Thematic Bible: The miraculous son of abraham


Thematic Bible



That night the Lord came to him in a vision, and said, I am the God of your father Abraham: have no fear for I am with you, blessing you, and your seed will be increased because of my servant Abraham.

The agreement which he made with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac;

But God said, Let it not be a grief to you because of the boy and Hagar his mother; give ear to whatever Sarah says to you, because it is from Isaac that your seed will take its name.

And I will give her a blessing so that you will have a son by her: truly my blessing will be on her, and she will be the mother of nations: kings of peoples will be her offspring. Then Abraham went down on his face, and laughing, said in his heart, May a man a hundred years old have a child? will Sarah, at ninety years old, give birth? And Abraham said to God, If only Ishmael's life might be your care! read more.
And God said, Not so; but Sarah, your wife, will have a son, and you will give him the name Isaac, and I will make my agreement with him for ever and with his seed after him. As for Ishmael, I have given ear to your prayer: truly I have given him my blessing and I will make him fertile and give him great increase; he will be the father of twelve chiefs, and I will make him a great nation. But my agreement will be with Isaac, to whom Sarah will give birth a year from this time.

And he said, I will certainly come back to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife will have a son. And his words came to the ears of Sarah who was at the back of the tent-door. Now Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah was past the time for giving birth. And Sarah, laughing to herself, said, Now that I am used up am I still to have pleasure, my husband himself being old? read more.
And the Lord said, Why was Sarah laughing and saying, Is it possible for me, being old, to give birth to a child? Is there any wonder which the Lord is not able to do? At the time I said, in the spring, I will come back to you, and Sarah will have a child.

And the Lord came to him in a vision and said, Do not go down to Egypt; keep in the land of which I will give you knowledge: Keep in this land, and I will be with you and give you my blessing; for to you and to your seed will I give all these lands, giving effect to the oath which I made to your father Abraham; I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and will give them all these lands, and your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth; read more.
Because Abraham gave ear to my voice and kept my words, my rules, my orders, and my laws.

Have in mind Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you gave your oath, saying, I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and all this land will I give to your seed, as I said, to be their heritage for ever.

And they are not all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, In Isaac will your seed be named.


And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the River, guiding him through all the land of Canaan; I made his offspring great in number, and gave him Isaac.

And God said, As for Sarai, your wife, from now her name will be not Sarai, but Sarah. And I will give her a blessing so that you will have a son by her: truly my blessing will be on her, and she will be the mother of nations: kings of peoples will be her offspring. Then Abraham went down on his face, and laughing, said in his heart, May a man a hundred years old have a child? will Sarah, at ninety years old, give birth? read more.
And Abraham said to God, If only Ishmael's life might be your care! And God said, Not so; but Sarah, your wife, will have a son, and you will give him the name Isaac, and I will make my agreement with him for ever and with his seed after him.

Now the Lord came to him by the holy tree of Mamre, when he was seated in the doorway of his tent in the middle of the day; And lifting up his eyes, he saw three men before him; and seeing them, he went quickly to them from the door of the tent, and went down on his face to the earth; And said, My Lord, if now I have grace in your eyes, do not go away from your servant: read more.
Let me get water for washing your feet, and take your rest under the tree: And let me get a bit of bread to keep up your strength, and after that you may go on your way: for this is why you have come to your servant. And they said, Let it be so. Then Abraham went quickly into the tent, and said to Sarah, Get three measures of meal straight away and make cakes. And running to the herd, he took a young ox, soft and fat, and gave it to the servant and he quickly made it ready; And he took butter and milk and the young ox which he had made ready and put it before them, waiting by them under the tree while they took food. And they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, She is in the tent. And he said, I will certainly come back to you in the spring, and Sarah your wife will have a son. And his words came to the ears of Sarah who was at the back of the tent-door. Now Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah was past the time for giving birth. And Sarah, laughing to herself, said, Now that I am used up am I still to have pleasure, my husband himself being old? And the Lord said, Why was Sarah laughing and saying, Is it possible for me, being old, to give birth to a child? Is there any wonder which the Lord is not able to do? At the time I said, in the spring, I will come back to you, and Sarah will have a child. Then Sarah said, I was not laughing; for she was full of fear. And he said, No, but you were laughing.

