⁸ The child grew and was weaned, and Avraham gave a great banquet on the day that Yitz’chak was weaned. ⁹ But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom Hagar had borne to Avraham, making fun of Yitz’chak; ¹⁰ so Sarah said to Avraham, “Throw this slave-girl out! And her son! I will not have this slave-girl’s son as your heir along with my son Yitz’chak!”

¹¹ Avraham became very distressed over this matter of his son. ¹² But God said to Avraham, “Don’t be distressed because of the boy and your slave-girl. Listen to everything Sarah says to you, because it is your descendants through Yitz’chak who will be counted. ¹³ But I will also make a nation from the son of the slave-girl, since he is descended from you.”

¹⁴ Avraham got up early in the morning, took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child; then he sent her away. After leaving, she wandered in the desert around Be’er-Sheva. ¹⁵ When the water in the skin was gone, she left the child under a bush, ¹⁶ and went and sat down, looking the other way, about a bow-shot’s distance from him; because she said, “I can’t bear to watch my child die.” So she sat there, looking the other way, crying out and weeping. ¹⁷ God heard the boy’s voice, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What’s wrong with you, Hagar? Don’t be afraid, because God has heard the voice of the boy in his present situation. ¹⁸ Get up, lift the boy up, and hold him tightly in your hand, because I am going to make him a great nation.” ¹⁹ Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. So she went, filled the skin with water and gave the boy water to drink.

²⁰ God was with the boy, and he grew. He lived in the desert and became an archer. ²¹ He lived in the Pa’ran Desert, and his mother chose a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

6 So then, are we to say, “Let’s keep on sinning, so that there can be more grace”? ² Heaven forbid! How can we, who have died to sin, still live in it? ³ Don’t you know that those of us who have been immersed into the Messiah Yeshua have been immersed into his death? ⁴ Through immersion into his death we were buried with him; so that just as, through the glory of the Father, the Messiah was raised from the dead, likewise we too might live a new life. ⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ We know that our old self was put to death on the execution-stake with him, so that the entire body of our sinful propensities might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For someone who has died has been cleared from sin. ⁸ Now since we died with the Messiah, we trust that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, never to die again; death has no authority over him. ¹⁰ For his death was a unique event that need not be repeated; but his life, he keeps on living for God. ¹¹ In the same way, consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God, by your union with the Messiah Yeshua.

²⁴ “A talmid is not greater than his rabbi, a slave is not greater than his master. ²⁵ It is enough for a talmid that he become like his rabbi, and a slave like his master. Now if people have called the head of the house Ba‘al-Zibbul, how much more will they malign the members of his household! ²⁶ So do not fear them; for there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, or hidden that will not be known. ²⁷ What I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim on the housetops.

²⁸ “Do not fear those who kill the body but are powerless to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gei-Hinnom. ²⁹ Aren’t sparrows sold for next to nothing, two for an assarion? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s consent. ³⁰ As for you, every hair on your head has been counted. ³¹ So do not be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.

³² “Whoever acknowledges me in the presence of others I will also acknowledge in the presence of my Father in heaven. ³³ But whoever disowns me before others I will disown before my Father in heaven.

³⁴ “Don’t suppose that I have come to bring peace to the Land. It is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword! ³⁵ For I have come to set

³⁷ Whoever loves his father or mother more than he loves me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than he loves me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ And anyone who does not take up his execution-stake and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his own life will lose it, but the person who loses his life for my sake will find it.