gracious love in how you have dealt with me by keeping me alive. I cannot escape to the hills, because I'm afraid the disaster will overtake me, and I'll die.

overthrowing those cities, all of the plain, and everyone who lived in the cities. He also destroyed the plants that grew out of the ground.

Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD earlier.

He looked off toward Sodom, Gomorrah, and the entire plain, and he saw smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.

And so it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and brought Lot out from the midst of the destruction when he overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

Later on, Lot and his two daughters abandoned Zoar and settled in the hills because Lot was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived there in a cave, along with his two daughters.

So they had their father drink wine that night, and the older one had sexual relations with her father, but he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up.

So they made their father drink wine that night as well, so he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up.

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

The firstborn gave birth to a son and named him Moab, and he is the ancestor of the Moabites to this day.

The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-ammi, and he is the ancestor of the Ammonites to this day.

Abraham traveled from there to the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While he was living in Gerar as an outsider,

Now Abimelech had not yet come near her, so he asked, "LORD, will you destroy an innocent nation?

Didn't he say to me, "She's my sister'? And she also said, "He's my brother.' I did this with pure intentions and clean hands."

Now then, return the man's wife. As a matter of fact, he's a prophet and can intercede for you so you'll live. But if you don't return her, be aware that you and all who are yours will certainly die."

Then Abimelech called Abraham and asked him, "What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought such great sin against me and my kingdom? You've done things to me that ought not to have been done."

When God caused me to journey from my father's house, I asked her to do me this favor and say, "He's my brother.'"

The LORD came to Sarah, just as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.

Nevertheless, I will make the slave girl's son into a nation, since he, too, is your offspring."

So early the next morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a leather bottle of water, gave them to Hagar, and placed them on her shoulder. He then sent her away, along with the child. She went off and roamed in the Beer-sheba wilderness.

God heard the boy's voice, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven. He asked her, "What's wrong with you, Hagar? Don't be afraid, because God has heard the voice of the youth where he is.

God was with the boy as he grew up. He settled in the wilderness and became an expert archer.

Later he settled in the desert area of Paran, and his mother chose a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

He replied, "You are to accept from me these seven ewe lambs as a witness that I have dug this well."

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD God Everlasting.

Sometime later, God tested Abraham. He called out to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am!" he answered.

So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his male servants with him, along with his son Isaac. He cut the wood for the burnt offering and set out to go to the place about which God had spoken to him.

On the third day he looked ahead and saw the place from a distance.

Then he stretched out his hand and grabbed the knife to slaughter his son.

Just then, an angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven and said, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he answered.

"Don't lay your hand on the youth!" he said. "Don't do anything to him, because I've just demonstrated that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only unique one, from me."

Abraham named that place, "The LORD Will Provide," as it is told this day, "On the LORD's mountain, he will provide."

Sarah lived for 127 years. That's how long Sarah's life was.

Then Abraham stood up from beside his dead wife and addressed the Hittites. He said,

Give me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him, at the end of his field. He should sell it to me in your presence at full price for a burial site."

Now since Ephron the Hittite had taken a seat there among the Hittites, he responded publicly to Abraham where the Hittites and everyone who was entering the gate of his city could hear him:

Abraham agreed with Ephron, so he weighed out to Ephron the money to which he had agreed publicly while the Hittites were listening: 400 shekels of silver at the current merchant rate.

That's how Ephron's field in Machpelah, east of Mamre the field, the cave that was in it, and all the trees that were within the boundaries of the field came to be deeded

So Abraham instructed his servant, who was the oldest member of his household and in charge of everything he owned, "Make this solemn oath to me

Then Abraham's servant took ten camels from his master's herd of camels and left on his journey with all kinds of gifts from his master's inventory. Eventually, he traveled as far as Aram-naharaim, Nahor's home town.

As evening approached, he had the camels kneel outside the town at the water well, right about the time when women customarily went out to draw water.

