Genesis 16-23

New Century Version

Ishmael Is Born

16 Sarai, Abram’s wife, had no children, but she had a slave girl from Egypt named Hagar. ² Sarai said to Abram, “Look, the Lord has not allowed me to have children, so have sexual relations with my slave girl. If she has a child, maybe I can have my own family through her.”

Abram did what Sarai said. ³ It was after he had lived ten years in Canaan that Sarai gave Hagar to her husband Abram. (Hagar was her slave girl from Egypt.)

⁴ Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When Hagar learned she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress Sarai badly. ⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, “This is your fault. I gave my slave girl to you, and when she became pregnant, she began to treat me badly. Let the Lord decide who is right—you or me.”

⁶ But Abram said to Sarai, “You are Hagar’s mistress. Do anything you want to her.” Then Sarai was hard on Hagar, and Hagar ran away.

⁷ The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the desert, by the road to Shur. ⁸ The angel said, “Hagar, Sarai’s slave girl, where have you come from? Where are you going?”

Hagar answered, “I am running away from my mistress Sarai.”

⁹ The angel of the Lord said to her, “Go home to your mistress and obey her.” ¹⁰ The angel also said, “I will give you so many descendants they cannot be counted.”

¹¹ The angel added,

¹³ The slave girl gave a name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are ‘God who sees me,’” because she said to herself, “Have I really seen God who sees me?” ¹⁴ So the well there, between Kadesh and Bered, was called Beer Lahai Roi.^[b]

¹⁵ Hagar gave birth to a son for Abram, and Abram named him Ishmael. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael.

Proof of the Agreement

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Obey me and do what is right. ² I will make an agreement between us, and I will make you the ancestor of many people.”

³ Then Abram bowed facedown on the ground. God said to him, ⁴ “I am making my agreement with you: I will make you the father of many nations. ⁵ I am changing your name from Abram^[c] to Abraham^[d] because I am making you a father of many nations. ⁶ I will give you many descendants. New nations will be born from you, and kings will come from you. ⁷ And I will make an agreement between me and you and all your descendants from now on: I will be your God and the God of all your descendants. ⁸ You live in the land of Canaan now as a stranger, but I will give you and your descendants all this land forever. And I will be the God of your descendants.”

⁹ Then God said to Abraham, “You and your descendants must keep this agreement from now on. ¹⁰ This is my agreement with you and all your descendants, which you must obey: Every male among you must be circumcised. ¹¹ Cut away your foreskin to show that you are prepared to follow the agreement between me and you. ¹² From now on when a baby boy is eight days old, you will circumcise him. This includes any boy born among your people or any who is your slave, who is not one of your descendants. ¹³ Circumcise every baby boy whether he is born in your family or bought as a slave. Your bodies will be marked to show that you are part of my agreement that lasts forever. ¹⁴ Any male who is not circumcised will be cut off from his people, because he has broken my agreement.”

Isaac—the Promised Son

¹⁵ God said to Abraham, “I will change the name of Sarai,^[e] your wife, to Sarah.^{[f] 16} I will bless her and give her a son, and you will be the father. She will be the mother of many nations. Kings of nations will come from her.”

¹⁷ Abraham bowed facedown on the ground and laughed. He said to himself, “Can a man have a child when he is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth to a child when she is ninety?” ¹⁸ Then Abraham said to God, “Please let Ishmael be the son you promised.”

¹⁹ God said, “No, Sarah your wife will have a son, and you will name him Isaac.^[g] I will make my agreement with him to be an agreement that continues forever with all his descendants.

²⁰ “As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will bless him and give him many descendants. And I will cause their numbers to grow greatly. He will be the father of twelve great leaders, and I will make him into a great nation. ²¹ But I will make my agreement with Isaac, the son whom Sarah will have at this same time next year.” ²² After God finished talking with Abraham, God rose and left him.

²³ Then Abraham gathered Ishmael, all the males born in his camp, and the slaves he had bought. So that day Abraham circumcised every man and boy in his camp as God had told him to do. ²⁴ Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised. ²⁵ And Ishmael, his son, was thirteen years old when he was circumcised. ²⁶ Abraham and his son were circumcised on the same day. ²⁷ Also on that day all the men in Abraham’s camp were circumcised, including all those born in his camp and all the slaves he had bought from other nations.

