Genesis 2-21

Good News Translation

2 And so the whole universe was completed. ^2 (A)By the seventh day God finished what he had been doing and stopped working. ³ He blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a special day, because by that day he had completed his creation^[a] and stopped working. ⁴ And that is how the universe was created.

The Garden of Eden

When the Lord^[b] God made the universe, ⁵ there were no plants on the earth and no seeds had sprouted, because he had not sent any rain, and there was no one to cultivate the land; ⁶ but water would come up from beneath the surface and water the ground.

^7 (B)Then the Lord God took some soil from the ground and formed a man^[c] out of it; he breathed life-giving breath into his nostrils and the man began to live.

⁸ Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the East, and there he put the man he had formed. ^9 (C)He made all kinds of beautiful trees grow there and produce good fruit. In the middle of the garden stood the tree that gives life and the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad.^[d]

¹⁰ A stream flowed in Eden and watered the garden; beyond Eden it divided into four rivers. ¹¹ The first river is the Pishon; it flows around the country of Havilah. (¹² Pure gold is found there and also rare perfume and precious stones.) ¹³ The second river is the Gihon; it flows around the country of Cush.^{[e] 14} The third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria, and the fourth river is the Euphrates.

¹⁵ Then the Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it. ¹⁶ He told him, “You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, ¹⁷ except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad.^[f] You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day.”

¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to live alone. I will make a suitable companion to help him.” ¹⁹ So he took some soil from the ground and formed all the animals and all the birds. Then he brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and that is how they all got their names. ²⁰ So the man named all the birds and all the animals; but not one of them was a suitable companion to help him.

²¹ Then the Lord God made the man fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, he took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the flesh. ²² He formed a woman out of the rib and brought her to him. ²³ Then the man said,

^24 (D)That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united with his wife, and they become one.

²⁵ The man and the woman were both naked, but they were not embarrassed.

Human Disobedience

3 ^(E)Now the snake was the most cunning animal that the Lord God had made. The snake asked the woman, “Did God really tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?”

² “We may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden,” the woman answered, ³ “except the tree in the middle of it. God told us not to eat the fruit of that tree or even touch it; if we do, we will die.”

⁴ The snake replied, “That's not true; you will not die. ⁵ God said that because he knows that when you eat it, you will be like God^[h] and know what is good and what is bad.”^[i]

⁶ The woman saw how beautiful the tree was and how good its fruit would be to eat, and she thought how wonderful it would be to become wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, and he also ate it. ⁷ As soon as they had eaten it, they were given understanding and realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and covered themselves.

⁸ That evening they heard the Lord God walking in the garden, and they hid from him among the trees. ⁹ But the Lord God called out to the man, “Where are you?”

¹⁰ He answered, “I heard you in the garden; I was afraid and hid from you, because I was naked.”

¹¹ “Who told you that you were naked?” God asked. “Did you eat the fruit that I told you not to eat?”

¹² The man answered, “The woman you put here with me gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”

^13 (F)The Lord God asked the woman, “Why did you do this?”

She replied, “The snake tricked me into eating it.”

God Pronounces Judgment

¹⁴ Then the Lord God said to the snake, “You will be punished for this; you alone of all the animals must bear this curse: From now on you will crawl on your belly, and you will have to eat dust as long as you live. ^15 (G)I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring's^[j] heel.”

¹⁶ And he said to the woman, “I will increase your trouble in pregnancy and your pain in giving birth. In spite of this, you will still have desire for your husband, yet you will be subject to him.”

^17 (H)And he said to the man, “You listened to your wife and ate the fruit which I told you not to eat. Because of what you have done, the ground will be under a curse. You will have to work hard all your life to make it produce enough food for you. ¹⁸ It will produce weeds and thorns, and you will have to eat wild plants. ¹⁹ You will have to work hard and sweat to make the soil produce anything, until you go back to the soil from which you were formed. You were made from soil, and you will become soil again.”

²⁰ Adam^[k] named his wife Eve,^[l] because she was the mother of all human beings. ²¹ And the Lord God made clothes out of animal skins for Adam and his wife, and he clothed them.

Adam and Eve Are Sent Out of the Garden

^22 (I)Then the Lord God said, “Now these human beings have become like one of us and have knowledge of what is good and what is bad.^[m] They must not be allowed to take fruit from the tree that gives life, eat it, and live forever.” ²³ So the Lord God sent them out of the Garden of Eden and made them cultivate the soil from which they had been formed. ²⁴ Then at the east side of the garden he put living creatures^[n] and a flaming sword which turned in all directions. This was to keep anyone from coming near the tree that gives life.

Cain and Abel

4 Then Adam had intercourse with his wife, and she became pregnant. She bore a son and said, “By the Lord's help I have gotten a son.” So she named him Cain.^{[o] 2} Later she gave birth to another son, Abel. Abel became a shepherd, but Cain was a farmer. ³ After some time Cain brought some of his harvest and gave it as an offering to the Lord. ^4 (J)Then Abel brought the first lamb born to one of his sheep, killed it, and gave the best parts of it as an offering. The Lord was pleased with Abel and his offering, ⁵ but he rejected Cain and his offering. Cain became furious, and he scowled in anger. ⁶ Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why that scowl on your face? ⁷ If you had done the right thing, you would be smiling;^[p] but because you have done evil, sin is crouching at your door. It wants to rule you, but you must overcome it.”

^8 (K)Then Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let's go out in the fields.”^[q] When they were out in the fields, Cain turned on his brother and killed him.

⁹ The Lord asked Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

He answered, “I don't know. Am I supposed to take care of my brother?”

^10 (L)Then the Lord said, “Why have you done this terrible thing? Your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground, like a voice calling for revenge. ¹¹ You are placed under a curse and can no longer farm the soil. It has soaked up your brother's blood as if it had opened its mouth to receive it when you killed him. ¹² If you try to grow crops, the soil will not produce anything; you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.”