And the Lord came to Sarah as he had said and did to her as he had undertaken. And Sarah became with child, and gave Abraham a son when he was old, at the time named by God. And Abraham gave to his son, to whom Sarah had given birth, the name Isaac. read more.
And when his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham made him undergo circumcision, as God had said to him. Now Abraham was a hundred years old when the birth of Isaac took place. And Sarah said, God has given me cause for laughing, and everyone who has news of it will be laughing with me. And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would have a child at her breast? for see, I have given him a son now when he is old. And when the child was old enough to be taken from the breast, Abraham made a great feast.

The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael.

Now we, brothers, as Isaac was, are the children of the undertaking of God.



There will be weeping and cries of sorrow when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves are shut outside.


Then he made an altar there, and gave worship to the name of the Lord, and he put up his tents there, and there his servants made a water-hole.


And when the evening was near, he went wandering out into the fields, and lifting up his eyes he saw camels coming.


Now after these things, God put Abraham to the test, and said to him, Abraham; and he said, Here am I. And he said to him, Take your son, your dearly loved only son Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and give him as a burned offering on one of the mountains of which I will give you knowledge. And Abraham got up early in the morning, and made ready his ass, and took with him two of his young men and Isaac, his son, and after the wood for the burned offering had been cut, he went on his way to the place of which God had given him word. read more.
And on the third day, Abraham, lifting up his eyes, saw the place a long way off. Then he said to his young men, Keep here with the ass; and I and the boy will go on and give worship and come back again to you. And Abraham put the wood for the burned offering on his son's back, and he himself took the fire and the knife in his hand, and the two of them went on together. Then Isaac said to Abraham, My father; and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, We have wood and fire here, but where is the lamb for the burned offering? And Abraham said, God himself will give the lamb for the burned offering: so they went on together. And they came to the place of which God had given him knowledge; and there Abraham made the altar and put the wood in place on it, and having made tight the bands round Isaac his son, he put him on the wood on the altar. And stretching out his hand, Abraham took the knife to put his son to death. But the voice of the angel of the Lord came from heaven, saying, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Let not your hand be stretched out against the boy to do anything to him; for now I am certain that the fear of God is in your heart, because you have not kept back your son, your only son, from me. And lifting up his eyes, Abraham saw a sheep fixed by its horns in the brushwood: and Abraham took the sheep and made a burned offering of it in place of his son. And Abraham gave that place the name Yahweh-yireh: as it is said to this day, In the mountain the Lord is seen. And the voice of the angel of the Lord came to Abraham a second time from heaven, Saying, I have taken an oath by my name, says the Lord, because you have done this and have not kept back from me your dearly loved only son, That I will certainly give you my blessing, and your seed will be increased like the stars of heaven and the sand by the seaside; your seed will take the land of those who are against them; And your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, because you have done what I gave you orders to do. Then Abraham went back to his young men and they went together to Beer-sheba, the place where Abraham was living.


Was not the righteousness of Abraham our father judged by his works, when he made an offering of Isaac his son on the altar?


Now these are the generations of Abraham's son Isaac: Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramaean of Paddan-aram, and the sister of Laban the Aramaean, to be his wife. Isaac made prayer to the Lord for his wife because she had no children; and the Lord gave ear to his prayer, and Rebekah became with child. read more.
And the children were fighting together inside her, and she said, If it is to be so, why am I like this? So she went to put her question to the Lord. And the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your body, and two peoples will come to birth from you: the one will be stronger than the other, and the older will be the servant of the younger. And when the time came for her to give birth, there were two children in her body. And the first came out red from head to foot like a robe of hair, and they gave him the name of Esau. And after him, his brother came out, gripping Esau's foot; and he was named Jacob: Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them.