That's when he prayed, "LORD God of my master Abraham, help me to succeed today. Please show your gracious love to my master Abraham.

May it be that the young woman to whom I ask, "Please, lower your jug so that I may drink,' responds, "Have a drink, and I'll water your camels as well.' May she be the one whom you have chosen for your servant Isaac. This is how I'll know that you have shown your gracious love to my master."

Before he had finished speaking, Rebekah appeared. She was a daughter of Milcah's son Bethuel. (Milcah was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor.) She approached the well, carrying a jug on her shoulder.

He asked her, "Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night?"

"I am the daughter of Bethuel," she answered. "He's the son of Milcah and Nahor.

And so it was, as soon as he saw the nose ring and bracelets on his sister's wrists, and as soon as he heard what his sister Rebekah was saying about what the man had spoken to her, he went out to the man who was still standing by the camels at the spring!

But when they had prepared a meal and set it in front of him, he said, "I'm not eating until I've spoken." "Speak up!" Laban exclaimed.

"I'm Abraham's servant," he said.

"The LORD has greatly blessed my master, so that he has become wealthy. He has provided him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female servants, camels and donkeys.

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

Then the servant brought out some silver and gold items, along with some clothing, and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave gifts to her brother and to her mother.

He and the men with him ate and drank, and then they spent the night. When they got up the next morning, the servant requested, "Send me off to my master."

Later on, as Isaac was returning one evening from Beer-lahai-roi (he had been living in the Negev),

Isaac went out walking in a field. He looked up, and all of a sudden there were some camels coming.

"That's my master," the servant told her. So she reached for a veil and covered herself. Then the servant informed Isaac about everything he had done.

Later, Isaac brought Rebekah into the tent that had belonged to his mother Sarah and married her. Isaac loved her, and that's how he was comforted following the loss of his mother.

Abraham gave everything he owned to Isaac.

While he was still alive, Abraham gave gifts to his concubines and sent them to the east country in order to keep them away from his son Isaac.

Ishmael lived for 137 years, then he took his last breath, died, and joined his ancestors.

Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean from Paddan-aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.

Isaac loved Esau, because he loved to hunt, while Rebekah loved Jacob.

One day, while Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau happened to come in from being outdoors, and he was feeling famished.

Esau told Jacob, "Let me gobble down some of this red stuff, since I'm starving." (That's how Esau got his nickname "Edom".)

But Jacob insisted, "Swear it by an oath right now." So he swore an oath to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

That's when the LORD appeared to Isaac. "You are not to go down to Egypt," he said. "Instead, you are to settle down in an area within this land where I'll tell you.

I'm going to do this because Abraham did what I told him to do. He kept my instructions, commands, statutes, and laws."

Later on, the men of that place asked about his wife, so he replied, "She's my sister," because he was afraid to call her "my wife." He kept thinking, ""otherwise, the men around here will kill me on account of Rebekah, since she's very beautiful."

After he had been there awhile, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out through a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

So Abimelech called Isaac and confronted him. "She is definitely your wife!" he accused him, "So why did you claim, "She's my sister?'" Isaac responded, "Because I had thought ""otherwise, I'll die on account of her.'"

So he issued this order to everyone: "Whoever touches this man or his wife is to be executed."

Isaac received a 100-fold return on what he planted that year in the land he received, because the LORD blessed him.

He became very wealthy and lived a life of wealth, becoming more and more wealthy.

He owned so many sheep, cattle, and servants that the Philistines eventually became envious of him.

So Isaac moved from there and encamped in the Gerar Valley, where he settled.

Then he left that area and dug still another well. Because they did not quarrel over that one, Isaac named it Rehoboth, because he used to say, "The LORD has enlarged the territory for us. We will prosper in the land."

Later on, he left there and went to Beer-sheba,

where one night the LORD appeared to him. "I am the God of your father Abraham," he told him. "Don't be afraid, because I'm with you. I'm going to bless you and multiply your descendants on account of my servant Abraham."