Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.
As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.
When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar.
So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur.
And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction.
He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”
So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”
And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.
No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”
Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation.
And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree,
while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.”
And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly.
The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.
The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’
Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.”
seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!”
But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.
Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters.
And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.
The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.
The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man's wife.”
Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.”
To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.”
And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.
Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.”
So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.
Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech's servants had seized,
The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
ESV® Permanent Text Edition (2016). The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers.
Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.