Beginning

Origin of the People of God^[a]

Abraham, Man of Faith^[b]

Chapter 12

“Leave Your Country [and] Your People.”^[c]1 The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people, and the house of your father, and go to the land to which I will lead you.

⁴ Abram therefore departed, just as the Lord had ordered him. Lot went along with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. ⁵ Abram took his wife Sarai, Lot, the son of his brother, and all the possessions that they had accumulated in Haran, and all the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and left for the land of Canaan. Thus, they arrived in the land of Canaan.

⁶ Abram traveled through the land until he arrived at Shechem near the oak of Moreh. In those days the Canaanites lived in that land. ⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I will give this land to your descendants.” Abram therefore built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

⁸ From there he traveled into the mountain region to the east of Bethel and he pitched his tent so that Bethel was to the west and Ai was to his east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. ⁹ Then Abram set out again, gradually traveling toward the Negeb.^[d]

¹⁰ Abram a Refugee in Egypt.^[e] There was a famine in the land and Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a time, for the famine was very serious in the land. ¹¹ But, when he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, “Look, I realize that you are a very beautiful woman. ¹² When the Egyptians see you, they will think, ‘She is his wife,’ and they will kill me, leaving you alive. ¹³ Therefore, say that you are my sister, so that they will treat me well and let me live because of you.”

¹⁴ When Abram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians saw that his wife was very beautiful. ¹⁵ The stewards of Pharaoh saw her and told Pharaoh how beautiful she was. They took the woman and brought her to the house of Pharaoh. ¹⁶ Because of her they treated Abram well. He received flocks and herds, male and female slaves, female donkeys, and camels.

¹⁷ But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with terrible plagues because of Sarai, the wife of Abram. ¹⁸ Therefore, Pharaoh summoned Abram and said to him, “What have you done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? ¹⁹ Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I ended up taking her as my wife? Here is your wife; take her and leave!” ²⁰ Then Pharaoh entrusted him to some men who accompanied him to the borders along with his wife and all his belongings.

Chapter 13

Growth in Faith. ¹ From Egypt Abram traveled to the Negeb along with his wife and all his belongings. Lot was with him. ² Abram was very rich, having many animals, silver, and gold.

³ He then gradually made his way from the Negeb to Bethel, up to the place where he had previously encamped between Bethel and Ai. ⁴ This was the place where he had built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord.

⁵ Lot, who traveled with Abram, also had many flocks and herds and tents. ⁶ The area where they were was not rich enough for them to dwell together, for they had too many possessions for them to live in the same camp. ⁷ Because of this a quarrel arose between the herdsmen of Abram and those of Lot. (At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites lived in that land.)

⁸ Abram said to Lot, “Let us not have strife between you and me, between my herdsmen and yours, for we are relatives.^{[f] 9} Does not the entire land lie before you? You should separate from me. If you wish to go to the left, I will go to the right; if you wish to go to the right, I will go to the left.”

¹⁰ Lot looked around and saw that the Jordan Valley was fertile and there was water everywhere. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) It was as beautiful as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, all the way down to Zoar. ¹¹ So Lot chose the Jordan Valley for himself, and he moved his tents to the east. Thus, they separated from each other. ¹² Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan and Lot dwelt in the cities of the valley and pitched his tents near Sodom. ¹³ The inhabitants of Sodom were perverse and committed many sins against the Lord.

¹⁴ The Lord spoke to Abram after Lot had separated from him saying, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look around to the north and south, to the east and the west. ¹⁵ Everything that you see I will give to you and your descendants forever. ¹⁶ I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth. If one could count all of the dust of the earth, then that person would be able to count all your descendants. ¹⁷ Rise and travel throughout the land, for I will give it to you.”

¹⁸ Abram moved his camp and dwelt near the Oak of Mamre at Hebron. He built an altar to the Lord there.

Chapter 14

Lot’s Captivity and Rescue.^{[g] 1} When Amraphel was king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim, ² there was a war between them and Bera, king of Sodom, Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar). ³ All the latter kings gathered in the Valley of Siddim, that is, the Dead Sea. ⁴ For twelve years they were vassals of Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled against him.

⁵ In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him arrived and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim ⁶ and the Horites on Mount Seir as far as El-paran, which borders the desert. ⁷ They then changed direction and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kedesh), and they plundered the land of the Amalekites as well the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.

⁸ The king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, that is, Zoar, went out to the Valley of Siddim and did battle with them, ⁹ with Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, Tidal, king of Goiim, Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch, king of Ellasar. There were four kings against five. ¹⁰ Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pools. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell into these pools. The others fled into the mountains. ¹¹ The four kings took all the possessions and provisions of Sodom and Gomorrah and left. ¹² They also captured Lot, the son of the brother of Abram, and all his possessions (for he lived in Sodom).

¹³ One of those who escaped captivity came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew who was camped at the Oak of Mamre the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and Aner, who were Abram’s allies. ¹⁴ When Abram heard that his relative had been taken prisoner, he organized the armed men who had been born to his household. There were three hundred and eighteen of them. They gave chase as far as Dan. ¹⁵ He divided his forces and his servants, and defeated them during the night, following them all the way to Hobah, to the north of Damascus. ¹⁶ He recovered the booty and also Lot, his relative, and his possessions, as well as the women and the other people.

¹⁷ Meeting with Melchizedek near Jerusalem.^[h] When Abram returned after defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom met him in the Valley of Shaveh, that is, the Valley of the King.

¹⁸ Melchizedek, the king of Salem,^[i] offered bread and wine. As a priest of God Most High, ¹⁹ he blessed Abram with these words,

Then Abram gave him a tithe of all he had taken.

²¹ The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people; you take the booty.”

²² But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have sworn to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of the heavens and the earth,^{[j] 23} that I would not take anything for myself, not even a thread or a sandal strap, lest you be able to say, ‘I have enriched Abram.’ ²⁴ I want nothing for myself other than what my servants have already eaten. As for the men who have accompanied me, Eshcol, Aner, and Mamre, they can take their own shares.”

Chapter 15

The Covenant Guarantee of the Promise.^{[k] 1} Some time later the Lord communicated these words to Abram in a vision,

² Abram answered, “My Lord God, what will you give me? I will pass away without children and my heir will be Eliezer of Damascus.” ³ Abram continued, “Behold, you have not given me descendants, and my servant will be my heir.”

⁴ Then the word of the Lord came unto him, “He will not be your heir; your own child will be your heir.” ⁵ Then he led him outside and told him, “Look into the heavens and count the stars, if you can count them. Such,” he continued, “will your descendants be.”

⁶ Abraham believed the Lord, who credited it to him as righteousness.^[l]

⁷ And he said, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to take possession of this land.”

⁸ He answered, “O Lord God, how will I know that I am to possess it?”

⁹ He said, “Take a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

¹⁰ He took all these animals and split them in two and placed each half opposite the other (except for the birds). ¹¹ Birds of prey landed upon the carcasses, but Abram chased them away.

¹² As the sun was setting, a trance fell upon Abram, and a fearful darkness descended upon him. ¹³ The Lord said to Abram, “Know that your descendants shall be foreigners in a land that is not their own. They shall be made slaves and oppressed for four hundred years. ¹⁴ But I will execute my judgment upon the nation that they will have served. They will leave it with great riches. ¹⁵ As for you, you will go in peace to your fathers, and you will be buried at a happy old age. ¹⁶ In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet come to full measure.”

¹⁷ When the sun set, it was dark, and a smoking brazier and a flaming torch passed between the carcasses of the animals that had been split in two.^{[m] 18} On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, “To your descendants I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, ¹⁹ the dwelling place of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”