◀ All Reading Plans / Old/New Testament / Genesis 16-17 Matthew 5:27-48 (New American Bible (Revised Edition))

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Old/New Testament

Each day includes a passage from both the Old Testament and New Testament.

Duration: 365 days

Genesis 16-17

Chapter 16

Birth of Ishmael.^[a] ¹Abram’s wife Sarai had borne him no children. Now she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar.^(A) ²Sarai said to Abram: “The Lord has kept me from bearing children. Have intercourse with my maid; perhaps I will have sons through her.” Abram obeyed Sarai.^[b]^(B) ³Thus, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, his wife Sarai took her maid, Hagar the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. ⁴He had intercourse with her, and she became pregnant. As soon as Hagar knew she was pregnant, her mistress lost stature in her eyes.^[c]^(C) ⁵^(D)So Sarai said to Abram: “This outrage against me is your fault. I myself gave my maid to your embrace; but ever since she knew she was pregnant, I have lost stature in her eyes. May the Lord decide between you and me!” ⁶Abram told Sarai: “Your maid is in your power. Do to her what you regard as right.” Sarai then mistreated her so much that Hagar ran away from her.

⁷The Lord’s angel^[d] found her by a spring in the wilderness, the spring on the road to Shur,^(E) ⁸and he asked, “Hagar, maid of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She answered, “I am running away from my mistress, Sarai.” ⁹But the Lord’s angel told her: “Go back to your mistress and submit to her authority. ¹⁰I will make your descendants so numerous,” added the Lord’s angel, “that they will be too many to count.”^(F) ¹¹Then the Lord’s angel said to her:

“You are now pregnant and shall bear a son;
    you shall name him Ishmael,^[e]
For the Lord has heeded your affliction.
¹²He shall be a wild ass of a man,
    his hand against everyone,
    and everyone’s hand against him;
Alongside^[f] all his kindred
    shall he encamp.”^(G)

¹³To the Lord who spoke to her she gave a name, saying, “You are God who sees me”;^[g] she meant, “Have I really seen God and remained alive after he saw me?”^(H) ¹⁴That is why the well is called Beer-lahai-roi.^[h] It is between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named the son whom Hagar bore him Ishmael.^(I) ¹⁶Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

Chapter 17

Covenant of Circumcision.^[i] ¹When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said: I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless.^(J) ²Between you and me I will establish my covenant, and I will multiply you exceedingly.^(K)

³Abram fell face down and God said to him: ⁴For my part, here is my covenant with you: you are to become the father of a multitude of nations.^(L) ⁵No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham,^[j] for I am making you the father of a multitude of nations.^(M) ⁶I will make you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings will stem from you. ⁷I will maintain my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting covenant, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.^(N) ⁸I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are now residing as aliens, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God.^(O) ⁹God said to Abraham: For your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages. ¹⁰This is the covenant between me and you and your descendants after you that you must keep: every male among you shall be circumcised.^[k]^(P) ¹¹Circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. That will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.^(Q) ¹²Throughout the ages, every male among you, when he is eight days old, shall be circumcised, including houseborn slaves and those acquired with money from any foreigner who is not of your descendants.^(R) ¹³Yes, both the houseborn slaves and those acquired with money must be circumcised. Thus my covenant will be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant. ¹⁴If a male is uncircumcised, that is, if the flesh of his foreskin has not been cut away, such a one will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.

¹⁵God further said to Abraham: As for Sarai your wife, do not call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.^[l] ¹⁶I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. Her also will I bless; she will give rise to nations, and rulers of peoples will issue from her.^(S) ¹⁷Abraham fell face down and laughed^[m] as he said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at ninety?”^(T) ¹⁸So Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael could live in your favor!” ¹⁹God replied: Even so, your wife Sarah is to bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac. It is with him that I will maintain my covenant as an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him.^(U) ²⁰Now as for Ishmael, I will heed you: I hereby bless him. I will make him fertile and will multiply him exceedingly. He will become the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation.^(V) ²¹But my covenant I will maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you by this time next year.^(W) ²²When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God departed from him.

²³Then Abraham took his son Ishmael and all his slaves, whether born in his house or acquired with his money—every male among the members of Abraham’s household—and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins on that same day, as God had told him to do. ²⁴Abraham was ninety-nine years old when the flesh of his foreskin was circumcised,^(X) ²⁵and his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when the flesh of his foreskin was circumcised. ²⁶Thus, on that same day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised; ²⁷and all the males of his household, including the slaves born in his house or acquired with his money from foreigners, were circumcised with him.

