Abraham and Abimelech

20 Abraham moved from Mamre to the southern part of Canaan and lived between Kadesh and Shur. Later, while he was living in Gerar, ^2 (A)he said that his wife Sarah was his sister. So King Abimelech of Gerar had Sarah brought to him. ³ One night God appeared to him in a dream and said, “You are going to die, because you have taken this woman; she is already married.”

⁴ But Abimelech had not come near her, and he said, “Lord, I am innocent! Would you destroy me and my people? ⁵ Abraham himself said that she was his sister, and she said the same thing. I did this with a clear conscience, and I have done no wrong.”

⁶ God replied in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did it with a clear conscience; so I kept you from sinning against me and did not let you touch her. ⁷ But now, give the woman back to her husband. He is a prophet, and he will pray for you, so that you will not die. But if you do not give her back, I warn you that you are going to die, you and all your people.”

⁸ Early the next morning Abimelech called all his officials and told them what had happened, and they were terrified. ⁹ Then Abimelech called Abraham and asked, “What have you done to us? What wrong have I done to you to make you bring this disaster on me and my kingdom? No one should ever do what you have done to me. ¹⁰ Why did you do it?”

¹¹ Abraham answered, “I thought that there would be no one here who has reverence for God and that they would kill me to get my wife. ¹² She really is my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not of my mother, and I married her. ¹³ So when God sent me from my father's house into foreign lands, I said to her, ‘You can show how loyal you are to me by telling everyone that I am your brother.’”

¹⁴ Then Abimelech gave Sarah back to Abraham, and at the same time he gave him sheep, cattle, and slaves. ¹⁵ He said to Abraham, “Here is my whole land; live anywhere you like.” ¹⁶ He said to Sarah, “I am giving your brother a thousand pieces of silver as proof to all who are with you that you are innocent; everyone will know that you have done no wrong.”

^17-18 Because of what had happened to Sarah, Abraham's wife, the Lord had made it impossible for any woman in Abimelech's palace to have children. So Abraham prayed for Abimelech, and God healed him. He also healed his wife and his slave women, so that they could have children.

The Birth of Isaac

21 The Lord blessed Sarah, as he had promised, ^2 (B)and she became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham when he was old. The boy was born at the time God had said he would be born. ³ Abraham named him Isaac, ^4 (C)and when Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded. ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born. ⁶ Sarah said, “God has brought me joy and laughter.^[a] Everyone who hears about it will laugh with me.” ⁷ Then she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

⁸ The child grew, and on the day that he was weaned, Abraham gave a great feast.

Hagar and Ishmael Are Sent Away

⁹ One day Ishmael, whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham, was playing with^[b] Sarah's son Isaac.^{[c] 10 (D)}Sarah saw them and said to Abraham, “Send this slave and her son away. The son of this woman must not get any part of your wealth, which my son Isaac should inherit.” ¹¹ This troubled Abraham very much, because Ishmael also was his son. ^12 (E)But God said to Abraham, “Don't be worried about the boy and your slave Hagar. Do whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I have promised. ¹³ I will also give many children to the son of the slave woman, so that they will become a nation. He too is your son.”

¹⁴ Early the next morning Abraham gave Hagar some food and a leather bag full of water. He put the child on her back and sent her away. She left and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba. ¹⁵ When the water was all gone, she left the child under a bush ¹⁶ and sat down about a hundred yards away. She said to herself, “I can't bear to see my child die.” While she was sitting there, she^[d] began to cry.

¹⁷ God heard the boy crying, and from heaven the angel of God spoke to Hagar, “What are you troubled about, Hagar? Don't be afraid. God has heard the boy crying. ¹⁸ Get up, go and pick him up, and comfort him. I will make a great nation out of his descendants.” ¹⁹ Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well. She went and filled the leather bag with water and gave some to the boy. ²⁰ God was with the boy as he grew up; he lived in the wilderness of Paran and became a skillful hunter. ²¹ His mother got an Egyptian wife for him.

The Agreement between Abraham and Abimelech

^22 (F)At that time Abimelech went with Phicol, the commander of his army, and said to Abraham, “God is with you in everything you do. ²³ So make a vow here in the presence of God that you will not deceive me, my children, or my descendants. I have been loyal to you, so promise that you will also be loyal to me and to this country in which you are living.”

²⁴ Abraham said, “I promise.”

²⁵ Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well which the servants of Abimelech had seized. ²⁶ Abimelech said, “I don't know who did this. You didn't tell me about it, and this is the first I have heard of it.” ²⁷ Then Abraham gave some sheep and cattle to Abimelech, and the two of them made an agreement. ²⁸ Abraham separated seven lambs from his flock, ²⁹ and Abimelech asked him, “Why did you do that?”

