The Living Bible (7 page)

Genesis
15

Afterwards Jehovah spoke to Abram in a vision, and this is what he told him: “Don’t be fearful, Abram, for I will defend you. And I will give you great blessings.”

    
^2-3
 But Abram replied, “O Lord Jehovah, what good are all your blessings when I have no son? For without a son, some other member of my household
*
will inherit all my wealth.”

    
⁴
 Then Jehovah told him, “No, no one else will be your heir, for you will have a son to inherit everything you own.”

    
⁵
 Then God brought Abram outside beneath the nighttime sky and told him, “Look up into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that—too many to count!”
⁶
 And Abram believed God; then God considered him righteous on account of his faith.

    
⁷
 And he told him, “I am Jehovah who brought you out of the city of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land.”

    
⁸
 But Abram replied, “O Lord Jehovah, how can I be sure that you will give it to me?”
⁹
 Then Jehovah told him to take a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon,
¹⁰
 and to slay them and to cut them apart down the middle, and to separate the halves, but not to divide the birds.
¹¹
 And when the vultures came down upon the carcasses, Abram shooed them away.

    
¹²
 That evening as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a vision of terrible foreboding, darkness, and horror.

    
¹³
 Then Jehovah told Abram, “Your descendants will be oppressed as slaves in a foreign land for 400 years.
¹⁴
 But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and at the end they will come away with great wealth.
¹⁵
 (But you will die in peace, at a ripe old age.)
¹⁶
 After four generations they will return here to this land; for the wickedness of the Amorite nations living here now
*
will not be ready for punishment until then.”

    
¹⁷
 As the sun went down and it was dark, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch that passed between the halves of the carcasses.
¹⁸
 So that day Jehovah made this covenant with Abram: “I have given this land to your descendants from the Wadi-el-Arish
*
to the Euphrates River.
^19-21
 And I give to them these nations: Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, Jebusites.”

Genesis
16

But Sarai and Abram had no children. So Sarai took her maid, an Egyptian girl named Hagar,
^2-3
 and gave her to Abram to be his second wife.

    
“Since the Lord has given me no children,” Sarai said, “you may sleep with my servant girl, and her children shall be mine.”

    
And Abram agreed. (This took place ten years after Abram had first arrived in the land of Canaan.)
⁴
 So he slept with Hagar, and she conceived; and when she realized she was pregnant, she became very proud and arrogant toward her mistress Sarai.

    
⁵
 Then Sarai said to Abram, “It’s all your fault. For now this servant girl of mine despises me, though I myself gave her the privilege of being your wife. May the Lord judge you for doing this to me!”
*

    
⁶
 “You have my permission to punish the girl as you see fit,” Abram replied. So Sarai beat her and she ran away.

    
⁷
 The Angel of the Lord found her beside a desert spring along the road to Shur.

⁸
 
The Angel:
“Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

Hagar:
“I am running away from my mistress.”

^9-12
 
The Angel:
“Return to your mistress and act as you should, for I will make you into a great nation. Yes, you are pregnant and your baby will be a son, and you are to name him Ishmael (‘God hears’), because God has heard your woes. This son of yours will be a wild one—free and untamed as a wild ass! He will be against everyone, and everyone will feel the same toward him. But he will live near the rest of his kin.”

    
¹³
 Thereafter
*
Hagar spoke of Jehovah—for it was he who appeared to her—as “the God who looked upon me,” for she thought, “I saw God and lived to tell it.”

    
¹⁴
 Later that well was named “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.” It lies between Kadesh and Bered.

    
¹⁵
 So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael.
¹⁶
 (Abram was eighty-six years old at this time.)

Genesis
17

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, God appeared to him and told him, “I am the Almighty; obey me and live as you should.
^2-4
 I will prepare a contract between us, guaranteeing to make you into a mighty nation. In fact you shall be the father of not only one nation, but a multitude of nations!” Abram fell face downward in the dust as God talked with him.

    
⁵
 “What’s more,” God told him, “I am changing your name. It is no longer ‘Abram’ (‘Exalted Father’), but ‘Abraham’ (‘Father of Nations’)—for that is what you will be. I have declared it.
⁶
 I will give you millions of descendants who will form many nations! Kings shall be among your descendants!
^7-8
 And I will continue this agreement between us generation after generation, forever, for it shall be between me and your children as well. It is a contract that I shall be your God and the God of your posterity. And I will give all this land of Canaan to you and them, forever. And I will be your God.

    
^9-10
 “Your part of the contract,” God told him, “is to obey its terms. You personally and all your posterity have this continual responsibility: that every male among you shall be circumcised;
¹¹
 the foreskin of his penis shall be cut off. This will be the proof that you and they accept this covenant.
¹²
 Every male shall be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. This applies to every foreign-born slave as well as to everyone born in your household. This is a permanent part of this contract, and it applies to all your posterity.
¹³
 All must be circumcised. Your bodies will thus be marked as participants in my everlasting covenant.
¹⁴
 Anyone who refuses these terms shall be cut off from his people; for he has violated my contract.”