¹³ And Cain said to the Lord, “This punishment is too hard for me to bear. ¹⁴ You are driving me off the land and away from your presence. I will be a homeless wanderer on the earth, and anyone who finds me will kill me.”

¹⁵ But the Lord answered, “No. If anyone kills you, seven lives will be taken in revenge.” So the Lord put a mark on Cain to warn anyone who met him not to kill him. ¹⁶ And Cain went away from the Lord's presence and lived in a land called “Wandering,” which is east of Eden.

The Descendants of Cain

¹⁷ Cain and his wife had a son and named him Enoch. Then Cain built a city and named it after his son. ¹⁸ Enoch had a son named Irad, who was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael had a son named Methushael, who was the father of Lamech. ¹⁹ Lamech had two wives, Adah and Zillah. ²⁰ Adah gave birth to Jabal, who was the ancestor of those who raise livestock and live in tents. ²¹ His brother was Jubal, the ancestor of all musicians who play the harp and the flute. ²² Zillah gave birth to Tubal Cain, who made all kinds of tools^[r] out of bronze and iron. The sister of Tubal Cain was Naamah.

²³ Lamech said to his wives,

Seth and Enosh

²⁵ Adam and his wife had another son. She said, “God has given me a son to replace Abel, whom Cain killed.” So she named him Seth.^{[s] 26} Seth had a son whom he named Enosh. It was then that people began using the Lord's holy name in worship.

The Descendants of Adam^(M)

5 ^(N)This is the list of the descendants of Adam. (When God created human beings, he made them like himself. ^2 (O)He created them male and female, blessed them, and named them “Human Beings.”) ³ When Adam was 130 years old, he had a son who was like him, and he named him Seth. ⁴ After that, Adam lived another 800 years. He had other children ⁵ and died at the age of 930.

⁶ When Seth was 105, he had a son, Enosh, ⁷ and then lived another 807 years. He had other children ⁸ and died at the age of 912.

⁹ When Enosh was 90, he had a son, Kenan, ¹⁰ and then lived another 815 years. He had other children ¹¹ and died at the age of 905.

¹² When Kenan was 70, he had a son, Mahalalel, ¹³ and then lived another 840 years. He had other children ¹⁴ and died at the age of 910.

¹⁵ When Mahalalel was 65, he had a son, Jared, ¹⁶ and then lived another 830 years. He had other children ¹⁷ and died at the age of 895.

¹⁸ When Jared was 162, he had a son, Enoch, ¹⁹ and then lived another 800 years. He had other children ²⁰ and died at the age of 962.

²¹ When Enoch was 65, he had a son, Methuselah. ²² After that, Enoch lived in fellowship with God for 300 years and had other children. ²³ He lived to be 365 years old. ^24 (P)He spent his life in fellowship with God, and then he disappeared, because God took him away.

²⁵ When Methuselah was 187, he had a son, Lamech, ²⁶ and then lived another 782 years. He had other children ²⁷ and died at the age of 969.

²⁸ When Lamech was 182, he had a son ²⁹ and said, “From the very ground on which the Lord put a curse, this child will bring us relief from all our hard work”; so he named him Noah.^{[t] 30} Lamech lived another 595 years. He had other children ³¹ and died at the age of 777.

³² After Noah was 500 years old, he had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Human Wickedness

6 ^(Q)When people had spread all over the world, and daughters were being born, ² some of the heavenly beings^[u] saw that these young women were beautiful, so they took the ones they liked. ³ Then the Lord said, “I will not allow people to live forever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than 120 years.” ^4 (R)In those days, and even later, there were giants on the earth who were descendants of human women and the heavenly beings. They were the great heroes and famous men of long ago.

^5 (S)When the Lord saw how wicked everyone on earth was and how evil their thoughts were all the time, ⁶ he was sorry that he had ever made them and put them on the earth. He was so filled with regret ⁷ that he said, “I will wipe out these people I have created, and also the animals and the birds, because I am sorry that I made any of them.” ⁸ But the Lord was pleased with Noah.

Noah

^9-10 (T)This is the story of Noah. He had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Noah had no faults and was the only good man of his time. He lived in fellowship with God, ¹¹ but everyone else was evil in God's sight, and violence had spread everywhere. ¹² God looked at the world and saw that it was evil, for the people were all living evil lives.

¹³ God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to all people. I will destroy them completely, because the world is full of their violent deeds. ¹⁴ Build a boat for yourself out of good timber; make rooms in it and cover it with tar inside and out. ¹⁵ Make it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. ¹⁶ Make a roof^[v] for the boat and leave a space of 18 inches between the roof^[w] and the sides. Build it with three decks and put a door in the side. ¹⁷ I am going to send a flood on the earth to destroy every living being. Everything on the earth will die, ¹⁸ but I will make a covenant with you. Go into the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives. ^19-20 Take into the boat with you a male and a female of every kind of animal and of every kind of bird, in order to keep them alive. ²¹ Take along all kinds of food for you and for them.” ^22 (U)Noah did everything that God commanded.

The Flood

7 The Lord said to Noah, “Go into the boat with your whole family; I have found that you are the only one in all the world who does what is right. ² Take with you seven pairs of each kind of ritually clean animal, but only one pair of each kind of unclean animal. ³ Take also seven pairs of each kind of bird. Do this so that every kind of animal and bird will be kept alive to reproduce again on the earth. ⁴ Seven days from now I am going to send rain that will fall for forty days and nights, in order to destroy all the living beings that I have made.” ⁵ And Noah did everything that the Lord commanded.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came on the earth. ^7 (V)He and his wife, and his sons and their wives, went into the boat to escape the flood. ⁸ A male and a female of every kind of animal and bird, whether ritually clean or unclean, ⁹ went into the boat with Noah, as God had commanded. ¹⁰ Seven days later the flood came.