The Three Visitors

18 Later, the Lord again appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre. Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the hottest part of the day. ² He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When Abraham saw them, he ran from his tent to meet them. He bowed facedown on the ground before them ³ and said, “Sir, if you think well of me, please stay awhile with me, your servant. ⁴ I will bring some water so all of you can wash your feet. You may rest under the tree, ⁵ and I will get some bread for you so you can regain your strength. Then you may continue your journey.”

The three men said, “That is fine. Do as you said.”

⁶ Abraham hurried to the tent where Sarah was and said to her, “Hurry, prepare twenty quarts of fine flour, and make it into loaves of bread.” ⁷ Then Abraham ran to his herd and took one of his best calves. He gave it to a servant, who hurried to kill it and to prepare it for food. ⁸ Abraham gave the three men the calf that had been cooked and milk curds and milk. While they ate, he stood under the tree near them.

⁹ The men asked Abraham, “Where is your wife Sarah?”

“There, in the tent,” said Abraham.

¹⁰ Then the Lord said, “I will certainly return to you about this time a year from now. At that time your wife Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent which was behind him. ¹¹ Abraham and Sarah were very old. Since Sarah was past the age when women normally have children, ¹² she laughed to herself, “My husband and I are too old to have a baby.”

¹³ Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘I am too old to have a baby’? ¹⁴ Is anything too hard for the Lord? No! I will return to you at the right time a year from now, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁵ Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I didn’t laugh.”

But the Lord said, “No. You did laugh.”

¹⁶ Then the men got up to leave and started out toward Sodom. Abraham walked along with them a short time to send them on their way.

Abraham’s Bargain with God

¹⁷ The Lord said, “Should I tell Abraham what I am going to do now? ¹⁸ Abraham’s children will certainly become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. ¹⁹ I have chosen him so he would command his children and his descendants to live the way the Lord wants them to, to live right and be fair. Then I, the Lord, will give Abraham what I promised him.”

²⁰ Then the Lord said, “I have heard many complaints against the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. They are very evil. ²¹ I will go down and see if they are as bad as I have heard. If not, I will know.”

²² So the men turned and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood there before the Lord. ²³ Then Abraham approached him and asked, “Do you plan to destroy the good people along with the evil ones? ²⁴ What if there are fifty good people in that city? Will you still destroy it? Surely you will save the city for the fifty good people living there. ²⁵ Surely you will not destroy the good people along with the evil ones; then they would be treated the same. You are the judge of all the earth. Won’t you do what is right?”

²⁶ The Lord said, “If I find fifty good people in the city of Sodom, I will save the whole city because of them.”

²⁷ Then Abraham said, “Though I am only dust and ashes, I have been brave to speak to the Lord. ²⁸ What if there are only forty-five good people in the city? Will you destroy the whole city for the lack of five good people?”

The Lord said, “If I find forty-five there, I will not destroy the city.”

²⁹ Again Abraham said to him, “If you find only forty good people there, will you destroy the city?”

The Lord said, “If I find forty, I will not destroy it.”

³⁰ Then Abraham said, “Lord, please don’t be angry with me, but let me ask you this. If you find only thirty good people in the city, will you destroy it?”

He said, “If I find thirty good people there, I will not destroy the city.”

³¹ Then Abraham said, “I have been brave to speak to the Lord. But what if there are twenty good people in the city?”

He answered, “If I find twenty there, I will not destroy the city.”

³² Then Abraham said, “Lord, please don’t be angry with me, but let me bother you this one last time. What if you find ten there?”

He said, “If I find ten there, I will not destroy it.”

³³ When the Lord finished speaking to Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

Lot Leaves Sodom

19 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting near the city gate. When he saw them, he got up and went to them and bowed facedown on the ground. ² Lot said, “Sirs, please come to my house and spend the night. There you can wash your feet, and then tomorrow you may continue your journey.”

The angels answered, “No, we will spend the night in the city’s public square.”

³ But Lot begged them to come, so they agreed and went to his house. Then Lot prepared a meal for them. He baked bread without yeast, and they ate it.

⁴ Before bedtime, men both young and old and from every part of Sodom surrounded Lot’s house. ⁵ They called to Lot, “Where are the two men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can have sexual relations with them.”

⁶ Lot went outside to them, closing the door behind him. ⁷ He said, “No, my brothers! Do not do this evil thing. ⁸ Look! I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. I will give them to you, and you may do anything you want with them. But please don’t do anything to these men. They have come to my house, and I must protect them.”