And Abraham was the father of Isaac. The sons of Isaac: Esau and Israel.

And to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau: to Esau I gave Mount Seir, as his heritage; but Jacob and his children went down to Egypt.


By your sword will you get your living and you will be your brother's servant; but when your power is increased his yoke will be broken from off your neck.


May God give you the dew of heaven, and the good things of the earth, and grain and wine in full measure: Let peoples be your servants, and nations go down before you: be lord over your brothers, and let your mother's sons go down before you: a curse be on everyone by whom you are cursed, and a blessing on those who give you a blessing.

And Esau said to his father, Is that the only blessing you have, my father? give a blessing to me, even me! And Esau was overcome with weeping.


And the Lord came to him in a vision and said, Do not go down to Egypt; keep in the land of which I will give you knowledge: Keep in this land, and I will be with you and give you my blessing; for to you and to your seed will I give all these lands, giving effect to the oath which I made to your father Abraham; I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and will give them all these lands, and your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth; read more.
Because Abraham gave ear to my voice and kept my words, my rules, my orders, and my laws.

He has kept his agreement in mind for ever, the word which he gave for a thousand generations; The agreement which he made with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac; And he gave it to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an eternal agreement; read more.
Saying, To you will I give the land of Canaan, the measured line of your heritage: When you were still small in number, and strange in the land;


There Abraham and Sarah his wife were put to rest, and there they put Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I put Leah to rest.

And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, at Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had been living. And Isaac was a hundred and eighty years old. Then Isaac came to his end and was put to rest with his father's people, an old man after a long life: and Jacob and Esau, his sons, put him in his last resting-place.


Now Isaac had come through the waste land to Beer-lahai-roi; for he was living in the South.

Now after the death of Abraham, the blessing of God was with Isaac, his son.


Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramaean of Paddan-aram, and the sister of Laban the Aramaean, to be his wife.


Now all the water-holes, which his father's servants had made in the days of Abraham, had been stopped up with earth by the Philistines.

Then they made another water-hole, and there was a fight about that, so he gave it the name of Sitnah.


Then he went away from there, and made another water-hole, about which there was no fighting: so he gave it the name of Rehoboth, for he said, Now the Lord has made room for us, and we will have fruit in this land. And from there he went on to Beer-sheba. That night the Lord came to him in a vision, and said, I am the God of your father Abraham: have no fear for I am with you, blessing you, and your seed will be increased because of my servant Abraham. read more.
Then he made an altar there, and gave worship to the name of the Lord, and he put up his tents there, and there his servants made a water-hole. And Abimelech had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol, the captain of his army. And Isaac said to them, Why have you come to me, seeing that in your hate for me you sent me away from you? And they said, We saw clearly that the Lord was with you: so we said, Let there be an oath between us and you, and let us make an agreement with you; That you will do us no damage, even as we put no hand on you, and did you nothing but good, and sent you away in peace: and now the blessing of the Lord is on you. Then he made a feast for them, and they all had food and drink. And early in the morning they took an oath one to the other: then Isaac sent them away and they went on their way in peace. And that day Isaac's servants came to him and gave him word of the water-hole which they had made, and said to him, We have come to water. And he gave it the name of Shibah: so the name of that town is Beer-sheba to this day.