^11 (W)When Noah was six hundred years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month all the outlets of the vast body of water beneath the earth burst open, all the floodgates of the sky were opened, ¹² and rain fell on the earth for forty days and nights. ¹³ On that same day Noah and his wife went into the boat with their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. ¹⁴ With them went every kind of animal, domestic and wild, large and small, and every kind of bird. ¹⁵ A male and a female of each kind of living being went into the boat with Noah, ¹⁶ as God had commanded. Then the Lord shut the door behind Noah.

¹⁷ The flood continued for forty days, and the water became deep enough for the boat to float. ¹⁸ The water became deeper, and the boat drifted on the surface. ¹⁹ It became so deep that it covered the highest mountains; ²⁰ it went on rising until it was about twenty-five feet above the tops of the mountains. ²¹ Every living being on the earth died—every bird, every animal, and every person. ²² Everything on earth that breathed died. ²³ The Lord destroyed all living beings on the earth—human beings, animals, and birds. The only ones left were Noah and those who were with him in the boat. ²⁴ The water did not start going down for a hundred and fifty days.

The End of the Flood

8 God had not forgotten Noah and all the animals with him in the boat; he caused a wind to blow, and the water started going down. ² The outlets of the water beneath the earth and the floodgates of the sky were closed. The rain stopped, ³ and the water gradually went down for 150 days. ⁴ On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the boat came to rest on a mountain in the Ararat range. ⁵ The water kept going down, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.

⁶ After forty days Noah opened a window ⁷ and sent out a raven. It did not come back, but kept flying around until the water was completely gone. ⁸ Meanwhile, Noah sent out a dove to see if the water had gone down, ⁹ but since the water still covered all the land, the dove did not find a place to light. It flew back to the boat, and Noah reached out and took it in. ¹⁰ He waited another seven days and sent out the dove again. ¹¹ It returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water had gone down. ¹² Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove once more; this time it did not come back.

¹³ When Noah was 601 years old, on the first day of the first month, the water was gone. Noah removed the covering of the boat, looked around, and saw that the ground was getting dry. ¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

¹⁵ God said to Noah, ¹⁶ “Go out of the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives. ¹⁷ Take all the birds and animals out with you, so that they may reproduce and spread over all the earth.” ¹⁸ So Noah went out of the boat with his wife, his sons, and their wives. ¹⁹ All the animals and birds went out of the boat in groups of their own kind.

Noah Offers a Sacrifice

²⁰ Noah built an altar to the Lord; he took one of each kind of ritually clean animal and bird, and burned them whole as a sacrifice on the altar. ²¹ The odor of the sacrifice pleased the Lord, and he said to himself, “Never again will I put the earth under a curse because of what people do; I know that from the time they are young their thoughts are evil. Never again will I destroy all living beings, as I have done this time. ²² As long as the world exists, there will be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.”

God's Covenant with Noah

9 ^(X)God blessed Noah and his sons and said, “Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth. ² All the animals, birds, and fish will live in fear of you. They are all placed under your power. ³ Now you can eat them, as well as green plants; I give them all to you for food. ^4 (Y)The one thing you must not eat is meat with blood still in it; I forbid this because the life is in the blood. ⁵ If anyone takes human life, he will be punished. I will punish with death any animal that takes a human life. ^6 (Z)Human beings were made like God, so whoever murders one of them will be killed by someone else.

^7 (AA)“You must have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth.”

⁸ God said to Noah and his sons, ⁹ “I am now making my covenant with you and with your descendants, ¹⁰ and with all living beings—all birds and all animals—everything that came out of the boat with you. ¹¹ With these words I make my covenant with you: I promise that never again will all living beings be destroyed by a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth. ¹² As a sign of this everlasting covenant which I am making with you and with all living beings, ¹³ I am putting my bow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my covenant with the world. ¹⁴ Whenever I cover the sky with clouds and the rainbow appears, ¹⁵ I will remember my promise to you and to all the animals that a flood will never again destroy all living beings. ¹⁶ When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between me and all living beings on earth. ¹⁷ That is the sign of the promise which I am making to all living beings.”

Noah and His Sons

¹⁸ The sons of Noah who went out of the boat were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) ¹⁹ These three sons of Noah were the ancestors of all the people on earth.

²⁰ Noah, who was a farmer, was the first man to plant a vineyard. ²¹ After he drank some of the wine, he became drunk, took off his clothes, and lay naked in his tent. ²² When Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked, he went out and told his two brothers. ²³ Then Shem and Japheth took a robe and held it behind them on their shoulders. They walked backward into the tent and covered their father, keeping their faces turned away so as not to see him naked. ²⁴ When Noah sobered up and learned what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵ he said,

²⁸ After the flood Noah lived 350 years ²⁹ and died at the age of 950.

The Descendants of Noah's Sons^(AB)

10 These are the descendants of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. These three had sons after the flood.

² The sons of Japheth—Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras—were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names. ³ The descendants of Gomer were the people of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁴ The descendants of Javan were the people of Elishah, Spain, Cyprus, and Rhodes; ⁵ they were the ancestors of the people who live along the coast and on the islands. These are the descendants of Japheth, living in their different tribes and countries, each group speaking its own language.

⁶ The sons of Ham—Cush, Egypt, Libya, and Canaan—were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names. ⁷ The descendants of Cush were the people of Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah were the people of Sheba and Dedan. ⁸ Cush had a son named Nimrod, who became the world's first great conqueror. ⁹ By the Lord's help he was a great hunter, and that is why people say, “May the Lord make you as great a hunter as Nimrod!” ¹⁰ At first his kingdom included Babylon, Erech, and Accad, all three of them in Babylonia. ¹¹ From that land he went to Assyria and built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, ¹² and Resen, which is between Nineveh and the great city of Calah.