Footnotes

16:1–16 In the previous chapter Abraham was given a timetable of possession of the land, but nothing was said about when the child was to be born. In this chapter, Sarah takes matters into her own hands, for she has been childless ten years since the promise (cf. 12:4 with 16:16). The story is about the two women, Sarah the infertile mistress and Hagar the fertile slave; Abraham has only a single sentence. In the course of the story, God intervenes directly on the side of Hagar, for she is otherwise without resources.
16:2 The custom of an infertile wife providing her husband with a concubine to produce children is widely attested in ancient Near Eastern law; e.g., an Old Assyrian marriage contract states that the wife must provide her husband with a concubine if she does not bear children within two years.
16:4 Because barrenness was at that time normally blamed on the woman and regarded as a disgrace, it is not surprising that Hagar looks down on Sarah. Ancient Near Eastern legal practice addresses such cases of insolent slaves and allows disciplining of them. Prv 30:23 uses as an example of intolerable behavior “a maidservant when she ousts her mistress.”
16:7 The Lord’s angel: a manifestation of God in human form; in v. 13 the messenger is identified with God. See note on Ex 3:2.
16:11 Ishmael: in Hebrew the name means “God has heard.” It is the same Hebrew verb that is translated “heeded” in the next clause. In other ancient Near Eastern texts, the name commemorated the divine answer to the parents’ prayer to have a child, but here it is broadened to mean that God has “heard” Hagar’s plight. In vv. 13–14, the verb “to see” is similarly broadened to describe God’s special care for those in need.
16:12 Alongside: lit., “against the face of”; the same phrase is used of the lands of Ishmael’s descendants in 25:18. It can be translated “in opposition to” (Dt 21:16; Jb 1:11; 6:28; 21:31), but here more likely means that Ishmael’s settlement was near but not in the promised land.
16:13 God who sees me: Hebrew el-ro’i is multivalent, meaning either “God of seeing,” i.e., extends his protection to me, or “God sees,” which can imply seeing human suffering (29:32; Ex 2:25; Is 57:18; 58:3). It is probable that Hagar means to express both of these aspects. Remained alive: for the ancient notion that a person died on seeing God, see Gn 32:31; Ex 20:19; Dt 4:33; Jgs 13:22.
16:14 Beer-lahai-roi: possible translations of the name of the well include: “spring of the living one who sees me”; “the well of the living sight”; or “the one who sees me lives.” See note on v. 13.
17:1–27 The Priestly source gathers the major motifs of the story so far and sets them firmly within a covenant context; the word “covenant” occurs thirteen times. There are links to the covenant with Noah (v. 1 = 6:9; v. 7 = 9:9; v. 11 = 9:12–17). In this chapter, vv. 1–8 promise progeny and land; vv. 9–14 are instructions about circumcision; vv. 15–21 repeat the promise of a son to Sarah and distinguish this promise from that to Hagar; vv. 22–27 describe Abraham’s carrying out the commands. The Almighty: traditional rendering of Hebrew El Shaddai, which is P’s favorite designation of God in the period of the ancestors. Its etymology is uncertain, but its root meaning is probably “God, the One of the Mountains.”
17:5 Abram and Abraham are merely two forms of the same name, both meaning, “the father is exalted”; another variant form is Abiram (Nm 16:1; 1 Kgs 16:34). The additional -ha- in the form Abraham is explained by popular etymology as coming from ab-hamon goyim, “father of a multitude of nations.”
17:10 Circumcised: circumcision was widely practiced in the ancient world, usually as an initiation rite for males at puberty. By shifting the time of circumcision to the eighth day after birth, biblical religion made it no longer a “rite of passage” but the sign of the eternal covenant between God and the community descending from Abraham.
17:15 Sarai and Sarah are variant forms of the same name, both meaning “princess.”
17:17 Laughed: yishaq, which is also the Hebrew form of the name “Isaac”; similar explanations of the name are given in Gn 18:12 and 21:6.

Matthew 5:27-48

Teaching About Adultery. ²⁷^[a]“You have heard that it was said,^(A) ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹^[b]If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.^(B) It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. ³⁰And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.

