The Birth of Ishmael

16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave whose name was Hagar,^{(A) 2} and Sarai said to Abram, “You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.^{(B) 3} So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife.^{(C) 4} He went in to Hagar, and she conceived, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. ⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!”^{(D) 6} But Abram said to Sarai, “Your slave is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her.

⁷ The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.^{(E) 8} And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am running away 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, “I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.”^{(F) 11} And the angel of the Lord said to her,

¹³ So she named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are El-roi,”^[b] for she said, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?”^{[c](I) 14} Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi;^[d] it lies between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.^{(J) 16} Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him^[e] Ishmael.

Teaching about Divorce

19 When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.^{(A) 2} Large crowds followed him, and he cured them there.^(B)

³ Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?”^{(C) 4} He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’^{(D) 5} and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?^{(E) 6} So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” ⁷ They said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?”^{(F) 8} He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹ And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”^[a](G)

¹⁰ The^[b] disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” ¹¹ But he said to them, “Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given.^{(H) 12} For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.”

Jesus Blesses Little Children

¹³ Then children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples spoke sternly to those who brought them, ¹⁴ but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”^{(I) 15} And he laid his hands on them and went on his way.

The Sign of the Covenant

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty;^[a] walk before me, and be blameless.^{(A) 2} And I will make my covenant between me and you and will make you exceedingly numerous.”^{(B) 3} Then Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, ⁴ “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.^{(C) 5} No longer shall your name be Abram,^[b] but your name shall be Abraham,^[c] for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.^{(D) 6} I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.^{(E) 7} I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.^{(F) 8} And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding, and I will be their God.”^(G)

⁹ 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.^{(H) 11} You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.^{(I) 12} Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring.^{(J) 13} Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must 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.”^(K)

¹⁵ God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. ¹⁶ I will bless her and also give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”^{(L) 17} Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”^{(M) 18} And Abraham said to God, “O that Ishmael might live in your sight!” ¹⁹ God said, “No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac.^[d] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.^{(N) 20} As for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous; he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.^{(O) 21} But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.” ²² And when he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

Dying and Rising with Christ

6 What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may increase?^{(A) 2} By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?^{(B) 3} Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?^{(C) 4} Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.^(D)

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so we might no longer be enslaved to sin.^{(E) 7} For whoever has died is freed^[a] from sin. ⁸ But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.^{(F) 10} The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.^{(G) 11} So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.^(H)

¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, so that you obey their desires.^{(I) 13} No longer present your members to sin as instruments^[b] of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments^[c] of righteousness.^{(J) 14} For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.^(K)

Slaves of Righteousness

¹⁵ What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Do you not know that, if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?^{(L) 17} But thanks be to God that you who were slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted^{(M) 18} and that you, having been set free from sin, have become enslaved to righteousness.^{(N) 19} I am speaking in human terms because of your limitations.^[d] For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, leading to even more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification.^(O)

²⁰ When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.^{(P) 21} So what fruit did you then gain from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death.^{(Q) 22} But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the fruit you have leads to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.^{(R) 23} For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.^(S)