¹³ The descendants of Egypt were the people of Lydia, Anam, Lehab, Naphtuh, ¹⁴ Pathrus, Casluh, and of Crete, from whom the Philistines are descended.^[y]

¹⁵ Canaan's sons—Sidon, the oldest, and Heth—were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names. ¹⁶ Canaan was also the ancestor of the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, ¹⁷ the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, ¹⁸ the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. The different tribes of the Canaanites spread out, ¹⁹ until the Canaanite borders reached from Sidon southward to Gerar near Gaza, and eastward to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim near Lasha. ²⁰ These are the descendants of Ham, living in their different tribes and countries, each group speaking its own language.

²¹ Shem, the older brother of Japheth, was the ancestor of all the Hebrews. ²² Shem's sons—Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram—were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names. ²³ The descendants of Aram were the people of Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshek. ²⁴ Arpachshad was the father of Shelah, who was the father of Eber. ²⁵ Eber had two sons: one was named Peleg,^[z] because during his time the people of the world were divided; and the other was named Joktan. ²⁶ The descendants of Joktan were the people of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷ Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸ Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹ Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All of them were descended from Joktan. ³⁰ The land in which they lived extended from Mesha to Sephar in the eastern hill country. ³¹ These are the descendants of Shem, living in their different tribes and countries, each group speaking its own language.

³² All these peoples are the descendants of Noah, nation by nation, according to their different lines of descent. After the flood all the nations of the earth were descended from the sons of Noah.

The Tower of Babylon

11 At first, the people of the whole world had only one language and used the same words. ² As they wandered about in the East, they came to a plain in Babylonia and settled there. ³ They said to one another, “Come on! Let's make bricks and bake them hard.” So they had bricks to build with and tar to hold them together. ⁴ They said, “Now let's build a city with a tower that reaches the sky, so that we can make a name for ourselves and not be scattered all over the earth.”

⁵ Then the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which they had built, ⁶ and he said, “Now then, these are all one people and they speak one language; this is just the beginning of what they are going to do. Soon they will be able to do anything they want! ⁷ Let us go down and mix up their language so that they will not understand each other.” ⁸ So the Lord scattered them all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ The city was called Babylon,^[aa] because there the Lord mixed up the language of all the people, and from there he scattered them all over the earth.

The Descendants of Shem^(AC)

¹⁰ These are the descendants of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he had a son, Arpachshad. ¹¹ After that, he lived another 500 years and had other children.

¹² When Arpachshad was 35 years old, he had a son, Shelah; ¹³ after that, he lived another 403 years and had other children.

¹⁴ When Shelah was 30 years old, he had a son, Eber; ¹⁵ after that, he lived another 403 years and had other children.

¹⁶ When Eber was 34 years old, he had a son, Peleg; ¹⁷ after that, he lived another 430 years and had other children.

¹⁸ When Peleg was 30 years old, he had a son, Reu; ¹⁹ after that, he lived another 209 years and had other children.

²⁰ When Reu was 32 years old, he had a son, Serug; ²¹ after that, he lived another 207 years and had other children.

²² When Serug was 30 years old, he had a son, Nahor; ²³ after that, he lived another 200 years and had other children.

²⁴ When Nahor was 29 years old, he had a son, Terah; ²⁵ after that, he lived another 119 years and had other children.

²⁶ After Terah was 70 years old, he became the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

The Descendants of Terah

²⁷ These are the descendants of Terah, who was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran was the father of Lot, ²⁸ and Haran died in his hometown of Ur in Babylonia, while his father was still living. ²⁹ Abram married Sarai, and Nahor married Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was also the father of Iscah. ³⁰ Sarai was not able to have children.

³¹ Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, who was the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, Abram's wife, and with them he left the city of Ur in Babylonia to go to the land of Canaan. They went as far as Haran and settled there. ³² Terah died there at the age of 205.

God's Call to Abram

12 ^(AD)The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's home, and go to a land that I am going to show you. ² I will give you many descendants, and they will become a great nation. I will bless you and make your name famous, so that you will be a blessing.

⁴ When Abram was seventy-five years old, he started out from Haran, as the Lord had told him to do; and Lot went with him. ⁵ Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all the wealth and all the slaves they had acquired in Haran, and they started out for the land of Canaan.

When they arrived in Canaan, ⁶ Abram traveled through the land until he came to the sacred tree of Moreh, the holy place at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were still living in the land.) ^7 (AF)The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “This is the country that I am going to give to your descendants.” Then Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. ⁸ After that, he moved on south to the hill country east of the city of Bethel and set up his camp between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There also he built an altar and worshiped the Lord. ⁹ Then he moved on from place to place, going toward the southern part of Canaan.

Abram in Egypt

¹⁰ But there was a famine in Canaan, and it was so bad that Abram went farther south to Egypt, to live there for a while. ¹¹ When he was about to cross the border into Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “You are a beautiful woman. ¹² When the Egyptians see you, they will assume that you are my wife, and so they will kill me and let you live. ^13 (AG)Tell them that you are my sister; then because of you they will let me live and treat me well.” ¹⁴ When he crossed the border into Egypt, the Egyptians did see that his wife was beautiful. ¹⁵ Some of the court officials saw her and told the king how beautiful she was; so she was taken to his palace. ¹⁶ Because of her the king treated Abram well and gave him flocks of sheep and goats, cattle, donkeys, slaves, and camels.

¹⁷ But because the king had taken Sarai, the Lord sent terrible diseases on him and on the people of his palace. ¹⁸ Then the king sent for Abram and asked him, “What have you done to me? Why didn't you tell me that she was your wife? ¹⁹ Why did you say that she was your sister, and let me take her as my wife? Here is your wife; take her and get out!” ²⁰ The king gave orders to his men, so they took Abram and put him out of the country, together with his wife and everything he owned.