⁹ The men around the house answered, “Move out of the way!” Then they said to each other, “This man Lot came to our city as a stranger, and now he wants to tell us what to do!” They said to Lot, “We will do worse things to you than to them.” They started pushing him back and were ready to break down the door.

¹⁰ But the two men staying with Lot opened the door, pulled him back inside the house, and then closed the door. ¹¹ They struck those outside the door with blindness, so the men, both young and old, could not find the door.

¹² The two men said to Lot, “Do you have any other relatives in this city? Do you have any sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or any other relatives? If you do, tell them to leave now, ¹³ because we are about to destroy this city. The Lord has heard of all the evil that is here, so he has sent us to destroy it.”

¹⁴ So Lot went out and said to his future sons-in-law who were pledged to marry his daughters, “Hurry and leave this city! The Lord is about to destroy it!” But they thought Lot was joking.

¹⁵ At dawn the next morning, the angels begged Lot to hurry. They said, “Go! Take your wife and your two daughters with you so you will not be destroyed when the city is punished.”

¹⁶ But Lot delayed. So the two men took the hands of Lot, his wife, and his two daughters and led them safely out of the city. So the Lord was merciful to Lot and his family. ¹⁷ After they brought them out of the city, one of the men said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Run to the mountains, or you will be destroyed.”

¹⁸ But Lot said to one of them, “Sir, please don’t force me to go so far! ¹⁹ You have been merciful and kind to me and have saved my life. But I can’t run to the mountains. The disaster will catch me, and I will die. ²⁰ Look, that little town over there is not too far away. Let me run there. It’s really just a little town, and I’ll be safe there.”

²¹ The angel said to Lot, “Very well, I will allow you to do this also. I will not destroy that town. ²² But run there fast, because I cannot destroy Sodom until you are safely in that town.” (That town is named Zoar,^[h] because it is little.)

Sodom and Gomorrah Are Destroyed

²³ The sun had already come up when Lot entered Zoar. ²⁴ The Lord sent a rain of burning sulfur down from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah ²⁵ and destroyed those cities. He also destroyed the whole Jordan Valley, everyone living in the cities, and even all the plants.

²⁶ At that point Lot’s wife looked back. When she did, she became a pillar of salt.

²⁷ Early the next morning, Abraham got up and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. ²⁸ He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the Jordan Valley and saw smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.

²⁹ God destroyed the cities in the valley, but he remembered what Abraham had asked. So God saved Lot’s life, but he destroyed the city where Lot had lived.

Lot and His Daughters

³⁰ Lot was afraid to continue living in Zoar, so he and his two daughters went to live in the mountains in a cave. ³¹ One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old. Everywhere on the earth women and men marry, but there are no men around here for us to marry. ³² Let’s get our father drunk and have sexual relations with him. We can use him to have children and continue our family.”

³³ That night the two girls got their father drunk, and the older daughter went and had sexual relations with him. But Lot did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

³⁴ The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I had sexual relations with my father. Let’s get him drunk again tonight so you can go and have sexual relations with him, too. In this way we can use our father to have children to continue our family.” ³⁵ So that night they got their father drunk again, and the younger daughter went and had sexual relations with him. Again, Lot did not know when she lay down or when she got up.

³⁶ So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. ³⁷ The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the ancestor of all the Moabite people who are still living today. ³⁸ The younger daughter also gave birth to a son and named him Ben-Ammi. He is the father of all the Ammonite people who are still living today.

Abraham Tricks Abimelech

20 Abraham left Hebron and traveled to southern Canaan where he stayed awhile between Kadesh and Shur. When he moved to Gerar, ² he told people that his wife Sarah was his sister. Abimelech king of Gerar heard this, so he sent some servants to take her. ³ But one night God spoke to Abimelech in a dream and said, “You will die. The woman you took is married.”

⁴ But Abimelech had not gone near Sarah, so he said, “Lord, would you destroy an innocent nation? ⁵ Abraham himself told me, ‘This woman is my sister,’ and she also said, ‘He is my brother.’ I am innocent. I did not know I was doing anything wrong.”

⁶ Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, “Yes, I know you did not realize what you were doing. So I did not allow you to sin against me and touch her. ⁷ Give Abraham his wife back. He is a prophet. He will pray for you, and you will not die. But if you do not give Sarah back, you and all your family will surely die.”