Teaching About Divorce. ³¹^[c]“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.’^(C) ³²But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.^(D)

Teaching About Oaths. ³³^[d]^(E)“Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow.’ ³⁴^(F)But I say to you, do not swear at all;^[e] not by heaven, for it is God’s throne; ³⁵nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. ³⁶Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. ³⁷^[f]Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.

Teaching About Retaliation. ³⁸^[g]“You have heard that it was said,^(G) ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹^(H)But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. ⁴⁰If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. ⁴¹Should anyone press you into service for one mile,^[h] go with him for two miles.^(I) ⁴²Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.^(J)

Love of Enemies.^[i] ⁴³^(K)“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’^(L) ⁴⁴But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. ⁴⁶For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors^[j] do the same? ⁴⁷And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?^[k] ⁴⁸So be perfect,^[l] just as your heavenly Father is perfect.^(M)

Footnotes

5:27 See Ex 20:14; Dt 5:18.
5:29–30 No sacrifice is too great to avoid total destruction in Gehenna.
5:31–32 See Dt 24:1–5. The Old Testament commandment that a bill of divorce be given to the woman assumes the legitimacy of divorce itself. It is this that Jesus denies. (Unless the marriage is unlawful): this “exceptive clause,” as it is often called, occurs also in Mt 19:9, where the Greek is slightly different. There are other sayings of Jesus about divorce that prohibit it absolutely (see Mk 10:11–12; Lk 16:18; cf. 1 Cor 7:10, 11b), and most scholars agree that they represent the stand of Jesus. Matthew’s “exceptive clauses” are understood by some as a modification of the absolute prohibition. It seems, however, that the unlawfulness that Matthew gives as a reason why a marriage must be broken refers to a situation peculiar to his community: the violation of Mosaic law forbidding marriage between persons of certain blood and/or legal relationship (Lv 18:6–18). Marriages of that sort were regarded as incest (porneia), but some rabbis allowed Gentile converts to Judaism who had contracted such marriages to remain in them. Matthew’s “exceptive clause” is against such permissiveness for Gentile converts to Christianity; cf. the similar prohibition of porneia in Acts 15:20, 29. In this interpretation, the clause constitutes no exception to the absolute prohibition of divorce when the marriage is lawful.
5:33 This is not an exact quotation of any Old Testament text, but see Ex 20:7; Dt 5:11; Lv 19:12. The purpose of an oath was to guarantee truthfulness by one’s calling on God as witness.
5:34–36 The use of these oath formularies that avoid the divine name is in fact equivalent to swearing by it, for all the things sworn by are related to God.
5:37 Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No’: literally, “let your speech be ‘Yes, yes,’ ‘No, no.’” Some have understood this as a milder form of oath, permitted by Jesus. In view of Mt 5:34, “Do not swear at all,” that is unlikely. From the evil one: i.e., from the devil. Oath-taking presupposes a sinful weakness of the human race, namely, the tendency to lie. Jesus demands of his disciples a truthfulness that makes oaths unnecessary.
5:38–42 See Lv 24:20. The Old Testament commandment was meant to moderate vengeance; the punishment should not exceed the injury done. Jesus forbids even this proportionate retaliation. Of the five examples that follow, only the first deals directly with retaliation for evil; the others speak of liberality.
5:41 Roman garrisons in Palestine had the right to requisition the property and services of the native population.
5:43–48 See Lv 19:18. There is no Old Testament commandment demanding hatred of one’s enemy, but the “neighbor” of the love commandment was understood as one’s fellow countryman. Both in the Old Testament (Ps 139:19–22) and at Qumran (1QS 9:21) hatred of evil persons is assumed to be right. Jesus extends the love commandment to the enemy and the persecutor. His disciples, as children of God, must imitate the example of their Father, who grants his gifts of sun and rain to both the good and the bad.
5:46 Tax collectors: Jews who were engaged in the collection of indirect taxes such as tolls and customs. See note on Mk 2:14.
5:47 Jesus’ disciples must not be content with merely usual standards of conduct; see Mt 5:20 where the verb “surpass” (Greek perisseuō) is cognate with the unusual (perisson) of this verse.
5:48 Perfect: in the gospels this word occurs only in Matthew, here and in Mt 19:21. The Lucan parallel (Lk 6:36) demands that the disciples be merciful.

New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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