Old/New Testament
Abram and Lot go different ways
13 Abram left Egypt and he travelled north to the Negev. He took his wife and everything that belonged to him. Lot also went with him. 2 Abram had many valuable things. He had many cows, and much silver and gold.
3 Then Abram left the Negev and he went to different places. He arrived at Bethel. He returned to the place where he had put up his tent before. That place was between Bethel and Ai. 4 It was where Abram had first built an altar to worship the Lord.
5 Lot was travelling with Abram. Lot also had many cows, sheep and tents. 6 But the land could not grow enough food for all of them to eat. They could not all live together in the same place, because they had so many animals and people with them. 7 Abram's shepherds and Lot's shepherds began to quarrel with each other. (At that time, Canaanites and Perizzites also lived in the land.)[a]
8 Abram said to Lot, ‘We must not quarrel with each other. Your shepherds and my shepherds must not quarrel with each other. Remember that we belong to the same family. 9 Look everywhere! There is enough land for all of us. We must go different ways. If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right, I will go to the left.’
10 Lot looked up and he saw the flat land of Jordan, as far as Zoar. He saw that it had lots of water, like the garden of the Lord. It was good land, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed the cities there called Sodom and Gomorrah.) 11 So Lot chose for himself the valley of the Jordan River. He travelled towards the east.[b]
12 Abram stayed in the land of Canaan and he lived there. But Lot lived near the cities that were in the Jordan Valley. He put up his tents near the city of Sodom. 13 The people of Sodom were very wicked. They did not obey the Lord at all.
14 After Lot had gone away, the Lord said to Abram, ‘Stand where you are and look all around! Look to the north, the south, the east and the west. 15 I will give you all the land that you can see. I will give it to you and your descendants. It will belong to them for ever. 16 I will make your descendants become very many. Like the dust of the ground, people will not be able to count them all. 17 Go and travel round all this land. Look at it, because I am giving it to you!’
18 So Abram moved his tents. He went to live near the special oak trees of Mamre. That place is at Hebron. Abram built an altar to worship the Lord there.
Abram at war with the kings
14 1-4 Now there were many kings living in that land, at that time. They fought against each other. One fight was when Kedorlaomer had ruled over the other kings for 12 years. And in the next year, five kings made one group like that and fought against him. Kedorlaomer joined with three other kings. So it was four kings against five other kings.
The four kings were Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goiim. Those kings fought a war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela. (Bela is another name for the town of Zoar.) They fought in the Valley of Siddim. (That is the Salt Sea.) 5 In the 14th year, Kedorlaomer and the kings with him won against the Rephaites. This was in Ashteroth Karnaim. They won against the Zuzites in Ham. They won against the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim. 6 And they won against the Horites in the country of Seir. This was as far as El Paran near the desert. 7 They then went back. They went to En Mishpat. (That is Kadesh.) They took the whole land of the Amalekites. They also took the land of the Amorites who were living in Hazezon Tamar.
8 Then, 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 to fight. That was in the Valley of Siddim. 9 They fought against Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar. There were four kings fighting against five kings. 10 The Valley of Siddim had many holes in the ground. The holes were filled with tar. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah ran away. Some of their men fell into the deep tar. The other men ran away to the hills. 11 The four kings took everything in Sodom and Gomorrah, including all the food. Then they went away. 12 Abram's nephew, Lot, was living in Sodom at that time. So they took him away from there, and everything that belonged to him.
Abram and Melchizedek
13 At that time, Abram, the Hebrew man, was living near the special oak trees of Mamre. Mamre was an Amorite. He was the brother of Eshcol and Aner. These men had agreed to be Abram's friends.
A man ran away from Sodom. He told Abram everything that had happened. 14 Abram understood that the kings had caught his nephew. So he called 318 men to come together. These men had been born in Abram's camp and they knew how to fight. Abram took his men with him. They went to attack the men who had caught Lot. They went as far as Dan.
15 During the night, Abram separated his men into two groups. Then they attacked Kedorlaomer and his men who had taken Lot. Those men ran away and Abram followed them as far as Hobah. Hobah is north of Damascus. 16 Abram took back everything that those men had taken from Sodom. He also brought back his nephew Lot, together with the women and the other people.
17 In that way, Abram won against Kedorlaomer and the kings with him. As Abram was returning home, the king of Sodom came out to meet him. They met in the Valley of Shaveh, which people call the King's Valley.
18 Melchizedek was the king of Salem, and he was a priest of the Most High God. He brought out bread and wine for Abram. 19 He blessed Abram. He said, ‘I pray that the Most High God who made heaven and earth will bless Abram. 20 Praise the Most High God! He has given you power over your enemies.’
After that, Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth part of everything.[c]
21 Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, ‘Give back to me all my people. Take everything else for yourself.’ 22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, ‘I have made a strong promise to the Lord, the Most High God who made heaven and earth. 23 I promised that I would not take anything that belonged to you. I will not take the smallest thing, not even a piece of string, or part of a shoe. Then you will never be able to say, “I made Abram become rich.” 24 I myself will accept only the food that my young men have eaten. But Aner, Eshcol and Mamre went with me to help me to fight. They should take their part of the things that we brought back with us.’[d]
The Lord's covenant with Abram
15 After this, the Lord spoke to Abram in a dream. God said, ‘Do not be afraid Abram. I will keep you safe. I myself will give you many good gifts.’
2 But Abram said, ‘Almighty Lord, there is one gift that I want. I still have no children. When I die, Eliezer of Damascus will receive everything that I have. 3 Because you have not given me any children, understand this: Everything that I have will one day belong to a servant in my house.’[e]
4 The Lord gave Abram this message: ‘No! Eliezer will not be the one who receives your things. You will have your own son. He will be the one who receives everything that you have.’