Abram and Lot Separate

13 Abram went north out of Egypt to the southern part of Canaan with his wife and everything he owned, and Lot went with him. ² Abram was a very rich man, with sheep, goats, and cattle, as well as silver and gold. ³ Then he left there and moved from place to place, going toward Bethel. He reached the place between Bethel and Ai where he had camped before ⁴ and had built an altar. There he worshiped the Lord.

⁵ Lot also had sheep, goats, and cattle, as well as his own family and servants. ⁶ And so there was not enough pasture land for the two of them to stay together, because they had too many animals. ⁷ So quarrels broke out between the men who took care of Abram's animals and those who took care of Lot's animals. (At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were still living in the land.)

⁸ Then Abram said to Lot, “We are relatives, and your men and my men shouldn't be quarreling. ⁹ So let's separate. Choose any part of the land you want. You go one way, and I'll go the other.”

^10 (AH)Lot looked around and saw that the whole Jordan Valley, all the way to Zoar, had plenty of water, like the Garden of the Lord^[ac] or like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord had destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.) ¹¹ So Lot chose the whole Jordan Valley for himself and moved away toward the east. That is how the two men parted. ¹² Abram stayed in the land of Canaan, and Lot settled among the cities in the valley and camped near Sodom, ¹³ whose people were wicked and sinned against the Lord.

Abram Moves to Hebron

¹⁴ After Lot had left, the Lord said to Abram, “From where you are, look carefully in all directions. ^15 (AI)I am going to give you and your descendants all the land that you see, and it will be yours forever. ¹⁶ I am going to give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them all; it would be as easy to count all the specks of dust on earth! ¹⁷ Now, go and look over the whole land, because I am going to give it all to you.” ¹⁸ So Abram moved his camp and settled near the sacred trees of Mamre at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

Abram Rescues Lot

14 Four kings, Amraphel of Babylonia, Arioch of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer of Elam, and Tidal of Goiim, ² went to war against five other kings: Bera of Sodom, Birsha of Gomorrah, Shinab of Admah, Shemeber of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (or Zoar). ³ These five kings had formed an alliance and joined forces in Siddim Valley, which is now the Dead Sea. ⁴ They had been under the control of Chedorlaomer for twelve years, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled against him. ⁵ In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and his allies came with their armies and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in the plain of Kiriathaim, ⁶ and the Horites in the mountains of Edom, pursuing them as far as Elparan on the edge of the desert. ⁷ Then they turned around and came back to Kadesh (then known as Enmishpat). They conquered all the land of the Amalekites and defeated the Amorites who lived in Hazazon Tamar.

⁸ Then the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela drew up their armies for battle in Siddim Valley and fought ⁹ against the kings of Elam, Goiim, Babylonia, and Ellasar, five kings against four. ¹⁰ The valley was full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah tried to run away from the battle, they fell into the pits; but the other three kings escaped to the mountains. ¹¹ The four kings took everything in Sodom and Gomorrah, including the food, and went away. ¹² Lot, Abram's nephew, was living in Sodom, so they took him and all his possessions.

¹³ But a man escaped and reported all this to Abram, the Hebrew, who was living near the sacred trees belonging to Mamre the Amorite. Mamre and his brothers Eshcol and Aner were Abram's allies. ¹⁴ When Abram heard that his nephew had been captured, he called together all the fighting men in his camp, 318 in all, and pursued the four kings all the way to Dan. ¹⁵ There he divided his men into groups, attacked the enemy by night, and defeated them. He chased them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus, ¹⁶ and got back all the loot that had been taken. He also brought back his nephew Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other prisoners.

Melchizedek Blesses Abram

¹⁷ When Abram came back from his victory over Chedorlaomer and the other kings, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in Shaveh Valley (also called King's Valley). ^18 (AJ)And Melchizedek, who was king of Salem and also a priest of the Most High God, brought bread and wine to Abram, ¹⁹ blessed him, and said, “May the Most High God, who made heaven and earth, bless Abram! ²⁰ May the Most High God, who gave you victory over your enemies, be praised!” And Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the loot he had recovered.

²¹ The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Keep the loot, but give me back all my people.”

²² Abram answered, “I solemnly swear before the Lord, the Most High God, Maker of heaven and earth, ²³ that I will not keep anything of yours, not even a thread or a sandal strap. Then you can never say, ‘I am the one who made Abram rich.’ ²⁴ I will take nothing for myself. I will accept only what my men have used. But let my allies, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, take their share.”

God's Covenant with Abram

15 After this, Abram had a vision and heard the Lord say to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I will shield you from danger and give you a great reward.”

² But Abram answered, “Sovereign Lord, what good will your reward do me, since I have no children? My only heir is Eliezer of Damascus.^{[ad] 3} You have given me no children, and one of my slaves will inherit my property.”

⁴ Then he heard the Lord speaking to him again: “This slave Eliezer will not inherit your property; your own son will be your heir.” ^5 (AK)The Lord took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and try to count the stars; you will have as many descendants as that.”

^6 (AL)Abram put his trust in the Lord, and because of this the Lord was pleased with him and accepted him.

⁷ Then the Lord said to him, “I am the Lord, who led you out of Ur in Babylonia, to give you this land as your own.”

⁸ But Abram asked, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that it will be mine?”

⁹ He answered, “Bring me a cow, a goat, and a ram, each of them three years old, and a dove and a pigeon.” ¹⁰ Abram brought the animals to God, cut them in half, and placed the halves opposite each other in two rows; but he did not cut up the birds. ¹¹ Vultures came down on the bodies, but Abram drove them off.

