Genesis 15-17

Tree of Life Version

Cutting a Covenant

² But Abram said, “My Lord Adonai, what will You give me, since I am living without children, and the heir of my household is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³ Then Abram said, “Look! You have given me no seed, so a house-born servant is my heir.”

⁴ Then behold, the word of Adonai came to him saying, “This one will not be your heir, but in fact, one who will come from your own body will be your heir. ⁵ He took him outside and said, “Look up now, at the sky, and count the stars—if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “So shall your seed be.”

⁶ Then he believed in Adonai and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

⁷ Then He said to him, “I am Adonai who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans, in order to give you this land to inherit it.”

⁸ So he said, “My Lord Adonai, how will I know that I will inherit it?”

⁹ Then He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old young cow, a three year old she-goat, a three year old ram, a turtle-dove and a young bird.”

¹⁰ So he brought all these to Him and cut them in half, and put each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. ¹¹ Then birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. ¹² When the sun was about to set and a deep sleep fell on Abram, behold, terror of great darkness was falling upon him! ¹³ Then He said to Abram, “Know for certain that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. ¹⁴ But I am going to judge the nation that they will serve. Afterward they will go out with many possessions. ¹⁵ But you, you will come to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age. ¹⁶ Then in the fourth generation they will return here—for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” ¹⁷ When the sun set and it became dark, behold, there was a smoking oven and a fiery torch that passed between these pieces.

¹⁸ On that day Adonai cut a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your seed, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River: ¹⁹ the Kenite, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Raphaites, ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

Hagar and Ishmael

16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not borne him children. But she had an Egyptian slave-girl—her name was Hagar. ² So Sarai said to Abram, “Look now, Adonai has prevented me from having children. Go, please, to my slave-girl. Perhaps I’ll get a son by her.”

Abram listened to Sarai’s voice. ³ So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took her slave-girl Hagar the Egyptian—after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan—and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife. ⁴ Then he went to Hagar and she became pregnant. When she saw that she was pregnant, in her eyes her mistress was belittled.

⁵ So Sarai said to Abram, “The wrong done to me is because of you! I myself placed my slave-girl in your embrace. Now that she saw that she became pregnant, so in her eyes I am belittled. May Adonai judge between you and me!”

⁶ Abram said to Sarai, “Look! Your slave-girl is in your hand. Do to her what is good in your eyes.”

So Sarai afflicted her, and she fled from her presence. ⁷ Then the angel of Adonai^[a] found her by the spring of water in the wilderness, next to the spring on the way to Shur. ⁸ He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave-girl, where have you come from and where are you going?”

She said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.”

⁹ The angel of Adonai said, “Return to your mistress and humble yourself under her hand.” ¹⁰ Then the angel of Adonai said to her, “I will bountifully multiply your seed, and they will be too many to count.” ¹¹ Then the angel of Adonai said to her,

¹³ So she called Adonai who was speaking to her, “You are the God who sees me.” For she said, “Would I have gone here indeed looking for Him who looks after me?” ¹⁴ That is why the well is named, the Well of the Living One Who Sees Me. (Behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.)

¹⁵ Then Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram, and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. ¹⁶ Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael for Abram.

Covenant of Circumcision

17 When Abram was 99 years old, Adonai appeared to Abram, and He said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Continually walk before Me and you will be blameless. ² My heart’s desire is to make My covenant between Me and you, and then I will multiply you exceedingly much.”

³ Abram fell on his face, and God spoke with him, saying, ⁴ “For My part, because My covenant is with you, you will be the father of a multitude of nations. ⁵ No longer will your name be Abram, but your name will be Abraham, because I make you the father of a multitude of nations. ⁶ Yes, I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings will come forth from you. ⁷ Yes, I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, in order to be your God and your seed’s God after you. ⁸ I will give to you and to your seed after you the land where you are an outsider—the whole land of Canaan—as an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

⁹ God also said to Abraham, “As for you, My covenant you must keep, you and your seed after you throughout their generations. ¹⁰ This is My covenant that you must keep between Me and you and your seed after you: all your males must be circumcised. ¹¹ You must be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and this will become a sign of the covenant between Me and you. ¹² Also your eight-day-olds must be circumcised, every male, throughout your generations, including a house-born slave or a slave bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your seed. ¹³ Your house-born slave and your purchased slave must surely be circumcised. So My covenant will be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. ¹⁴ But the uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin—that person will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

¹⁵ God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her by the name Sarai. Rather, Sarah is her name. ¹⁶ And I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son from her. I will bless her and she will give rise to nations. Kings of the peoples will come from her.”

¹⁷ Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to his heart, “Will a son be born to a 100-year-old man? Or will Sarah—who is 90 years old—give birth?” ¹⁸ So Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live before you!”

¹⁹ But God said, “On the contrary, Sarah your wife will bear you a son and you must name him Isaac. So I will confirm My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his seed after him. ²⁰ As for Ishmael, I have heard you. See, I have blessed him and I will make him fruitful, and I will multiply him very very much. He will father twelve princes and I will make him a great nation. ²¹ But My covenant will I establish with Isaac whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.”

²² When He finished speaking with him, God went up from Abraham.

²³ Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all of his house-born slaves and all his purchased slaves—every male among the men of Abraham’s house—and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on this very same day, just as God had spoken with him. ²⁴ Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, ²⁵ and his son Ishmael was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. ²⁶ On this very same day Abraham and Ishmael his son were circumcised. ²⁷ Also all the men of his house, house-born slaves and slaves purchased from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.