5 The Lord took Abram outside. He said to Abram, ‘Look up at the sky. Count the stars. They are too many for you to count!’ Then God said, ‘That is how many descendants you will have.’
6 Abram believed the Lord. As a result, the Lord accepted Abram as right with him.
7 The Lord also said to Abram, ‘I am the Lord. I brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to bring you to this land. I am giving it to you. It will belong to you.’ 8 But Abram said, ‘Almighty Lord, how can I be sure that this land will belong to me?’
9 The Lord said to Abram, ‘Bring a young cow, a goat and a male sheep to offer them to me. Each animal must be three years old. Also bring a dove and a young pigeon.’
10 Abram brought the three animals and the two birds to offer to God. Abram cut each animal in two pieces. He put the halves opposite each other. But he did not cut the birds in two pieces. 11 Some birds flew down to eat the animals' dead bodies. But Abram sent them away.
12 When the sun was going down, Abram started to sleep. Suddenly he became very afraid because it was dark all around him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘Be sure of this: Your descendants will live in a foreign country. They will be strangers there. People will do bad things to them and they will become slaves. This will continue for 400 years. 14 But I will punish the people of that country who give them trouble. After this, your descendants will leave that country. They will take many valuable things with them. 15 But as for you, Abram, you will have a long life. When you die, you will have peace in your mind. 16 After four generations, your descendants will come back here to Canaan. At that time, I will punish the Amorites because they do very bad things. But the time has not yet arrived that I will punish them.’[f]
17 Then the sun went down and it became dark. Abram saw a pot that had coals in it. The coals were burning and making smoke. There was also a branch that burned with bright fire. These passed between the halves of the animals that Abram had cut in two pieces.[g]
18 On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram. The Lord promised, ‘I give this land to your descendants. The land starts from the river of Egypt and continues as far as the River Euphrates. 19 These people live in the land: Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.’[h]
Jesus teaches his disciples
5 Jesus saw that crowds of people were following him. So he went up a hill and he sat down there to teach them. His disciples came near to listen to him. 2 He began to teach them. This is what he said:
3 ‘Happy are the people who know that they need God very much.
The kingdom of heaven belongs to people like that.[a]
4 Happy are the people who are sad now.
God will come near to help them.[b]
5 Happy are the people who are kind.
The whole earth will belong to them.
6 Happy are the people who want to obey God, as much as they want to eat food.
God will give to them everything that they need.
7 Happy are the people who help other people and who forgive them.
God will forgive people like that.
8 Happy are the people who have only good thoughts.
They will come near to God and see him.
9 Happy are the people who bring people together to be friends.
God will call them his children.
10 Happy are the people who do what is right but other people hurt them because of it.
The kingdom of heaven belongs to people like that.
11 Yes, happy are you when people say bad things against you because you believe in me. Or they may hurt you. Or they may say things about you that are not true. 12 God is preparing many good things for you in heaven. So you should be very happy when people do these bad things to any of you. People did these same things to God's prophets who lived long ago.’
Jesus' disciples are like salt and light
13 Jesus said, ‘You are like salt for all people to taste and use. Salt is good. But if it is not salty any more, you cannot make it salty again. People can no longer use it for anything. They just throw it away and they walk on it.
14 You are like a light for everybody in this world. If people build a city on a hill, then other people can see it easily. 15 Nobody lights a lamp and then puts it under a pot. He will put the lamp in a high place.[c] Everybody who is in the house can then see the light from the lamp. 16 You must be sure that your light shines well. Then you will give light to other people. They will see all the good things that you do.[d] Then they will praise God, who is your Father in heaven.’
Jesus talks about the Laws that Moses gave to the Jews
17 Jesus said, ‘You should not think that I have come to destroy God's Law. Also, I have not come to destroy the messages that God's prophets wrote down. No, I have not come to destroy their words. I have come to make what they taught become true. 18 I tell you this: One day, even the earth and the sky will finish. But while they remain, God's Law will also remain. Nobody can remove even the smallest thing from it. The Law will remain until everything in it has happened.
19 A person may choose not to obey a rule in God's Law. He may think it is the least important rule. He may also teach other people to think like that. Then God will call him the least important person in the kingdom of heaven. But a person may choose to obey all the rules in God's Law. And he may teach other people to obey them too. Then God will call that person great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 I tell you this: You must always do what is right. You must live in a way that is better than the teachers of God's Law and the Pharisees.[e] You will never come into the kingdom of heaven if you do not do better than them.’
Jesus teaches about angry people
21 Jesus then said, ‘You know the rule that God gave to your ancestors: “You must not kill anyone. Any person who does kill someone will stand in front of a judge.[f] The judge will punish him because he has done a wrong thing.” 22 But what I now say to you is this: Anybody who is angry with his brother will have to stand in front of a judge. Or someone might call his brother by a bad name. Then he will have to stand in front of the Jewish leaders. They will judge him. But someone may say to his brother, “You are a fool.”[g] God will judge that person. God may punish him in the fires of hell.
23 Maybe you go to the temple to give your gift to God. You take it to the altar. But then you remember that your brother is angry with you. 24 You must leave your gift there in front of God's altar. First you must go and find your brother. Tell him that you are sorry. Then you can both become friends with each other again. After that, you can return to the altar and give your gift to God.
25 Also, somebody may say that you have done something wrong against him. He may take you to stand in front of the judge.[h] You should quickly try to agree with this person. Decide with him how to make things right again. Do this even while you are going with him to the judge. If you do not do that, the judge may agree that you have done a wrong thing. Then he will give you to his officer. His officer will put you in prison. 26 I tell you this: You will remain in prison until you have paid all the money, even the last small coin.’
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