^12 (AM)When the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and fear and terror came over him. ^13 (AN)The Lord said to him, “Your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land; they will be slaves there and will be treated cruelly for four hundred years. ^14 (AO)But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and when they leave that foreign land, they will take great wealth with them. ¹⁵ You yourself will live to a ripe old age, die in peace, and be buried. ¹⁶ It will be four generations before your descendants come back here, because I will not drive out the Amorites until they become so wicked that they must be punished.”

¹⁷ When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch suddenly appeared and passed between the pieces of the animals. ^18 (AP)Then and there the Lord made a covenant with Abram. He said, “I promise to give your descendants all this land from the border of Egypt to the Euphrates River, ¹⁹ including the lands of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Hagar and Ishmael

16 Abram's wife Sarai had not borne him any children. But she had an Egyptian slave woman named Hagar, ² and so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Why don't you sleep with my slave? Perhaps she can have a child for me.” Abram agreed with what Sarai said. ³ So she gave Hagar to him to be his concubine. (This happened after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years.) ⁴ Abram had intercourse with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she found out that she was pregnant, she became proud and despised Sarai.

⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, “It's your fault that Hagar despises me.^[ae] I myself gave her to you, and ever since she found out that she was pregnant, she has despised me. May the Lord judge which of us is right, you or me!”

⁶ Abram answered, “Very well, she is your slave and under your control; do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so cruelly that she ran away.

⁷ The angel of the Lord met Hagar at a spring in the desert on the road to Shur ⁸ and said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?”

She answered, “I am running away from my mistress.”

⁹ He said, “Go back to her and be her slave.” ¹⁰ Then he said, “I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them. ¹¹ You are going to have a son, and you will name him Ishmael,^[af] because the Lord has heard your cry of distress. ¹² But your son will live like a wild donkey; he will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. He will live apart from all his relatives.”

¹³ Hagar asked herself, “Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?”^[ag] So she called the Lord, who had spoken to her, “A God Who Sees.” ¹⁴ That is why people call the well between Kadesh and Bered “The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.”

^15 (AQ)Hagar bore Abram a son, and he named him Ishmael. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old at the time.

Circumcision, the Sign of the Covenant

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the Almighty God. Obey me and always do what is right. ² I will make my covenant with you and give you many descendants.” ³ Abram bowed down with his face touching the ground, and God said, ⁴ “I make this covenant with you: I promise that you will be the ancestor of many nations. ^5 (AR)Your name will no longer be Abram, but Abraham,^[ah] because I am making you the ancestor of many nations. ⁶ I will give you many descendants, and some of them will be kings. You will have so many descendants that they will become nations.

^7 (AS)“I will keep my promise to you and to your descendants in future generations as an everlasting covenant. I will be your God and the God of your descendants. ^8 (AT)I will give to you and to your descendants this land in which you are now a foreigner. The whole land of Canaan will belong to your descendants forever, and I will be their God.”

⁹ God said to Abraham, “You also must agree to keep the covenant with me, both you and your descendants in future generations. ^10 (AU)You and your descendants must all agree to circumcise every male among you. ^11-12 From now on you must circumcise every baby boy when he is eight days old, including slaves born in your homes and slaves bought from foreigners. This will show that there is a covenant between you and me. ¹³ Each one must be circumcised, and this will be a physical sign to show that my covenant with you is everlasting. ¹⁴ Any male who has not been circumcised will no longer be considered one of my people, because he has not kept the covenant with me.”

¹⁵ God said to Abraham, “You must no longer call your wife Sarai; from now on her name is Sarah.^{[ai] 16} I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will become the mother of nations, and there will be kings among her descendants.”

¹⁷ Abraham bowed down with his face touching the ground, but he began to laugh when he thought, “Can a man have a child when he is a hundred years old? Can Sarah have a child at ninety?” ¹⁸ He asked God, “Why not let Ishmael be my heir?”

¹⁹ But God said, “No. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son and you will name him Isaac.^[aj] I will keep my covenant with him and with his descendants forever. It is an everlasting covenant. ²⁰ I have heard your request about Ishmael, so I will bless him and give him many children and many descendants. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I will make a great nation of his descendants. ²¹ But I will keep my covenant with your son Isaac, who will be born to Sarah about this time next year.” ²² When God finished speaking to Abraham, he left him.

²³ On that same day Abraham obeyed God and circumcised his son Ishmael and all the other males in his household, including the slaves born in his home and those he had bought. ²⁴ Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised, ²⁵ and his son Ishmael was thirteen. ²⁶ They were both circumcised on the same day, ²⁷ together with all of Abraham's slaves.

A Son Is Promised to Abraham

18 The Lord appeared to Abraham at the sacred trees of Mamre. As Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the hottest part of the day, ^2 (AV)he looked up and saw three men standing there. As soon as he saw them, he ran out to meet them. Bowing down with his face touching the ground, ³ he said, “Sirs, please do not pass by my home without stopping; I am here to serve you. ⁴ Let me bring some water for you to wash your feet; you can rest here beneath this tree. ⁵ I will also bring a bit of food; it will give you strength to continue your journey. You have honored me by coming to my home, so let me serve you.”

They replied, “Thank you; we accept.”

⁶ Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick, take a sack of your best flour, and bake some bread.” ⁷ Then he ran to the herd and picked out a calf that was tender and fat, and gave it to a servant, who hurried to get it ready. ⁸ He took some cream, some milk, and the meat, and set the food before the men. There under the tree he served them himself, and they ate.

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

“She is there in the tent,” he answered.

^10 (AW)One of them said, “Nine months from now^[ak] I will come back, and your wife Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah was behind him, at the door of the tent, listening. ¹¹ Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah had stopped having her monthly periods. ^12 (AX)So Sarah laughed to herself and said, “Now that I am old and worn out, can I still enjoy sex? And besides, my husband is old too.”

¹³ Then the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Can I really have a child when I am so old?’ ^14 (AY)Is anything too hard for the Lord? As I said, nine months from now I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵ Because Sarah was afraid, she denied it. “I didn't laugh,” she said.

