Genesis 15:7-17:6

English Standard Version

⁷ And he said to him, “I am the Lord who ^(A)brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans ^(B)to give you this land to possess.” ⁸ But he said, “O Lord God, ^(C)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, ^(D)cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But ^(E)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 ^(F)deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. ¹³ Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain ^(G)that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and ^(H)they will be afflicted for ^(I)four hundred years. ¹⁴ But ^(J)I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward ^(K)they shall come out with great possessions. ¹⁵ As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; ^(L)you shall be buried in a good old age. ¹⁶ And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for ^(M)the iniquity of the Amorites ^(N)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, ^(O)“To your offspring I give^[a] this land, from ^(P)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 ^(Q)Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was ^(R)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^[b] by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. ³ So, after Abram ^(S)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, ^(T)she looked with contempt on her mistress.^{[c] 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 ^(U)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 ^(V)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, ^(W)“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,”^[e] for she said, ^(AA)“Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”^{[f] 14} Therefore the well was called ^(AB)Beer-lahai-roi;^[g] it lies between ^(AC)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;^[h] walk before me, and be ^(AD)blameless, ² that I may make my covenant between me and you, and ^(AE)may multiply you greatly.” ³ Then Abram ^(AF)fell on his face. And God said to him, ⁴ “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be ^(AG)the father of a multitude of nations. ⁵ No longer shall your name be called Abram,^[i] but ^(AH)your name shall be Abraham,^{[j] (AI)}for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. ⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make ^(AJ)you into nations, and ^(AK)kings shall come from you.