Abraham’s Death

25 Now Abraham took another wife, ^[a]whose name was Keturah. ^2 (A)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 (B)Now Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac; ⁶ but to the sons of ^[b]his concubines, Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and ^(C)sent them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the land of the east.

⁷ These are ^[c]all the years of Abraham’s life that he lived, ^(D)175 years. ⁸ Abraham breathed his last and died ^(E)at a good old age, an old man and satisfied with life; and he was ^(F)gathered to his people. ⁹ Then his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in ^(G)the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre, ^10 (H)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 ^(I)God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac ^[d]lived by ^(J)Beer-lahai-roi.

Descendants of Ishmael

¹² Now these are the records of the generations of ^(K)Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s slave woman, bore to Abraham; ¹³ and these are the names of ^(L)the sons of Ishmael, by their names, ^[e]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; ^(M)twelve princes according to their ^[f]tribes. ¹⁷ These are the years of the life of Ishmael, ^(N)137 years; and he breathed his last and died, and was ^(O)gathered to his people. ¹⁸ They ^[g]settled from ^(P)Havilah to ^(Q)Shur which is ^[h]east of Egypt ^[i]going toward Assyria; ^(R)he ^[j]settled in defiance of all his relatives.

Isaac’s Sons

¹⁹ Now these are the records of ^(S)the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac; ²⁰ and Isaac was forty years old when he took ^(T)Rebekah, the ^(U)daughter of Bethuel the ^[k]Aramean of Paddan-aram, the ^(V)sister of Laban the ^[l]Aramean, to be his wife. ²¹ Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children; and ^(W)the Lord ^[m]answered him, and his wife Rebekah ^(X)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 ^(Y)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, ^(AC)all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau. ²⁶ Afterward his brother came out with ^(AD)his hand holding on to Esau’s heel, so ^(AE)he was named ^[n]Jacob; and Isaac was ^(AF)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 ^[o]civilized man, ^(AG)living in tents. ²⁸ Now Isaac loved Esau because ^[p]he had ^(AH)a taste for game; ^(AI)but Rebekah loved Jacob. ²⁹ When Jacob had cooked a ^(AJ)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 ^[q]that red stuff there, for I am exhausted.” Therefore he was called ^[r]Edom by name. ³¹ But Jacob said, “^[s]First sell me your ^(AK)birthright.” ³² Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so of what use then is the birthright to me?” ³³ And Jacob said, “^[t]First swear to me”; so he swore an oath to him, and ^(AL)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 ^(AM)a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to ^(AN)Abimelech king of the Philistines. ² And the Lord ^(AO)appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; ^(AP)stay in the land of which I shall tell you. ³ Live for a time in this land and ^(AQ)I will be with you and ^(AR)bless you, for ^(AS)to you and to your ^[u]descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish ^(AT)the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. ^4 (AU)I will multiply your ^[v]descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your ^[w]descendants all these lands; and ^(AV)by your ^[x]descendants all the nations of the earth ^[y]shall be blessed, ⁵ because Abraham ^[z](AW)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, “^(AX)She is my sister,” for he was ^(AY)afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “^[aa]the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, since she is ^(AZ)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 ^(BA)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 ^(BB)touches this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.”

¹² Now Isaac sowed in that land and ^[ab]reaped in the same year a hundred times as much. And ^(BC)the Lord blessed him, ¹³ and the man ^(BD)became rich, and continued to grow ^[ac]richer until he became very ^[ad]wealthy; ¹⁴ for ^(BE)he had possessions of flocks ^[ae]and herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵ Now ^(BF)all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up ^[af]by filling them with dirt. ¹⁶ Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are ^[ag](BG)too powerful for us.” ¹⁷ So Isaac departed from there and camped in the Valley of Gerar, and ^[ah]settled there.

Argument over the Wells

¹⁸ Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which ^[ai]had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he ^[aj]gave them the same names which his father had ^[ak]given them. ¹⁹ But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of ^[al]flowing water, ²⁰ the herdsmen of Gerar ^(BH)quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well ^[am]Esek, because they argued with him. ²¹ Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, so he named it ^[an]Sitnah. ²² Then he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it ^[ao]Rehoboth, for he said, “^[ap](BI)At last the Lord has made ^[aq]room for us, and we will be ^(BJ)fruitful in the land.”

