⁵² When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he ^(A)bowed himself to the ground ^[a]before the Lord. ⁵³ And the servant brought out ^(B)articles of silver and articles of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave precious things to her brother and to her mother. ⁵⁴ Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night. When they got up in the morning, he said, “^(C)Send me away to my master.” ⁵⁵ But her brother and her mother said, “^(D)Let the young woman stay with us a few days, say ten; afterward she may go.” ⁵⁶ However, he said to them, “Do not delay me, since ^(E)the Lord has prospered my way. Send me away so that I may go to my master.” ⁵⁷ And they said, “We will call the young woman and ^[b]ask her.” ⁵⁸ Then they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” And she said, “I will go.” ⁵⁹ So they sent away their sister Rebekah and ^(F)her nurse with Abraham’s servant and his men. ⁶⁰ And they blessed Rebekah and said to her,

⁶¹ Then Rebekah got up with her female attendants, and they mounted the camels and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and departed.

Isaac Marries Rebekah

⁶² Now Isaac had come back from ^[d]a journey to ^(I)Beer-lahai-roi; for he was living in ^(J)the ^[e]Negev. ⁶³ Isaac went out ^(K)to ^[f]meditate in the field toward evening; and ^(L)he raised his eyes and looked, and behold, camels were coming. ⁶⁴ Rebekah raised her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel. ⁶⁵ She said to the servant, “Who is that man walking in the field to meet us?” And the servant said, “He is my master.” Then she took her ^[g]veil and covered herself. ⁶⁶ The servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. ⁶⁷ Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and ^(M)he took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and ^(N)he loved her; so Isaac was comforted after ^(O)his mother’s death.

Abraham’s Death

25 Now Abraham took another wife, ^[h]whose name was Keturah. ^2 (P)She bore to him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. ³ Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim. ⁴ The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All of these were the sons of Keturah. ^5 (Q)Now Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac; ⁶ but to the sons of ^[i]his concubines, Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and ^(R)sent them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the land of the east.

⁷ These are ^[j]all the years of Abraham’s life that he lived, ^(S)175 years. ⁸ Abraham breathed his last and died ^(T)at a good old age, an old man and satisfied with life; and he was ^(U)gathered to his people. ⁹ Then his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in ^(V)the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre, ^10 (W)the field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth; there Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah. ¹¹ It came about after the death of Abraham, that ^(X)God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac ^[k]lived by ^(Y)Beer-lahai-roi.

Descendants of Ishmael

¹² Now these are the records of the generations of ^(Z)Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave woman, bore to Abraham; ¹³ and these are the names of ^(AA)the sons of Ishmael, by their names, ^[l]in the order of their birth: Nebaioth, the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, ¹⁴ Mishma, Dumah, Massa, ¹⁵ Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. ¹⁶ These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages, and by their camps; ^(AB)twelve princes according to their ^[m]tribes. ¹⁷ These are the years of the life of Ishmael, ^(AC)137 years; and he breathed his last and died, and was ^(AD)gathered to his people. ¹⁸ They ^[n]settled from ^(AE)Havilah to ^(AF)Shur which is ^[o]east of Egypt ^[p]going toward Assyria; ^(AG)he ^[q]settled in defiance of all his relatives.

Isaac’s Sons

¹⁹ Now these are the records of ^(AH)the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac; ²⁰ and Isaac was forty years old when he took ^(AI)Rebekah, the ^(AJ)daughter of Bethuel the ^[r]Aramean of Paddan-aram, the ^(AK)sister of Laban the ^[s]Aramean, to be his wife. ²¹ Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children; and ^(AL)the Lord ^[t]answered him, and his wife Rebekah ^(AM)conceived. ²² But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is so, why am I in this condition?” So she went to ^(AN)inquire of the Lord. ²³ And the Lord said to her,

²⁴ When her days leading to the delivery were at an end, behold, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵ Now the first came out red, ^(AR)all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau. ²⁶ Afterward his brother came out with ^(AS)his hand holding on to Esau’s heel, so ^(AT)he was named ^[u]Jacob; and Isaac was ^(AU)sixty years old when she gave birth to them.