    
¹⁵
 Then God added, “Regarding Sarai your wife—her name is no longer ‘Sarai’ but ‘Sarah’ (‘Princess’).
¹⁶
 And I will bless her and give you a son from her! Yes, I will bless her richly, and make her the mother of nations! Many kings shall be among your posterity.”

    
¹⁷
 Then Abraham threw himself down in worship before the Lord, but inside he was laughing in disbelief!
*
“Me, be a father?” he said in amusement. “Me—100 years old? And Sarah, to have a baby at 90?”

    
¹⁸
 And Abraham said to God, “Yes, do bless Ishmael!”

    
¹⁹
 “No,” God replied, “that isn’t what I said.
Sarah
shall bear you a son; and you are to name him Isaac (‘Laughter’), and I will sign my covenant with him forever, and with his descendants.
²⁰
 As for Ishmael, all right, I will bless him also, just as you have asked me to. I will cause him to multiply and become a great nation. Twelve princes shall be among his posterity.
²¹
 But my contract is with Isaac, who will be born to you and Sarah next year at about this time.”

    
²²
 That ended the conversation and God left.
²³
 Then, that very day, Abraham took Ishmael his son and every other male—born in his household or bought from outside—and cut off their foreskins, just as God had told him to.
^24-27
 Abraham was ninety-nine years old at that time, and Ishmael was thirteen. Both were circumcised the same day, along with all the other men and boys of the household, whether born there or bought as slaves.

Genesis
18

The Lord appeared again to Abraham while he was living in the oak grove at Mamre. This is the way it happened: One hot summer afternoon as he was sitting in the opening of his tent,
²
 he suddenly noticed three men coming toward him. He sprang up and ran to meet them and welcomed them.

    
^3-4
 “Sirs,” he said, “please don’t go any farther. Stop awhile and rest here in the shade of this tree while I get water to refresh your feet,
⁵
 and a bite to eat to strengthen you. Do stay awhile before continuing your journey.”

    
“All right,” they said, “do as you have said.”

    
⁶
 Then Abraham ran back to the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Mix up some pancakes!
*
Use your best flour, and make enough for the three of them!”
⁷
 Then he ran out to the herd and selected a fat calf and told a servant to hurry and butcher it.
⁸
 Soon, taking them cheese and milk and the roast veal, he set it before the men and stood beneath the trees beside them as they ate.

    
⁹
 “Where is Sarah, your wife?” they asked him.

    
“In the tent,” Abraham replied.

    
¹⁰
 Then the Lord said, “Next year
*
I will give you and Sarah a son!” (Sarah was listening from the tent door behind him.)
¹¹
 Now Abraham and Sarah were both very old, and Sarah was long since past the time when she could have a baby.

    
¹²
 So Sarah laughed silently. “A woman my age have a baby?” she scoffed to herself. “And with a husband as old as mine?”

    
¹³
 Then God said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’
¹⁴
 Is anything too hard for God? Next year, just as I told you, I will certainly see to it that Sarah has a son.”

    
¹⁵
 But Sarah denied it. “I didn’t laugh,” she lied, for she was afraid.

    
¹⁶
 Then the men stood up from their meal and started on toward Sodom; and Abraham went with them part of the way.

    
¹⁷
 “Should I hide my plan from Abraham?” God asked.
¹⁸
 “For Abraham shall become a mighty nation, and he will be a source of blessing for all the nations of the earth.
¹⁹
 And I have picked him out to have godly descendants and a godly household—men who are just and good—so that I can do for him all I have promised.”

    
²⁰
 So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are utterly evil, and that everything they do is wicked.
²¹
 I am going down to see whether these reports are true or not. Then I will know.”

    
^22-23
 So the other two went on toward Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham a while. Then Abraham approached him and said, “Will you kill good and bad alike?
²⁴
 Suppose you find fifty godly people there within the city—will you destroy it, and not spare it for their sakes?
²⁵
 That wouldn’t be right! Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, to kill the godly with the wicked! Why, you would be treating godly and wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn’t do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth be fair?”

    
²⁶
 And God replied, “If I find fifty godly people there, I will spare the entire city for their sake.”

    
²⁷
 Then Abraham spoke again. “Since I have begun, let me go on and speak further to the Lord, though I am but dust and ashes.
²⁸
 
Suppose there are only forty-five?
Will you destroy the city for lack of five?”

    
And God said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five.”

    
²⁹
 Then Abraham went further with his request.
“Suppose there are only forty?”

    
And God replied, “I won’t destroy it if there are forty.”

    
³⁰
 “Please don’t be angry,” Abraham pleaded. “Let me speak:
suppose only thirty are found there?”

    
And God replied, “I won’t do it if there are thirty there.”

    
³¹
 Then Abraham said, “Since I have dared to speak to God, let me continue
—suppose there are only twenty?”

    
And God said, “Then I won’t destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”

    
³²
 Finally, Abraham said, “Oh, let not the Lord be angry; I will speak but this once more!
Suppose only ten are found?”

    
And God said, “Then, for the sake of the ten, I won’t destroy it.”

    
³³
 And the Lord went on his way when he had finished his conversation with Abraham. And Abraham returned to his tent.