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?"

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.

When he finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

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.

In the same day both Abraham and Ishmael, his son, were circumcised.

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

and said, "My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please do not go away from your servant.

Now let a little water be fetched, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.

Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, "Quickly make ready three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes."

Abraham ran to the herd, and fetched a tender and good calf, and gave it to the servant. He hurried to dress it.

He took butter, milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them. He stood by them under the tree, and they ate.

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

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 men rose up from there, and looked toward Sodom. Abraham went with them to see them on their way.

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 have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that the LORD may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him."

The LORD said, "Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous,

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."

The men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.

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?

Abraham answered, "See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, who am but dust and ashes.

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, "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."

The LORD went his way, as soon as he had finished communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

The two angels came to Sodom at evening. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. Lot saw them, and rose up to meet them. He bowed himself with his face to the earth,

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."

He urged them greatly, and they came in with him, and entered into his house. He made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

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 called to Lot, and said to him, "Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them."

Lot went out to them to the door, and shut the door after him.

See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only do not do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof."

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.

But the men put forth their hand, and brought Lot into the house to them, and shut the door.

They struck the men who were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

The men said to Lot, "Do you have anybody else here? Sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whoever you have in the city, bring them out of the place:

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.

When the morning came, then the angels hurried Lot, saying, "Get up. Take your wife, and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the iniquity of the city."

But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife's hand, and his two daughters' hands, the LORD being merciful to him; and they took him out, and set him outside of the city.

It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, "Escape for your life. Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed."

See now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown to me in saving my life. I can't escape to the mountain, lest the disaster overtake me, and I die.

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."

Then the LORD rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of the sky.

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

But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

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.

It happened, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

Lot went up out of Zoar, and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave with his two daughters.

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."

They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down, nor when she arose.

It came to pass on the next day, that the firstborn said to the younger, "Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine again, tonight. You go in, and lie with him, that we may preserve our father's seed."

They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He did not know when she lay down, nor when she got up.

The firstborn bore a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.

The younger also bore a son, and called his name Ben Ammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.

Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the Negev, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a foreigner in Gerar.

Abraham said about Sarah his wife, "She is my sister." Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, "Behold, you are a dead man, because of the woman whom you have taken. For she is a man's wife."

Did not he tell me, 'She is my sister?' She, even she herself, said, 'He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands have I done this."

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.

Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said to him, "What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done."

Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

Abimelech took sheep and cattle, male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored Sarah, his wife, to him.

Abraham prayed to God. God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his female servants, and they bore children.

The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had spoken.

Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

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

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.

Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a bottle of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder; and gave her the child, and sent her away. She departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

The water in the bottle was spent, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.

She went and sat down opposite him, a good way off, about a bow shot away. For she said, "Do not let me see the death of the child." She sat over against him, and lifted up her voice, and wept.

God heard the voice of the boy. The angel of God called to Hagar out of the sky, and said to her, "What ails you, Hagar? Do not be afraid. For God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

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.

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

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 took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant.

So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Abimelech rose up with Phicol, the captain of his army, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.

It happened after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham." He said, "Here I am."

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

On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place far off.

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 took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife. They both went together.

Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, "My father?" He said, "Here I am, my son." He said, "Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"

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

They came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on the wood.

Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to kill his son.

The angel of the LORD called to him out of the sky, and said, "Abraham, Abraham." He said, "Here I am."

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, 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 said, "I have sworn by myself, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son,

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.