Genesis 20-22
Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
20 Now Abraham journeyed from there toward the [a]South country (the Negeb) and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur; and he lived temporarily in Gerar.
2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister. And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah [into his harem].
3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said, Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken [as your own], for she is a man’s wife.
4 But Abimelech had not come near her, so he said, Lord, will you slay a people who are just and innocent?
5 Did not the man tell me, She is my sister? And she herself said, He is my brother. In integrity of heart and innocency of hands I have done this.
6 Then God said to him in the dream, Yes, I know you did this in the integrity of your heart, for it was I Who kept you back and spared you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not give you occasion to touch her.
7 So now restore to the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not restore her [to him], know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.
8 So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things; and the men were exceedingly filled with reverence and fear.
9 Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, What have you done to us? And how have I offended you that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me what ought not to be done [to anyone].
10 And Abimelech said to Abraham, What did you see [in us] that [justified] you in doing such a thing as this?
11 And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely there is no reverence or fear of God at all in this place, and they will slay me because of my wife.
12 But truly, she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father but not of my mother; and she became my wife.
13 When God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, This kindness you can show me: at every place we stop, say of me, He is my brother.
14 Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham and restored to him Sarah his wife.
15 And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you; dwell wherever it pleases you.
16 And to Sarah he said, Behold, I have given this brother of yours a thousand pieces of silver; see, it is to compensate you [for all that has occurred] and to vindicate your honor before all who are with you; before all men you are cleared and compensated.
17 So Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his female slaves, and they bore children,
18 For the Lord had closed fast the wombs of all in Abimelech’s household because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
21 The Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for her as He had promised.
2 For Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time God had told him.
3 Abraham [b]named his son whom Sarah bore to him Isaac [laughter].
4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
5 Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born.
6 And Sarah said, God has made me to laugh; all who hear will laugh with me.
7 And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children at the breast? For I have borne him a son in his old age!(A)
8 And the child grew and was [c]weaned, and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.
9 Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking [Isaac].
10 Therefore she said to Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.(B)
11 And the thing was very grievous (serious, evil) in Abraham’s sight on account of his son [Ishmael].
12 God said to Abraham, Do not let it seem grievous and evil to you because of the youth and your bondwoman; in all that Sarah has said to you, do what she asks, for in Isaac shall your posterity be called.(C)
13 And I will make a nation of the son of the bondwoman also, because he is your offspring.
14 So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a bottle of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulders, and he sent her and the [d]youth away. And she wandered on [aimlessly] and lost her way in the wilderness of Beersheba.
15 When the water in the bottle was all gone, Hagar caused the youth to lie down under one of the shrubs.
16 Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about a bowshot, for she said, Let me not see the death of the lad. And as she sat down opposite him, [e]he lifted up his voice and wept and she raised her voice and wept.
17 And God heard the voice of the youth, and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said to her, What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the youth where he is.
18 Arise, raise up the youth and support him with your hand, for I intend to make him a great nation.
19 Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the [empty] bottle with water and caused the youth to drink.
20 And God was with the youth, and he developed; and he dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer.
21 He dwelt in the Wilderness of Paran; and his mother took a wife for him out of the land of Egypt.
22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, God is with you in everything you do.
23 So now, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my son or with my posterity; but as I have dealt with you kindly, you will do the same with me and with the land in which you have sojourned.
24 And Abraham said, I will swear.
25 When Abraham complained to and reasoned with Abimelech about a well of water [Abimelech’s] servants had violently seized,
26 Abimelech said, I know not who did this thing; you did not tell me, and I did not hear of it until today.
27 So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a league or covenant.
28 Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock,
29 And Abimelech said to Abraham, What do these seven ewe lambs which you have set apart mean?
30 He said, You are to accept these seven ewe lambs from me as a witness for me that I dug this well.
31 Therefore that place was called Beersheba [well of the oath], because there both parties swore an oath.
32 Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba; then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army returned to the land of the Philistines.
33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord, the Eternal God.
34 And Abraham sojourned in Philistia many days.
22 After these events, God tested and proved Abraham and said to him, Abraham! And he said, Here I am.
2 [God] said, Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I will tell you.
