They took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their food, and went their way.

He brought back all the goods, and also brought back his relative, Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand." Abram gave him a tenth of all.

that I will not take a thread nor a sandal strap nor anything that is yours, lest you should say, 'I have made Abram rich.'

I will accept nothing from you except that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me: Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. Let them take their portion."

Abram said, "Lord GOD, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?"

Behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This man will not be your heir, but he who will come forth out of your own body will be your heir."

He said, "Lord GOD, how will I know that I will inherit it?"

He brought him all of these, and divided them in the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not divide the birds.

He said to Abram, "Know for sure that your seed will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years.

I will also judge that nation, whom they will serve. Afterward they will come out with great wealth,

but you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried in a good old age.

In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full."

Sarai said to Abram, "See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing. Please go in to my handmaid. It may be that I will obtain children by her." Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

The angel of the LORD said to her, "I will greatly multiply your seed, that they will not be numbered for multitude."

The angel of the LORD said to her, "Behold, you are with child, and will bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has heard your affliction.

He will be like a wild donkey among men. His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him. He will live opposite all of his brothers."

Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai Roi. Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, "I am El Shaddai. Walk before me, and be blameless.

I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly."

"As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations.

Neither will your name any more be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you.

I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your seed after you.

I will give to you, and to your seed after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God."

God said to Abraham, "As for you, you will keep my covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations.

You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It will be a token of the covenant between me and you.

He who is eight days old will be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he who is born in the house, or bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your seed.

He who is born in your house, and he who is bought with your money, must be circumcised. My covenant will be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.

God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but her name will be Sarah.

And I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. And I will bless her, and she will be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her."

Then Abraham fell on his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, "Will a child be born to him who is one hundred years old? Will Sarah, who is ninety years old, give birth?"

God said, "No, but Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.

As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He will become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.

But my covenant I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year."

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

All the men of his house, those born in the house, and those bought with money of a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

I will get a morsel of bread so you can refresh your heart. After that you may go your way, now that you have come to your servant." They said, "Very well, do as you have said."

Then he said, "I will certainly return to you when the season comes round. Behold, Sarah your wife will have a son." Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age. It had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.

Sarah laughed within herself, saying, "After I have grown old will I have pleasure, my lord being old also?"

The LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Will I really bear a child, yet I am old?'

Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son."

The LORD said, "Will I hide from Abraham what 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?

I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know."

Abraham drew near, and said, "Will you consume the righteous with the wicked?

What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous who are in it?

Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn't the Judge of all the earth do right?"

The LORD said, "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sake."

What if there will lack five of the fifty righteous? Will you destroy all the city for lack of five?" He said, "I will not destroy it, if I find forty-five there."

He spoke to him yet again, and said, "What if there are forty found there?" He said, "I will not do it for the forty's sake."

He said, "Oh do not let the Lord be angry, and I will speak. What if there are thirty found there?" He said, "I will not do it, if I find thirty there."

He said, "See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord. What if there are twenty found there?" He said, "I will not destroy it for the twenty's sake."

He said, "Oh do not let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?" He said, "I will not destroy it for the ten's sake."

and he said, "See now, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house, stay all night, wash your feet, and you will rise up early, and go on your way." They said, "No, but we will stay in the street all night."

But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.

They said, "Stand back." They said, "This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them." They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door.

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."

Lot went out, and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters, and said, "Get up. Get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be joking.

See now, this city is near to flee to, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape there (isn't it a little one?), and my soul will live."

He said to him, "Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on 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.

The firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.

Come, let's make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."

Now Abimelech had not come near her. He said, "Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation?

God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also withheld you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not allow you to touch her.

Now therefore, restore the man's wife. For he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. If you do not restore her, know for sure that you will die, you, and all who are yours."

Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ear. The men were very scared.

Abraham said, "Because I thought, 'Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife's sake.'

To Sarah he said, "Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes to all that are with you. In front of all you are vindicated."

For the LORD had closed up tight all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

Sarah said, "God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me."

Therefore she said to Abraham, "Cast out this handmaid and her son. For the son of this handmaid will not be heir with my son, Isaac."

God said to Abraham, "Do not let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your handmaid. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For from Isaac will your seed be called.

I will also make a nation of the son of the handmaid, because he is your seed."

Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him in your hand. For I will make him a great nation."

God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, filled the bottle with water, and gave the boy drink.

It happened at that time, that Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, "God is with you in all that you do.

Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner."

Abraham said, "I will swear."

Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away.

He said, "You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may be a witness to me, that I have dug this well."

He said, "Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of."

Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go yonder. We will worship, and come back to you."

Abraham said, "God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they both went together.

Abraham called the name of that place the LORD Will Provide. As it is said to this day, "On the LORD's mountain, it will be provided."

that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your seed greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.

In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice."

"Hear us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the best of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to prevent you from burying your dead."

Now Ephron was sitting in the middle of the children of Heth. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying,

He spoke to Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, "But if you will, please hear me. I will give the price of the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there."

So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all of its borders, were deeded

to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city.

Abraham was old, and well stricken in age. The LORD had blessed Abraham in all things.

Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his house, who ruled over all that he had, "Please put your hand under my thigh.

I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live.

The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house, and from the land of my birth, who spoke to me, and who swore to me, saying, 'I will give this land to your seed.' He will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.

He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time that women go out to draw water.