⁸ So early the next morning, Abimelech called all his officers and told them everything that had happened in the dream. They were very afraid. ⁹ Then Abimelech called Abraham to him and said, “What have you done to us? What wrong did I do against you? Why did you bring this trouble to my kingdom? You should not have done these things to me. ¹⁰ What were you thinking that caused you to do this?”

¹¹ Then Abraham answered, “I thought no one in this place respected God and that someone would kill me to get Sarah. ¹² And it is true that she is my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but she is not the daughter of my mother. ¹³ When God told me to leave my father’s house and wander in many different places, I told Sarah, ‘You must do a special favor for me. Everywhere we go tell people I am your brother.’”

¹⁴ Then Abimelech gave Abraham some sheep, cattle, and male and female slaves. He also gave Sarah, Abraham’s wife, back to him ¹⁵ and said, “Look around you at my land. You may live anywhere you want.”

¹⁶ Abimelech said to Sarah, “I gave your brother Abraham twenty-five pounds of silver to make up for any wrong that people may think about you. I want everyone to know that you are innocent.”

¹⁷ Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his servant girls so they could have children. ¹⁸ The Lord had kept all the women in Abimelech’s house from having children as a punishment on Abimelech for taking Abraham’s wife Sarah.

A Baby for Sarah

21 The Lord cared for Sarah as he had said and did for her what he had promised. ² Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. Everything happened at the time God had said it would. ³ Abraham named his son Isaac, the son Sarah gave birth to. ⁴ He circumcised Isaac when he was eight days old as God had commanded.

⁵ Abraham was one hundred years old when his son Isaac was born. ⁶ And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh.^[i] Everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. ⁷ No one thought that I would be able to have Abraham’s child, but even though Abraham is old I have given him a son.”

Hagar and Ishmael Leave

⁸ Isaac grew, and when he became old enough to eat food, Abraham gave a great feast. ⁹ But Sarah saw Ishmael making fun of Isaac. (Ishmael was the son of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah’s Egyptian slave.) ¹⁰ So Sarah said to Abraham, “Throw out this slave woman and her son. Her son should not inherit anything; my son Isaac should receive it all.”

¹¹ This troubled Abraham very much because Ishmael was also his son. ¹² But God said to Abraham, “Don’t be troubled about the boy and the slave woman. Do whatever Sarah tells you. The descendants I promised you will be from Isaac. ¹³ I will also make the descendants of Ishmael into a great nation because he is your son, too.”

¹⁴ Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a leather bag full of water. He gave them to Hagar and sent her away. Carrying these things and her son, Hagar went and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.

¹⁵ Later, when all the water was gone from the bag, Hagar put her son under a bush. ¹⁶ Then she went away a short distance and sat down. She thought, “My son will die, and I cannot watch this happen.” She sat there and began to cry.

¹⁷ God heard the boy crying, and God’s angel called to Hagar from heaven. He said, “What is wrong, Hagar? Don’t be afraid! God has heard the boy crying there. ¹⁸ Help him up and take him by the hand. I will make his descendants into a great nation.”

¹⁹ Then God showed Hagar a well of water. So she went to the well and filled her bag with water and gave the boy a drink.

²⁰ God was with the boy as he grew up. Ishmael lived in the desert and became an archer. ²¹ He lived in the Desert of Paran, and his mother found a wife for him in Egypt.

Abraham’s Bargain with Abimelech

²² Then Abimelech came with Phicol, the commander of his army, and said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. ²³ So make a promise to me here before God that you will be fair with me and my children and my descendants. Be kind to me and to this land where you have lived as a stranger—as kind as I have been to you.”

²⁴ And Abraham said, “I promise.” ²⁵ Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about Abimelech’s servants who had seized a well of water.

²⁶ But Abimelech said, “I don’t know who did this. You never told me about this before today.”

²⁷ Then Abraham gave Abimelech some sheep and cattle, and they made an agreement. ²⁸ Abraham also put seven female lambs in front of Abimelech.

²⁹ Abimelech asked Abraham, “Why did you put these seven female lambs by themselves?”

³⁰ Abraham answered, “Accept these lambs from me to prove that you believe I dug this well.”

³¹ So that place was called Beersheba^[j] because they made a promise to each other there.

³² After Abraham and Abimelech made the agreement at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, went back to the land of the Philistines.