“Yes, you did,” he replied. “You laughed.”

Abraham Pleads for Sodom

¹⁶ Then the men left and went to a place where they could look down at Sodom, and Abraham went with them to send them on their way. ¹⁷ And the Lord said to himself, “I will not hide from Abraham what I am going to do. ¹⁸ His descendants will become a great and mighty nation, and through him I will bless all the nations.^{[al] 19} I have chosen him in order that he may command his sons and his descendants to obey me and to do what is right and just. If they do, I will do everything for him that I have promised.”

²⁰ Then the Lord said to Abraham, “There are terrible accusations against Sodom and Gomorrah, and their sin is very great. ²¹ I must go down to find out whether or not the accusations which I have heard are true.”

²² Then the two men left and went on toward Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham. ²³ Abraham approached the Lord and asked, “Are you really going to destroy the innocent with the guilty? ²⁴ If there are fifty innocent people in the city, will you destroy the whole city? Won't you spare it in order to save the fifty? ²⁵ Surely you won't kill the innocent with the guilty. That's impossible! You can't do that. If you did, the innocent would be punished along with the guilty. That is impossible. The judge of all the earth has to act justly.”

²⁶ The Lord answered, “If I find fifty innocent people in Sodom, I will spare the whole city for their sake.”

²⁷ Abraham spoke again: “Please forgive my boldness in continuing to speak to you, Lord. I am only a man and have no right to say anything. ²⁸ But perhaps there will be only forty-five innocent people instead of fifty. Will you destroy the whole city because there are five too few?”

The Lord answered, “I will not destroy the city if I find forty-five innocent people.”

²⁹ Abraham spoke again: “Perhaps there will be only forty.”

He replied, “I will not destroy it if there are forty.”

³⁰ Abraham said, “Please don't be angry, Lord, but I must speak again. What if there are only thirty?”

He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty.”

³¹ Abraham said, “Please forgive my boldness in continuing to speak to you, Lord. Suppose that only twenty are found?”

He said, “I will not destroy the city if I find twenty.”

³² Abraham said, “Please don't be angry, Lord, and I will speak only once more. What if only ten are found?”

He said, “I will not destroy it if there are ten.” ³³ After he had finished speaking with Abraham, the Lord went away, and Abraham returned home.

The Sinfulness of Sodom

19 When the two angels came to Sodom that evening, Lot was sitting at the city gate. As soon as he saw them, he got up and went to meet them. He bowed down before them ² and said, “Sirs, I am here to serve you. Please come to my house. You can wash your feet and spend the night. In the morning you can get up early and go on your way.”

But they answered, “No, we will spend the night here in the city square.”

³ He kept on urging them, and finally they went with him to his house. Lot ordered his servants to bake some bread and prepare a fine meal for the guests. When it was ready, they ate it.

⁴ Before the guests went to bed, the men of Sodom surrounded the house. All the men of the city, both young and old, were there. ^5 (AZ)They called out to Lot and asked, “Where are the men who came to stay with you tonight? Bring them out to us!” The men of Sodom wanted to have sex with them.

⁶ Lot went outside and closed the door behind him. ⁷ He said to them, “Friends, I beg you, don't do such a wicked thing! ⁸ Look, I have two daughters who are still virgins. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want with them. But don't do anything to these men; they are guests in my house, and I must protect them.”

⁹ But they said, “Get out of our way, you foreigner! Who are you to tell us what to do? Out of our way, or we will treat you worse than them.” They pushed Lot back and moved up to break down the door. ¹⁰ But the two men inside reached out, pulled Lot back into the house, and shut the door. ^11 (BA)Then they struck all the men outside with blindness, so that they couldn't find the door.

Lot Leaves Sodom

¹² The two men said to Lot, “If you have anyone else here—sons, daughters, sons-in-law, or any other relatives living in the city—get them out of here, ¹³ because we are going to destroy this place. The Lord has heard the terrible accusations against these people and has sent us to destroy Sodom.”

¹⁴ Then Lot went to the men that his daughters were going to marry, and said, “Hurry up and get out of here; the Lord is going to destroy this place.” But they thought he was joking.

¹⁵ At dawn the angels tried to make Lot hurry. “Quick!” they said. “Take your wife and your two daughters and get out, so that you will not lose your lives when the city is destroyed.” ^16 (BB)Lot hesitated. The Lord, however, had pity on him; so the men took him, his wife, and his two daughters by the hand and led them out of the city. ¹⁷ Then one of the angels said, “Run for your lives! Don't look back and don't stop in the valley. Run to the hills, so that you won't be killed.”

¹⁸ But Lot answered, “No, please don't make us do that, sir. ¹⁹ You have done me a great favor and saved my life. But the hills are too far away; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die before I get there. ²⁰ Do you see that little town? It is near enough. Let me go over there—you can see it is just a small place—and I will be safe.”

²¹ He answered, “All right, I agree. I won't destroy that town. ²² Hurry! Run! I can't do anything until you get there.”

Because Lot called it small, the town was named Zoar.^[am]

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

²³ The sun was rising when Lot reached Zoar. ^24 (BC)Suddenly the Lord rained burning sulfur on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah ²⁵ and destroyed them and the whole valley, along with all the people there and everything that grew on the land. ^26 (BD)But Lot's wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.

²⁷ Early the next morning Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood in the presence of the Lord. ²⁸ He looked down at Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole valley and saw smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a huge furnace. ²⁹ But when God destroyed the cities of the valley where Lot was living, he kept Abraham in mind and allowed Lot to escape to safety.