²⁷ When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a ^[v]civilized man, ^(AV)living in tents. ²⁸ Now Isaac loved Esau because ^[w]he had ^(AW)a taste for game; ^(AX)but Rebekah loved Jacob. ²⁹ When Jacob had cooked a ^(AY)stew one day, Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted; ³⁰ and Esau said to Jacob, “Please let me have a mouthful of ^[x]that red stuff there, for I am exhausted.” Therefore he was called ^[y]Edom by name. ³¹ But Jacob said, “^[z]First sell me your ^(AZ)birthright.” ³² Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so of what use then is the birthright to me?” ³³ And Jacob said, “^[aa]First swear to me”; so he swore an oath to him, and ^(BA)sold his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and got up and went on his way. So Esau despised his birthright.

Isaac Settles in Gerar

26 Now there was ^(BB)a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to ^(BC)Abimelech king of the Philistines. ² And the Lord ^(BD)appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; ^(BE)stay in the land of which I shall tell you. ³ Live for a time in this land and ^(BF)I will be with you and ^(BG)bless you, for ^(BH)to you and to your ^[ab]descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish ^(BI)the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. ^4 (BJ)I will multiply your ^[ac]descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your ^[ad]descendants all these lands; and ^(BK)by your ^[ae]descendants all the nations of the earth ^[af]shall be blessed, ⁵ because Abraham ^[ag](BL)obeyed Me and fulfilled his duty to Me, and kept My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

⁶ So Isaac lived in Gerar. ⁷ When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “^(BM)She is my sister,” for he was ^(BN)afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “^[ah]the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, since she is ^(BO)beautiful.” ⁸ Now it came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down through a window, and saw them, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah. ⁹ Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she certainly is your wife! So how is it that you said, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘otherwise I might be killed on account of her.’” ¹⁰ And ^(BP)Abimelech said, “What is this that you have done to us? One of the people might easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” ¹¹ So Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who ^(BQ)touches this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.”

¹² Now Isaac sowed in that land and ^[ai]reaped in the same year a hundred times as much. And ^(BR)the Lord blessed him, ¹³ and the man ^(BS)became rich, and continued to grow ^[aj]richer until he became very ^[ak]wealthy; ¹⁴ for ^(BT)he had possessions of flocks ^[al]and herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵ Now ^(BU)all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up ^[am]by filling them with dirt. ¹⁶ Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are ^[an](BV)too powerful for us.”

Discipleship Tested

¹⁸ Now when Jesus saw a crowd around Him, ^(A)He gave orders to depart to the other side of the sea. ^19 (B)Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” ²⁰ And Jesus *said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the sky have nests, but ^(C)the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” ²¹ And another of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.” ²² But Jesus *said to him, “^(D)Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Jesus Calms the Storm

^23 (E)When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. ²⁴ And behold, a ^[a]violent storm developed on the sea, so that the boat was being covered by the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. ²⁵ And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “^(F)Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” ²⁶ He *said to them, “Why are you ^[b]afraid, ^(G)you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and ^[c]it became perfectly calm. ²⁷ The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

Jesus Sends Demons into Pigs

^28 (H)And when He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two ^(I)demon-possessed men confronted Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way. ²⁹ And they cried out, saying, “^[d](J)What business do You have with us, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before ^[e]the time?” ³⁰ Now there was a herd of many pigs feeding at a distance from them. ³¹ And the demons begged Him, saying, “If You are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of pigs.” ³² And He said to them, “Go!” And they came out and went into the pigs; and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and ^[f]drowned in the waters. ³³ And the herdsmen ran away, and went to the city and reported everything, ^[g]including what had happened to the ^(K)demon-possessed men. ³⁴ And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, ^(L)they pleaded with Him to leave their region.

A Prayer for the Overthrow of the Wicked.