Warning Against the Adulteress

God's Covenant with Abram

15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ^(A)“Fear not, Abram, I am ^(B)your shield; your reward shall be very great.” ² But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue^[a] childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³ And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and ^(C)a member of my household will be my heir.” ⁴ And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; ^(D)your very own son^[b] shall be your heir.” ⁵ And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and ^(E)number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, ^(F)“So shall your offspring be.” ⁶ And ^(G)he believed the Lord, and ^(H)he counted it to him as righteousness.

⁷ And he said to him, “I am the Lord who ^(I)brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans ^(J)to give you this land to possess.” ⁸ But he said, “O Lord God, ^(K)how am I to know that I shall possess it?” ⁹ He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰ And he brought him all these, ^(L)cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But ^(M)he did not cut the birds in half. ¹¹ And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹² As the sun was going down, a ^(N)deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. ¹³ Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain ^(O)that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and ^(P)they will be afflicted for ^(Q)four hundred years. ¹⁴ But ^(R)I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward ^(S)they shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵ As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; ^(T)you shall be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶ And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for ^(U)the iniquity of the Amorites ^(V)is not yet complete.”

¹⁷ When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. ¹⁸ On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ^(W)“To your offspring I give^[c] this land, from ^(X)the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites.”

Sarai and Hagar

16 ^(Y)Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was ^(Z)Hagar. ² And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children^[d] by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. ³ So, after Abram ^(AA)had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. ⁴ And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, ^(AB)she looked with contempt on her mistress.^{[e] 5} And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May ^(AC)the Lord judge between you and me!” ⁶ But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.

⁷ The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to ^(AD)Shur. ⁸ And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” ⁹ The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” ¹⁰ The angel of the Lord also said to her, ^(AE)“I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” ¹¹ And the angel of the Lord said to her,

¹³ So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,”^[g] for she said, ^(AI)“Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”^{[h] 14} Therefore the well was called ^(AJ)Beer-lahai-roi;^[i] it lies between ^(AK)Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.

Abraham and the Covenant of Circumcision

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty;^[j] walk before me, and be ^(AL)blameless, ² that I may make my covenant between me and you, and ^(AM)may multiply you greatly.” ³ Then Abram ^(AN)fell on his face. And God said to him, ⁴ “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be ^(AO)the father of a multitude of nations. ⁵ No longer shall your name be called Abram,^[k] but ^(AP)your name shall be Abraham,^{[l] (AQ)}for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. ⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make ^(AR)you into nations, and ^(AS)kings shall come from you. ⁷ And I will ^(AT)establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, ^(AU)to be God to you and to your offspring after you. ⁸ And ^(AV)I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and ^(AW)I will be their God.”

⁹ And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. ¹⁰ This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. ¹¹ You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a ^(AX)sign of the covenant between me and you. ¹² He who is ^(AY)eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or ^(AZ)bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, ¹³ both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. ¹⁴ Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

Isaac's Birth Promised

¹⁵ And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah^[m] shall be her name. ¹⁶ I will bless her, and moreover, I will ^(BA)give^[n] you a son by her. I will bless her, and ^(BB)she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” ¹⁷ Then Abraham ^(BC)fell on his face ^(BD)and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” ¹⁸ And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” ¹⁹ God said, “No, but ^(BE)Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name ^(BF)Isaac.^[o] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. ²⁰ As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and ^(BG)multiply him greatly. He ^(BH)shall father twelve princes, and ^(BI)I will make him into a great nation. ²¹ But ^(BJ)I will establish my covenant with Isaac, ^(BK)whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

²² When he had finished talking with him, ^(BL)God went up from Abraham. ²³ Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. ²⁴ Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. ²⁵ And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. ²⁶ That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. ²⁷ And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

The Apostles Arrested and Freed

¹⁷ But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of ^(A)the Sadducees), and filled with ^(B)jealousy ¹⁸ they arrested the apostles and ^(C)put them in the public prison. ¹⁹ But during the night ^(D)an angel of the Lord ^(E)opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, ²⁰ “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all ^(F)the words of ^(G)this ^(H)Life.” ²¹ And when they heard this, ^(I)they entered the temple ^(J)at daybreak and began to teach.

Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the senate of the people of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. ²² But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, ²³ “We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside.” ²⁴ Now when ^(K)the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. ²⁵ And someone came and told them, “Look! The men whom you put in prison ^(L)are standing in the temple and teaching the people.” ²⁶ Then ^(M)the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for ^(N)they were afraid of being stoned by the people.

²⁷ And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, ²⁸ saying, ^(O)“We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you ^(P)intend to bring this man's blood upon us.” ²⁹ But Peter and the apostles answered, ^(Q)“We must obey God rather than men. ^30 (R)The God of our fathers ^(S)raised Jesus, ^(T)whom you killed by hanging him on ^(U)a tree. ³¹ God exalted ^(V)him at his right hand as ^(W)Leader and ^(X)Savior, ^(Y)to give ^(Z)repentance to Israel and ^(AA)forgiveness of sins. ³² And ^(AB)we are witnesses to these things, and ^(AC)so is the Holy Spirit, ^(AD)whom God has given to those who obey him.”

³³ When they heard this, they ^(AE)were enraged and wanted to kill them. ³⁴ But a Pharisee in the council named ^(AF)Gamaliel, ^(AG)a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. ³⁵ And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. ³⁶ For ^(AH)before these days Theudas rose up, ^(AI)claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. ³⁷ After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of ^(AJ)the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. ³⁸ So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for ^(AK)if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; ³⁹ but ^(AL)if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You ^(AM)might even be found opposing God!” So they took his advice, ⁴⁰ and ^(AN)when they had called in the apostles, ^(AO)they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. ⁴¹ Then they left the presence of the council, ^(AP)rejoicing that they were counted worthy ^(AQ)to suffer dishonor for ^(AR)the name. ⁴² And every day, ^(AS)in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and ^(AT)preaching ^(AU)that the Christ is Jesus.