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From Shem to Abram
This is the account of Shem’s family line. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad.
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After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
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Abram’s Family
This is the account of Terah’s family line. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.
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Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah.
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Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.
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The Call of Abram
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
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So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.
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Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
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The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
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Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.
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Abram in Egypt
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
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When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman.
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He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.
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But the Lord inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai.
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So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?
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Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.
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Abram and Lot Separate
So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him.
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Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold.
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and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord.
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Now Lot, who was moving about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents.
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And quarreling arose between Abram’s herders and Lot’s. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.
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So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives.
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Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.
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The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west.
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So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord.
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Abram Rescues Lot
At the time when Amraphel was king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goyim,
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They also carried off Abram’s nephew Lot and his possessions, since he was living in Sodom.
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A man who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshkol and Aner, all of whom were allied with Abram.
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When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan.
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During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus.
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After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).
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and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.
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And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
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The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.”
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But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “With raised hand I have sworn an oath to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,
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that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’
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The Lord’s Covenant With Abram
After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
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But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?”
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And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
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Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
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But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?”
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Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.
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Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
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As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
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On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—
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Hagar and Ishmael
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar;
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so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
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So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.
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Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
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“Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
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So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.
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Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
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The Covenant of Circumcision
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless.
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Abram fell facedown, and God said to him,
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No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.
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and Abram (that is, Abraham).
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“You are the Lord God, who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and named him Abraham.