³⁰ Abraham answered, “Accept these seven lambs. By doing this, you admit that I am the one who dug this well.” ³¹ And so the place was called Beersheba,^[e] because it was there that the two of them made a vow.

³² After they had made this agreement at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol went back to Philistia. ³³ Then Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and worshiped the Lord, the Everlasting God. ³⁴ Abraham lived in Philistia for a long time.

God Commands Abraham to Offer Isaac

22 ^(G)Some time later God tested Abraham; he called to him, “Abraham!” And Abraham answered, “Yes, here I am!”

^2 (H)“Take your son,” God said, “your only son, Isaac, whom you love so much, and go to the land of Moriah. There on a mountain that I will show you, offer him as a sacrifice to me.”

³ Early the next morning Abraham cut some wood for the sacrifice, loaded his donkey, and took Isaac and two servants with him. They started out for the place that God had told him about. ⁴ On the third day Abraham saw the place in the distance. ⁵ Then he said to the servants, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there and worship, and then we will come back to you.”

⁶ Abraham made Isaac carry the wood for the sacrifice, and he himself carried a knife and live coals for starting the fire. As they walked along together, ⁷ Isaac spoke up, “Father!”

He answered, “Yes, my son?”

Isaac asked, “I see that you have the coals and the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?”

⁸ Abraham answered, “God himself will provide one.” And the two of them walked on together.

^9 (I)When they came to the place which God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. He tied up his son and placed him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he picked up the knife to kill him. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!”

He answered, “Yes, here I am.”

¹² “Don't hurt the boy or do anything to him,” he said. “Now I know that you honor and obey God, because you have not kept back your only son from him.”

¹³ Abraham looked around and saw a ram caught in a bush by its horns. He went and got it and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ Abraham named that place “The Lord Provides.”^[f] And even today people say, “On the Lord's mountain he provides.”^[g]

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time, ^16 (J)“I make a vow by my own name—the Lord is speaking—that I will richly bless you. Because you did this and did not keep back your only son from me, ^17 (K)I promise that I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand along the seashore. Your descendants will conquer their enemies. ^18 (L)All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants—all because you obeyed my command.” ¹⁹ Abraham went back to his servants, and they went together to Beersheba, where Abraham settled.

The Descendants of Nahor

²⁰ Some time later Abraham learned that Milcah had borne eight children to his brother Nahor: ²¹ Uz the first-born, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, ²² Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel, ²³ Rebecca's father. Milcah bore these eight sons to Nahor, Abraham's brother. ²⁴ Reumah, Nahor's concubine, bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

A Tree and Its Fruit^(A)

¹⁵ “Be on your guard against false prophets; they come to you looking like sheep on the outside, but on the inside they are really like wild wolves. ^16 (B)You will know them by what they do. Thorn bushes do not bear grapes, and briers do not bear figs. ¹⁷ A healthy tree bears good fruit, but a poor tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a poor tree cannot bear good fruit. ^19 (C)And any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire. ^20 (D)So then, you will know the false prophets by what they do.

I Never Knew You^(E)

²¹ “Not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do. ²² When the Judgment Day comes, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord! In your name we spoke God's message, by your name we drove out many demons and performed many miracles!’ ^23 (F)Then I will say to them, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you wicked people!’

The Two House Builders^(G)

²⁴ “So then, anyone who hears these words of mine and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on rock. ²⁵ The rain poured down, the rivers flooded over, and the wind blew hard against that house. But it did not fall, because it was built on rock.

²⁶ “But anyone who hears these words of mine and does not obey them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain poured down, the rivers flooded over, the wind blew hard against that house, and it fell. And what a terrible fall that was!”

The Authority of Jesus

^28 (H)When Jesus finished saying these things, the crowd was amazed at the way he taught. ²⁹ He wasn't like the teachers of the Law; instead, he taught with authority.

Thanksgiving to God for His Justice^[a]

¹⁶ You will be able to resist any immoral woman who tries to seduce you with her smooth talk, ¹⁷ who is faithless to her own husband and forgets her sacred vows. ¹⁸ If you go to her house, you are traveling the road to death. To go there is to approach the world of the dead. ¹⁹ No one who visits her ever comes back. He never returns to the road to life. ²⁰ So you must follow the example of good people and live a righteous life. ²¹ Righteous people—people of integrity—will live in this land of ours. ²² But God will snatch the wicked from the land and pull sinners out of it like plants from the ground.