The Origin of the Moabites and Ammonites

³⁰ Because Lot was afraid to stay in Zoar, he and his two daughters moved up into the hills and lived in a cave. ³¹ The older daughter said to her sister, “Our father is getting old, and there are no men in the whole world^[an] to marry us so that we can have children. ³² Come on, let's get our father drunk, so that we can sleep with him and have children by him.” ³³ That night they gave him wine to drink, and the older daughter had intercourse with him. But he was so drunk that he didn't know it.

³⁴ The next day the older daughter said to her sister, “I slept with him last night; now let's get him drunk again tonight, and you sleep with him. Then each of us will have a child by our father.” ³⁵ So that night they got him drunk, and the younger daughter had intercourse with him. Again he was so drunk that he didn't know it. ³⁶ In this way both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their own father. ³⁷ The older daughter had a son, whom she named Moab.^[ao] He was the ancestor of the present-day Moabites. ³⁸ The younger daughter also had a son, whom she named Benammi.^[ap] He was the ancestor of the present-day Ammonites.

Abraham and Abimelech

20 Abraham moved from Mamre to the southern part of Canaan and lived between Kadesh and Shur. Later, while he was living in Gerar, ^2 (BE)he said that his wife Sarah was his sister. So King Abimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him. ³ One night God appeared to him in a dream and said, “You are going to die, because you have taken this woman; she is already married.”

⁴ But Abimelech had not come near her, and he said, “Lord, I am innocent! Would you destroy me and my people? ⁵ Abraham himself said that she was his sister, and she said the same thing. I did this with a clear conscience, and I have done no wrong.”

⁶ God replied in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did it with a clear conscience; so I kept you from sinning against me and did not let you touch her. ⁷ But now, give the woman back to her husband. He is a prophet, and he will pray for you, so that you will not die. But if you do not give her back, I warn you that you are going to die, you and all your people.”

⁸ Early the next morning Abimelech called all his officials and told them what had happened, and they were terrified. ⁹ Then Abimelech called Abraham and asked, “What have you done to us? What wrong have I done to you to make you bring this disaster on me and my kingdom? No one should ever do what you have done to me. ¹⁰ Why did you do it?”

¹¹ Abraham answered, “I thought that there would be no one here who has reverence for God and that they would kill me to get my wife. ¹² She really is my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not of my mother, and I married her. ¹³ So when God sent me from my father's house into foreign lands, I said to her, ‘You can show how loyal you are to me by telling everyone that I am your brother.’”

¹⁴ Then Abimelech gave Sarah back to Abraham, and at the same time he gave him sheep, cattle, and slaves. ¹⁵ He said to Abraham, “Here is my whole land; live anywhere you like.” ¹⁶ He said to Sarah, “I am giving your brother a thousand pieces of silver as proof to all who are with you that you are innocent; everyone will know that you have done no wrong.”

^17-18 Because of what had happened to Sarah, Abraham's wife, the Lord had made it impossible for any woman in Abimelech's palace to have children. So Abraham prayed for Abimelech, and God healed him. He also healed his wife and his slave women, so that they could have children.

The Birth of Isaac

21 The Lord blessed Sarah, as he had promised, ^2 (BF)and she became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham when he was old. The boy was born at the time God had said he would be born. ³ Abraham named him Isaac, ^4 (BG)and when Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded. ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born. ⁶ Sarah said, “God has brought me joy and laughter.^[aq] Everyone who hears about it will laugh with me.” ⁷ Then she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

⁸ The child grew, and on the day that he was weaned, Abraham gave a great feast.

Hagar and Ishmael Are Sent Away

⁹ One day Ishmael, whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham, was playing with^[ar] Sarah's son Isaac.^{[as] 10 (BH)}Sarah saw them and said to Abraham, “Send this slave and her son away. The son of this woman must not get any part of your wealth, which my son Isaac should inherit.” ¹¹ This troubled Abraham very much, because Ishmael also was his son. ^12 (BI)But God said to Abraham, “Don't be worried about the boy and your slave Hagar. Do whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I have promised. ¹³ I will also give many children to the son of the slave woman, so that they will become a nation. He too is your son.”

¹⁴ Early the next morning Abraham gave Hagar some food and a leather bag full of water. He put the child on her back and sent her away. She left and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba. ¹⁵ When the water was all gone, she left the child under a bush ¹⁶ and sat down about a hundred yards away. She said to herself, “I can't bear to see my child die.” While she was sitting there, she^[at] began to cry.

¹⁷ God heard the boy crying, and from heaven the angel of God spoke to Hagar, “What are you troubled about, Hagar? Don't be afraid. God has heard the boy crying. ¹⁸ Get up, go and pick him up, and comfort him. I will make a great nation out of his descendants.” ¹⁹ Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. She went and filled the leather bag with water and gave some to the boy. ²⁰ God was with the boy as he grew up; he lived in the wilderness of Paran and became a skillful hunter. ²¹ His mother got an Egyptian wife for him.

The Agreement between Abraham and Abimelech

^22 (BJ)At that time Abimelech went with Phicol, the commander of his army, and said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. ²³ So make a vow here in the presence of God that you will not deceive me, my children, or my descendants. I have been loyal to you, so promise that you will also be loyal to me and to this country in which you are living.”

²⁴ Abraham said, “I promise.”

²⁵ Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well which the servants of Abimelech had seized. ²⁶ Abimelech said, “I don't know who did this. You didn't tell me about it, and this is the first I have heard of it.” ²⁷ Then Abraham gave some sheep and cattle to Abimelech, and the two of them made an agreement. ²⁸ Abraham separated seven lambs from his flock, ²⁹ and Abimelech asked him, “Why did you do that?”

³⁰ Abraham answered, “Accept these seven lambs. By doing this, you admit that I am the one who dug this well.” ³¹ And so the place was called Beersheba,^[au] because it was there that the two of them made a vow.

³² After they had made this agreement at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol went back to Philistia. ³³ Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and worshiped the Lord, the Everlasting God. ³⁴ Abraham lived in Philistia for a long time.