3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and then began the trip to the place of which God had told him.
4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
5 And Abraham said to his servants, Settle down and stay here with the donkey, and I and the young man will go yonder and worship and [f]come again to you.
6 Then Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on [the shoulders of] Isaac his son, and he took the fire (the firepot) in his own hand, and a knife; and the two of them went on together.
7 And Isaac said to Abraham, My father! And he said, Here I am, my son. [Isaac] said, See, here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt sacrifice?
8 Abraham said, My son, [g]God Himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering. So the two went on together.
9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there; then he laid the wood in order and [h]bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on the wood.(D)
10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took hold of the knife to slay his son.(E)
11 But the [i]Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham! He answered, Here I am.
12 And He said, Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear and revere God, since you have not held back from Me or begrudged giving Me your son, your only son.
13 Then Abraham looked up and glanced around, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering and an ascending sacrifice instead of his son!
14 So Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide. And it is said to this day, On the mount of the Lord it will be provided.
15 The Angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time
16 And said, I have sworn by Myself, says the Lord, that since you have done this and have not withheld [from Me] or begrudged [giving Me] your son, your only son,
17 In blessing I will bless you and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore. And your Seed (Heir) will possess the gate of His enemies,(F)
18 And in your Seed [[j]Christ] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed and [by Him] bless themselves, because you have heard and obeyed My voice.(G)
19 So Abraham returned to his servants, and they rose up and went with him to Beersheba; there Abraham lived.
20 Now after these things, it was told Abraham, Milcah has also borne children to your brother Nahor:
21 Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram,
22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.
23 Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.
24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
Footnotes
- Genesis 20:1 “Primitive geographic expressions such as ‘the South country (the Negeb)’ (Gen. 12:9; 13:1, 3; 20:1; 24:62) and ‘the east country’ (Gen. 25:6) are used in the time of Abraham... After the time of Genesis they have well-known and well-defined names; I submit that they were written down in early days, and that no writer after Moses could have used such archaic expressions as these” (P. J. Wiseman, New Discoveries in Babylonia About Genesis).
- Genesis 21:3 See footnote on Gen. 16:15.
- Genesis 21:8 This was probably when the child was about three years of age. Samuel served in the sanctuary from the time that he was weaned (I Sam. 1:22-28). A Hebrew mother is quoted in II Maccabees 7:27 as saying to her son that she gave him “suck three years.”
- Genesis 21:14 Ishmael was born when Abraham was eighty-six years old (Gen. 16:16), so Ishmael was fourteen when Isaac was born. Isaac was weaned (Gen. 21:8) at least three years later probably (II Chron. 31:16; II Maccabees 7:27).
- Genesis 21:16 The Hebrew says, “she lifted up her voice.” The Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) says “he.. .”—which the next verse seems to support. The circumstances allow either.
- Genesis 22:5 Abraham was not lying to his servants or trying to deceive them. He believed God, Who had promised him that this young man’s posterity was to inherit the promises made to Abraham (Gen. 12:2, 3).
- Genesis 22:8 We must not suppose that this was the language merely of faith and obedience. Abraham spoke prophetically, and referred to that Lamb of God which He had provided for Himself, Who in the fullness of time would take away the sin of the world, and of Whom Isaac was a most expressive type (Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible with A Commentary). For Abraham was a prophet (Gen. 20:7). Jesus said Abraham hoped for “My day [My incarnation]; and he did see it and was delighted” (John 8:56).
- Genesis 22:9 Isaac, who was perhaps twenty-five years old (according to the ancient historian Josephus), shared his father’s confidence in God’s promise. Was not his very existence the result of God keeping His word? (Gen. 17:15-17.)
- Genesis 22:11 See footnote on Gen. 16:7.
- Genesis 22:18 We have the authority of the apostle Paul (Gal. 3:8, 16, 18) to restrict this promise to our blessed Lord, Who was the Seed through Whom alone all God’s blessings of providence, mercy, grace, and glory should be conveyed to the nations of the earth (Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible with A Commentary).
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
Bible Gateway Recommends