²³ And he went up from there to ^(BK)Beersheba. ²⁴ And the Lord ^(BL)appeared to him the same night and said,

²⁵ So he built an ^(BP)altar there and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

Covenant with Abimelech

²⁶ Then ^(BQ)Abimelech came to him from Gerar ^[as]with his adviser Ahuzzath, and Phicol the commander of his army. ²⁷ Isaac said to them, “^(BR)Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” ²⁸ They said, “We have seen plainly ^(BS)that the Lord has been with you; so we said, ‘An oath must now be taken ^[at]by us,’ that is, ^[au]by you and us. So let us make a covenant with you, ²⁹ that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you ^[av]and have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace. You are now the ^(BT)blessed of the Lord.” ³⁰ Then ^(BU)he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. ³¹ In the morning they got up early and ^[aw](BV)exchanged oaths; then Isaac sent them away, and they left him in peace. ³² Now it came about on the same day, that Isaac’s servants came in and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” ³³ So he called it ^[ax]Shibah; therefore the name of the city is ^(BW)Beersheba to this day.

³⁴ When Esau was forty years old ^(BX)he ^[ay]married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; ³⁵ and ^(BY)they ^[az]brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

Prayer for Mercy in Time of Trouble.

For the music director; with stringed instruments, ^[a]upon an eight-string lyre. A Psalm of David.

The Seventy-two Sent Out

10 Now after this ^(A)the Lord appointed ^[a]seventy-two ^(B)others, and sent them ^(C)in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. ² And He was saying to them, “^(D)The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. ³ Go; ^(E)behold, I am sending you out like lambs in the midst of wolves. ^4 (F)Carry no money belt, no ^[b]bag, no sandals, and greet no one along the way. ⁵ And whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ ⁶ And if a ^[c]man of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him; but if not, it will return to you. ⁷ Stay in ^[d]that house, eating and drinking ^[e]what they provide; for ^(G)the laborer is deserving of his wages. Do not move from house to house. ⁸ Whatever city you enter and they receive you, ^(H)eat what is served to you; ⁹ and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘^(I)The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ ¹⁰ But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹ ‘^(J)Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet ^[f]be sure of this, that ^(K)the kingdom of God has come near.’ ¹² I say to you, ^(L)it will be more tolerable on that day for ^(M)Sodom than for that city.

¹³ “^(N)Woe to you, ^(O)Chorazin! Woe to you, ^(P)Bethsaida! For if the ^[g]miracles that occurred in you had occurred in ^(Q)Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in ^[h](R)sackcloth and ashes. ¹⁴ But it will be more tolerable for ^(S)Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you. ¹⁵ And you, ^(T)Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades!

¹⁶ “^(U)The one who listens to you listens to Me, and ^(V)the one who rejects you rejects Me; but the one who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

The Joyful Results

¹⁷ Now the ^[i]seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even ^(W)the demons are subject to us ^[j]in Your name!” ¹⁸ And He said to them, “I watched ^(X)Satan fall from heaven like lightning. ¹⁹ Behold, I have given you authority to ^(Y)walk on snakes and scorpions, and authority over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. ²⁰ Nevertheless, do not ^[k]rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that ^(Z)your names are recorded in heaven.”

^21 (AA)At that very ^[l]time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I ^[m]praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for doing so was well pleasing in Your sight. ^22 (AB)All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and ^(AC)no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son determines to reveal Him.”

^23 (AD)Turning to the disciples, He said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see the things you see; ²⁴ for I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see the things that you see, and did not see them, and to hear the things that you hear, and did not hear them.”

^25 (AE)And behold, a ^[n](AF)lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? ^[o]How does it read to you?” ²⁷ And he answered, “^(AG)You shall love the Lord your God ^[p]with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸ And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; ^(AH)do this and you will live.” ²⁹ But wanting ^(AI)to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

The Good Samaritan

³⁰ Jesus replied and said, “A man was ^(AJ)going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he encountered robbers, and they stripped him and ^[q]beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. ³¹ And by coincidence a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³² Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a ^(AK)Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, ³⁴ and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ On the next day he took out two ^[r]denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.’ ³⁶ Which of these three do you think ^[s]proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” ³⁷ And he said, “The one who showed compassion to him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do ^[t]the same.”

Martha and Mary

³⁸ Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named ^(AL)Martha welcomed Him into her home. ³⁹ And she had a sister called ^(AM)Mary, who was also ^(AN)seated at the Lord’s feet, and was listening to His word. ⁴⁰ But ^(AO)Martha was distracted with ^[u]all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do the serving ^[v]by myself? Then tell her to help me.” ⁴¹ But the Lord answered and said to her, “^(AP)Martha, Martha, you are ^(AQ)worried and distracted by many things; ^42 (AR)but only one thing is necessary; for ^(AS)Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”