Sarai and Hagar

16 ^(A)Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was ^(B)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^[a] by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. ³ So, after Abram ^(C)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, ^(D)she looked with contempt on her mistress.^{[b] 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 ^(E)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 ^(F)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, ^(G)“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,”^[d] for she said, ^(K)“Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”^{[e] 14} Therefore the well was called ^(L)Beer-lahai-roi;^[f] it lies between ^(M)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;^[g] walk before me, and be ^(N)blameless, ² that I may make my covenant between me and you, and ^(O)may multiply you greatly.” ³ Then Abram ^(P)fell on his face. And God said to him, ⁴ “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be ^(Q)the father of a multitude of nations. ⁵ No longer shall your name be called Abram,^[h] but ^(R)your name shall be Abraham,^{[i] (S)}for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. ⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make ^(T)you into nations, and ^(U)kings shall come from you. ⁷ And I will ^(V)establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, ^(W)to be God to you and to your offspring after you. ⁸ And ^(X)I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and ^(Y)I will be their God.”

⁹ And 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. ¹¹ You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a ^(Z)sign of the covenant between me and you. ¹² He who is ^(AA)eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or ^(AB)bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, ¹³ both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely 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.”

Isaac's Birth Promised

¹⁵ And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah^[j] shall be her name. ¹⁶ I will bless her, and moreover, I will ^(AC)give^[k] you a son by her. I will bless her, and ^(AD)she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” ¹⁷ Then Abraham ^(AE)fell on his face ^(AF)and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?” ¹⁸ And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” ¹⁹ God said, “No, but ^(AG)Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name ^(AH)Isaac.^[l] I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. ²⁰ As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and ^(AI)multiply him greatly. He ^(AJ)shall father twelve princes, and ^(AK)I will make him into a great nation. ²¹ But ^(AL)I will establish my covenant with Isaac, ^(AM)whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

²² When he had finished talking with him, ^(AN)God went up from Abraham. ²³ Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him. ²⁴ Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. ²⁵ And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. ²⁶ That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. ²⁷ And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

6 What shall we say then? ^(A)Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ² By no means! How can ^(B)we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Do you not know that all of us ^(C)who have been baptized ^(D)into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were ^(E)buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as ^(F)Christ was raised from the dead by ^(G)the glory of the Father, we too might walk in ^(H)newness of life.

⁵ For ^(I)if we have been united with him in ^(J)a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that ^(K)our old self^{[a] (L)}was crucified with him in order that ^(M)the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For ^(N)one who has died ^(O)has been set free^[b] from sin. ⁸ Now ^(P)if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that ^(Q)Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; ^(R)death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰ For the death he died he died to sin, ^(S)once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. ¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves ^(T)dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹² Let not ^(U)sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. ^13 (V)Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but ^(W)present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. ¹⁴ For ^(X)sin ^(Y)will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Slaves to Righteousness

¹⁵ What then? ^(Z)Are we to sin ^(AA)because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Do you not know that if you present yourselves ^(AB)to anyone as obedient slaves,^[c] you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But ^(AC)thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the ^(AD)standard of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸ and, ^(AE)having been set free from sin, ^(AF)have become slaves of righteousness. ^19 (AG)I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For ^(AH)just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members ^(AI)as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

^20 (AJ)For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ^21 (AK)But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things ^(AL)of which you are now ashamed? ^(AM)For the end of those things is death. ²² But now that you ^(AN)have been set free from sin and ^(AO)have become slaves of God, ^(AP)the fruit you get leads to sanctification and ^(AQ)its end, eternal life. ^23 (AR)For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.