And he came to his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I: who are you, my son? And Jacob said, I am Esau, your oldest son; I have done as you said: come now, be seated and take of my meat, so that you may give me a blessing. And Isaac said, How is it that you have got it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord your God made it come my way. read more.
And Isaac said, Come near so that I may put my hand on you, my son, and see if you are truly my son Esau or not. And Jacob went near his father Isaac: and he put his hands on him; and he said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he did not make out who he was, because his hands were covered with hair like his brother Esau's hands: so he gave him a blessing. And he said, Are you truly my son Esau? And he said, I am. And he said, Put it before me and I will take of my son's meat, so that I may give you a blessing. And he put it before him and he took it; and he gave him wine, and he had a drink. And his father Isaac said to him, Come near now, my son, and give me a kiss. And he came near and gave him a kiss; and smelling the smell of his clothing, he gave him a blessing, and said, See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field on which the blessing of the Lord has come: May God give you the dew of heaven, and the good things of the earth, and grain and wine in full measure: Let peoples be your servants, and nations go down before you: be lord over your brothers, and let your mother's sons go down before you: a curse be on everyone by whom you are cursed, and a blessing on those who give you a blessing. And when Isaac had come to the end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob had not long gone away from Isaac his father, Esau came in from the field. And he made ready a meal, good to the taste, and took it to his father, and said to him, Let my father get up and take of his son's meat, so that you may give me a blessing. And Isaac his father said to him, Who are you? And he said, I am your oldest son, Esau. And in great fear Isaac said, Who then is he who got meat and put it before me, and I took it all before you came, and gave him a blessing, and his it will be? And hearing the words of his father, Esau gave a great and bitter cry, and said to his father, Give a blessing to me, even to me, O my father! And he said, Your brother came with deceit, and took away your blessing. And he said, Is it because he is named Jacob that he has twice taken my place? for he took away my birthright, and now he has taken away my blessing. And he said, Have you not kept a blessing for me? And Isaac answering said, But I have made him your master, and have given him all his brothers for servants; I have made him strong with grain and wine: what then am I to do for you, my son? And Esau said to his father, Is that the only blessing you have, my father? give a blessing to me, even me! And Esau was overcome with weeping. Then Isaac his father made answer and said to him, Far from the fertile places of the earth, and far from the dew of heaven on high will your living-place be: By your sword will you get your living and you will be your brother's servant; but when your power is increased his yoke will be broken from off your neck.


For he had great wealth of flocks and herds and great numbers of servants; so that the Philistines were full of envy. Now all the water-holes, which his father's servants had made in the days of Abraham, had been stopped up with earth by the Philistines. And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away from us, for you are stronger than we are. read more.
So Isaac went away from there, and put up his tents in the valley of Gerar, making his living-place there. And he made again the water-holes which had been made in the days of Abraham his father, and which had been stopped up by the Philistines; and he gave them the names which his father had given them. Now Isaac's servants made holes in the valley, and came to a spring of flowing water. But the herdmen of Gerar had a fight with Isaac's herdmen, for they said, The spring is ours: so he gave the spring the name of Esek, because there was a fight about it. Then they made another water-hole, and there was a fight about that, so he gave it the name of Sitnah. Then he went away from there, and made another water-hole, about which there was no fighting: so he gave it the name of Rehoboth, for he said, Now the Lord has made room for us, and we will have fruit in this land.


Now Isaac, planting seed in that land, got in the same year fruit a hundred times as much, for the blessing of the Lord was on him. And his wealth became very great, increasing more and more; For he had great wealth of flocks and herds and great numbers of servants; so that the Philistines were full of envy.


And when he was questioned by the men of the place about his wife, he said, She is my sister; fearing to say, She is my wife; for, he said, the men of the place may put me to death on account of Rebekah; because she is very beautiful. And when he had been there for some time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looking through a window, saw Isaac playing with Rebekah his wife. And he said to Isaac, It is clear that she is your wife: why then did you say, She is my sister? And Isaac said, For fear that I might be put to death because of her. read more.
Then Abimelech said, What have you done to us? one of the people might well have had connection with your wife, and the sin would have been ours. And Abimelech gave orders to his people that anyone touching Isaac or his wife was to be put to death.


For he had great wealth of flocks and herds and great numbers of servants; so that the Philistines were full of envy.


And Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, put him to rest in the hollow rock of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, near Mamre;


And they came to the place of which God had given him knowledge; and there Abraham made the altar and put the wood in place on it, and having made tight the bands round Isaac his son, he put him on the wood on the altar.


The son of Abraham was Isaac; and the son of Isaac was Jacob; and the sons of Jacob were Judah and his brothers;


Basic English, produced by Mr C. K. Ogden of the Orthological Institute - public domain