³³ Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba and prayed to the Lord, the God who lives forever. ³⁴ And Abraham lived as a stranger in the land of the Philistines for a long time.

God Tests Abraham

22 After these things God tested Abraham’s faith. God said to him, “Abraham!”

And he answered, “Here I am.”

² Then God said, “Take your only son, Isaac, the son you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Kill him there and offer him as a whole burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

³ Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took Isaac and two servants with him. After he cut the wood for the sacrifice, they went to the place God had told them to go. ⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵ He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey. My son and I will go over there and worship, and then we will come back to you.”

⁶ Abraham took the wood for the sacrifice and gave it to his son to carry, but he himself took the knife and the fire. So he and his son went on together.

⁷ Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!”

Abraham answered, “Yes, my son.”

Isaac said, “We have the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb we will burn as a sacrifice?”

⁸ Abraham answered, “God will give us the lamb for the sacrifice, my son.”

So Abraham and his son went on together ⁹ and came to the place God had told him about. Abraham built an altar there. He laid the wood on it and then tied up his son Isaac and laid him on the wood on the altar. ¹⁰ Then Abraham took his knife and was about to kill his son.

¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!”

Abraham answered, “Yes.”

¹² The angel said, “Don’t kill your son or hurt him in any way. Now I can see that you trust God and that you have not kept your son, your only son, from me.”

¹³ Then Abraham looked up and saw a male sheep caught in a bush by its horns. So Abraham went and took the sheep and killed it. He offered it as a whole burnt offering to God, and his son was saved. ¹⁴ So Abraham named that place The Lord Provides. Even today people say, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶ and said, “The Lord says, ‘Because you did not keep back your son, your only son, from me, I make you this promise by my own name: ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. They will be as many as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, and they will capture the cities of their enemies. ¹⁸ Through your descendants all the nations on the earth will be blessed, because you obeyed me.’”

¹⁹ Then Abraham returned to his servants. They all traveled back to Beersheba, and Abraham stayed there.

²⁰ After these things happened, someone told Abraham: “Your brother Nahor and his wife Milcah have children now. ²¹ The first son is Uz, and the second is Buz. The third son is Kemuel (the father of Aram). ²² Then there are Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” ²³ Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milcah was the mother of these eight sons, and Nahor, Abraham’s brother, was the father. ²⁴ Also Nahor had four other sons by his slave woman Reumah. Their names were Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

Sarah Dies

23 Sarah lived to be one hundred twenty-seven years old. ² She died in Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. Abraham was very sad and cried because of her. ³ After a while he got up from the side of his wife’s body and went to talk to the Hittites. He said, ⁴ “I am only a stranger and a foreigner here. Sell me some of your land so that I can bury my dead wife.”

⁵ The Hittites answered Abraham, ⁶ “Sir, you are a great leader among us. You may have the best place we have to bury your dead. You may have any of our burying places that you want, and none of us will stop you from burying your dead wife.”

⁷ Abraham rose and bowed to the people of the land, the Hittites. ⁸ He said to them, “If you truly want to help me bury my dead wife here, speak to Ephron, the son of Zohar for me. ⁹ Ask him to sell me the cave of Machpelah at the edge of his field. I will pay him the full price. You can be the witnesses that I am buying it as a burial place.”

¹⁰ Ephron was sitting among the Hittites at the city gate. He answered Abraham, ¹¹ “No, sir. I will give you the land and the cave that is in it, with these people as witnesses. Bury your dead wife.”

¹² Then Abraham bowed down before the Hittites. ¹³ He said to Ephron before all the people, “Please let me pay you the full price for the field. Accept my money, and I will bury my dead there.”

¹⁴ Ephron answered Abraham, ¹⁵ “Sir, the land is worth ten pounds of silver, but I won’t argue with you over the price. Take the land, and bury your dead wife.”

¹⁶ Abraham agreed and paid Ephron in front of the Hittite witnesses. He weighed out the full price, ten pounds of silver, and they counted the weight as the traders normally did.

^17-18 So Ephron’s field in Machpelah, east of Mamre, was sold. Abraham became the owner of the field, the cave in it, and all the trees that were in the field. The sale was made at the city gate, with the Hittites as witnesses. ¹⁹ After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre. (Mamre was later called Hebron in the land of Canaan.) ²⁰ So Abraham bought the field and the cave in it from the Hittites to use as a burying place.